Annie Gardner Foundation

The single most important fact for any prospective applicant: the Annie Gardner Foundation is a private operating foundation, not a conventional grantmaker to nonprofit organizations. Of the six grant records in its most recent disclosed data, three are aggregated cash-assistance disbursements to "approximately 1,124-1,160 individuals and families" ($529,231, $526,224, and $492,161 respectively) — 99.4% of all dollars distributed. Only $10,100 (0.6%) went to identifiable organizations: Graves County Board of Education ($7,100), Mayfield High School ($2,000), and Kemp Law-Moses Baskets ($1,000). This is a foundation that runs its own direct-service programs — rent/utility/medical assistance, interest-free student loans, and a free clothing and household-goods center — rather than funding outside nonprofits to deliver services on its behalf.

For individuals and families in Mayfield or Graves County, Kentucky, the foundation is a genuine and well-resourced safety net: roughly $1.1M-$1.3M in total annual giving against $8.8M-$9.3M in assets, sustained for over a decade. The relationship model is a single-appointment case-management process, not a competitive proposal cycle — applicants call (270) 247-5803, are screened for five-year residency (via three business references) and income eligibility, and meet a case manager who reviews documentation on the spot.

For nonprofit organizations, realistic expectations should be modest and hyperlocal. The historical organizational gifts (school system, high school, a local legal-services/burial-assistance partner) suggest the foundation will occasionally support Graves County institutions with small, specific asks — typically under $10,000 — usually where there is an existing relationship with Executive Director Teresa Cantrell or the all-volunteer board (Chairman Jim Heath; Trustees Don Sparks, Kelly Weber, Scott Robbins, Barry McDonald). There is no published LOI process, no online grant portal, and no evidence of a full-proposal-then-site-visit progression. Cold, unsolicited nonprofit proposals should not be a primary strategy here; a warm local introduction is far more likely to succeed than a written application.

Total assets have declined slowly but steadily from $10.16M (2011) to $8.77M-$9.34M (2022, most recent detailed filing), reflecting a foundation drawing down principal to sustain program spending through a low-interest-rate decade. Annual total giving has stayed remarkably stable in a narrow band — $1,096,815 (2011) to $1,265,604 (2022), rarely straying outside $1.1M-$1.3M — while net investment income has swung widely ($1,536 in 2020 to $371,482 in 2015), showing the foundation prioritizes consistent program delivery over investment-driven giving.

A more revealing trend sits inside that stable total: cash grants paid fell from $766,477-$844,571 annually in 2011-2015 to $493,161-$609,082 in 2019-2022, even as total giving held flat. The gap was absorbed by direct charitable activity and indirect program costs — per the foundation's own program-expense breakdown, "Needy in Homes" ($576,029), "Indirect Expenses of Direct Charitable Activities" ($539,058), and "Needy in Hospitals" ($31,888), together roughly $1.15M. In other words, a growing share of resources funds the foundation's own case-management infrastructure and the goods center rather than being disbursed as discrete grants.

Of the $1,557,716 in grants captured in the six-record dataset, the median disbursement is effectively bimodal: three individual/family assistance pools averaging $515,872 each, and three organizational gifts averaging just $3,367 (range $1,000-$7,100). There is no meaningful "typical grant size" for a nonprofit applicant to benchmark against — the foundation's public 990-PF data shows a $2,000-$3,000 range for named organizational recipients historically. Geographically, 100% of disclosed grantee activity is concentrated in Graves County, Kentucky (all six records tagged KY); the foundation has never disclosed out-of-county or out-of-state giving. Officer compensation has risen modestly, from $95,657 (2011) total to $133,935 (2022), tracking the Executive Director and Director salary lines ($69,145 and $64,790 respectively in the most recent year shown) rather than signaling program growth.

The platform's peer-match process returned no directly comparable operating foundations for the Annie Gardner Foundation, and web research did not surface another Kentucky foundation with the same hyperlocal, direct-to-individual assistance model (rent/utility/medical aid plus a free goods center). The table below instead situates it against better-known Kentucky grantmaking foundations for scale context; these are traditional pass-through grantmakers to nonprofits, structurally different from Annie Gardner's operating model, and figures are approximate, publicly reported order-of-magnitude figures rather than a verified 990 pull performed in this session.

The contrast is instructive rather than apples-to-apples: the three comparison foundations are classic intermediary grantmakers built around published RFPs, online applications, and competitive review — exactly the infrastructure Annie Gardner Foundation lacks. Nonprofits accustomed to Kentucky's larger funders should not expect that same process here; Annie Gardner Foundation's entire disclosed grantmaking to organizations in the sampled data totals just $10,100 across three recipients, a rounding error next to its $1.1M+ in annual direct-service spending.

The most recent disclosed financial year (FY2025, per third-party 990 aggregators) shows the foundation reporting roughly $1.4M in revenue against $1.1M in expenses and $9.3M in total net assets, with Executive Director Teresa Cantrell's compensation near $77K — consistent with the multi-year trend of rising officer pay ($95,657 combined in 2011 to $133,935 in 2022) atop flat overall giving. No press releases, news coverage, or announcements specific to 2025-2026 turned up in web search; this is expected for a foundation of this size and hyperlocal focus, which does not appear to issue public communications beyond its own website and required tax filings.

The most notable observable change on the foundation's current website is the addition of the Nancy Helen Sparks Memorial Scholarship, a named award restricted to Mayfield High School students and applied for via a QR code/JotForm online link — distinct from, and narrower than, the foundation's long-standing general student loan program (open to both Graves County High School and Mayfield High School students, up to $3,000/$4,000 annually). Nancy Sparks appears in the foundation's own leadership/compensation records as a paid Director ($64,790-$62,025 across recent filing years), suggesting this may be an internally significant memorial addition to the foundation's award structure rather than a change in mission or geography.

No leadership turnover was identified: the board composition (Chairman Jim Heath; Trustees Don Sparks, Kelly Weber, Scott Robbins, Barry McDonald) and executive staff (Teresa Cantrell, Nancy Sparks) appear stable across the available filing years. There is no evidence of a new program area, expanded geography, or capital campaign — the foundation's activity profile reads as steady-state continuation of its 1941 founding mission.

There is no general nonprofit grant application to optimize for here — plan your approach around whichever of two very different tracks applies to you.

If you are an individual or family in Mayfield or Graves County seeking assistance: call (270) 247-5803 directly rather than searching for an online form; the foundation's process is appointment-based (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at 620 South 6th Street, Mayfield). Arrive prepared with all three eligibility pillars at once — proof of five-year continuous residency (three business references), proof of income, and a list of recurring monthly/annual payments — since the case manager reviews everything in a single sitting. For the student loan/scholarship track specifically, the deadline is fixed at July 1; the required packet is a completed student loan application (available only from the foundation, not downloadable), a high school transcript, ACT scores, college grades, and a picture ID. Missing any one document is the most common reason applications stall, per the foundation's own listed requirements. Loan amounts cap at $3,000 (undergraduate) or $4,000 (graduate), plus an additional $1,000 for summer school — size your ask accordingly and do not request above the stated ceiling.

If you run a Graves County nonprofit or school and are hoping for an organizational grant: recognize the realistic ceiling is small (historically $1,000-$7,100 per recipient) and the pathway is relationship-driven, not proposal-driven. There is no listed application_form_url, no RFP, and no evidence of unsolicited-proposal review at scale — the three organizational grants on record (school board, high school, a local legal/burial-assistance partner) all suggest pre-existing local ties rather than cold outreach. The highest-leverage move is a direct, specific ask tied to an identifiable Graves County need (not a general operating request) delivered through a personal introduction to Executive Director Teresa Cantrell or a board trustee, rather than a written LOI. Avoid framing your organization as a pass-through for the foundation's own mission (needy families, students, medical/housing crises) — the foundation already runs those programs itself and is more likely to refer eligible individuals to its own case managers than to fund an outside org to do the same work.