Amini Family Foundation

Amini Family Foundation is an invitation-only family foundation run entirely by Michael R Amini (Treasurer), Molly Mcgannon Amini (President), and director Carol Kathleen Weathers — no paid staff, and officer compensation has been $0 in every filing on record. There is no program officer bureaucracy to navigate; every dollar is personally directed by the family. The foundation's own Form 990-PF explicitly lists its application process as preselected recipients only, and amini.org has displayed a bare "Coming Soon" placeholder with no mission statement or guidelines as of July 2026. Practically all tracked funding (77 grants, $2.085 million, 2013-2024) has flowed to organizations already inside the family's personal and ministry networks — evangelical Christian parachurch groups (Focus on the Family, Young Life Greater San Antonio, Biblica, Elam Ministries, Free Burma Rangers, Hope International), pro-life and orphan-care organizations (Human Coalition, Show Hope, America's Kids Belong, CarePortal), and San Antonio human-services nonprofits (Christian Assistance Ministry, SA Hope Center, San Antonio Food Bank). The clearest signal of how this funder operates is grant longevity: Focus on the Family, Young Life San Antonio, Elam, Human Coalition, Christian Assistance Ministry, Biblica, Free Burma Rangers, Hope International, and Rwanda Shines have all received grants across four separate years — once an organization is inside the circle, it tends to stay funded, while genuinely new names arrive rarely and start small ($2,000-$15,000, as with Axis, Grace House, and Passion City Church). First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; there isn't one. The realistic path in is a warm, personal connection — a shared board member, a mutual ministry partnership, or a San Antonio or Colorado Springs faith-community tie (Focus on the Family and Young Life's Colorado roots likely explain the foundation's 16 tracked Colorado grants). Organizations whose mission sits outside the evangelical Christian, pro-life/adoption, refugee-relief, or San Antonio basic-needs lanes are unlikely to be a fit here regardless of proposal quality, since the foundation has shown no pattern of funding secular or unrelated causes in over a decade of filings.

The foundation's asset base grew roughly 24-fold over twelve years — from just $521,499 in FY2012 to $12.46 million in FY2024 — driven by two large infusions: a $4.62 million contribution in FY2013 and a further $1.5-1.6 million in each of FY2019 and FY2021. Total giving has climbed in step: $492,764 (FY2019), $579,563 (FY2020), $559,407 (FY2021), $613,169 (FY2022), and a peak of $662,955 (FY2023), before FY2024 revenue eased back to $512,816. Grants paid directly (distinct from total giving, which includes other charitable disbursements) ran $408,700 to $582,500 over the same 2019-2023 window. Individual grant size is modest and consistent: the foundation's own typical-grant-size data puts the median at $20,000 and the average at $28,824, with a floor of $2,500 and a ceiling of $75,000 in any single year — though cumulative multi-year support to a favored grantee can reach far higher (Focus on the Family alone has received $275,000 across four grants; Young Life Greater San Antonio, $237,500). Geographically, of 77 tracked grants, Texas dominates with 41 (53%), followed by Colorado with 16 (21%) — almost certainly tied to Focus on the Family's and Young Life's Colorado Springs bases — then Georgia with 5 (likely Passion City Church in Atlanta), Pennsylvania with 4, and single-digit counts in Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, California, Connecticut, and DC. Virtually every grant purpose is coded "GENERAL FUND" or "GENERAL PURPOSE" — this foundation funds operating budgets, not restricted projects or capital campaigns. By theme, faith-based ministry and parachurch organizations account for over half of the $2.085 million tracked; pro-life, adoption, and foster-care organizations (Human Coalition, America's Kids Belong, Show Hope, CarePortal, Rwanda Shines) represent roughly $300,000+; and San Antonio-area human services (Christian Assistance Ministry, SA Hope Center, San Antonio Area Foundation, San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries, San Antonio Food Bank, House of Neighborly Service, Respite Care of San Antonio, Children's Bereavement Center) account for another $375,000+.

All five peer foundations fall within about $15,000 of Amini's $12.46 million asset base, but that similarity is purely a function of the size-matching used to build this cohort — the shared "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE code is a generic private-foundation classifier, not evidence of a shared program focus, and none of these peers have public grant histories detailed enough to compare giving levels or thematic priorities. Four of the five peers have no discoverable website at all, which makes Amini Family Foundation comparatively more transparent by having at least a placeholder site and a documented, values-driven, decade-long grant pattern — even though that pattern still offers no public path in for unsolicited applicants.

The foundation's most recent Form 990-PF, covering FY2024, was filed in November 2025 and shows assets easing slightly to $12.46 million from $12.64 million the prior year, alongside revenue of $512,816. Per third-party 990 aggregation (CauseIQ), the foundation made 21 grants in 2024, continuing its core support relationships with Focus on the Family, Elam ($60,000 that year), and Human Coalition ($50,000). Notably, 2024 also brought a new $50,000 grant to Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious-liberty legal advocacy organization — the first appearance of this grantee in tracked filings and a signal that the foundation's giving may be broadening modestly from direct-service ministry funding into faith-aligned legal advocacy. Leadership has been stable since inception: Michael R Amini (Treasurer) and Molly Mcgannon Amini (President) have led the foundation continuously, joined by director Carol Kathleen Weathers, and no officer has ever drawn compensation in any filing on record. No press releases, media coverage, or public program announcements were found in web research — the foundation maintains essentially no public communications presence beyond its required IRS filings. Its own website, amini.org, still displayed only a bare "Coming Soon" placeholder as of this research (July 2026), with no mission statement, grants page, or contact form published.

This is not a funder to send a cold proposal to: the foundation's own filings state it funds preselected organizations only, no application portal or LOI process exists, and its website offers no submission guidance. Sending an unsolicited grant application is very unlikely to be reviewed. Instead, the realistic path in is relationship-based. First, look for genuine overlap with the foundation's documented giving circle — evangelical Christian ministry and parachurch work (in the vein of Focus on the Family, Young Life, Biblica, Elam Ministries, Hope International), pro-life and orphan-care/adoption services (Human Coalition, Show Hope, CarePortal, America's Kids Belong), refugee and persecuted-church relief (Free Burma Rangers, World Relief, Mission Eurasia), or San Antonio-area basic human services (Christian Assistance Ministry, SA Hope Center, San Antonio Food Bank). If your organization already partners programmatically with any of these grantees, a warm introduction or joint reference through that relationship is far more likely to work than any direct outreach. Second, note the foundation's strong Texas (53% of tracked grants) and Colorado (21%) geographic concentration — Colorado Springs is home to both Focus on the Family and Young Life's national offices, suggesting the Colorado grants likely trace back to personal or ministry-network ties rather than an open geographic mandate, so a Colorado or San Antonio physical presence helps but isn't sufficient on its own. Third, frame any conversation around general operating support rather than a restricted project ask — essentially 100% of tracked grants are coded "general fund" or "general purpose." Fourth, calibrate expectations on size: new relationships have historically started small ($2,000-$15,000), with the possibility of graduating into the $20,000-$75,000 range only after multiple years of relationship, as seen with the foundation's longest-tenured grantees. Fifth, if you do reach out, use the phone line (210) 404-2828 or the mailing address (1803 Broadway St Ste 501, San Antonio, TX 78215) — no public email exists — and treat silence as a likely soft no rather than a lost submission, since there is no stated review cycle or acknowledgment process.