Apple Pickers Foundation

Apple Pickers Foundation is a small, closely held family foundation — trustees John Warburg, Michael Warburg, and Daniel S. Warburg — administered through Foundation Source out of Wilmington, DE, a back-office service used by family foundations with no paid staff (officer compensation has been $0 in every year on record). Critically, this is a closed funder: our database flags it as preselected-only, IRS filings list its application instructions as blank, and three independent trackers (Instrumentl, Candid, CauseIQ) confirm it does not accept unsolicited requests for funds. There is no application form, no posted deadline, and no grants portal. This reshapes strategy entirely: a cold LOI or standard application packet is very unlikely to be read, let alone funded. What does work is visibility — through board connections, southwestern-Connecticut nonprofit networks (where a majority of grants land), or introductions from organizations already in the portfolio, such as Fairfield County's Community Foundation, Mercy Learning Center of Bridgeport, or Adam J Lewis Academy. The grantee history also shows this funder favors continuity over one-off gifts: Compassion and Choices (4 grants, $400,000), Tidepool (4 grants, $300,000), Adam J Lewis Academy (5 grants, $275,000), and Diatribe Foundation (3 grants, $157,500) each represent multi-year relationships rather than single awards. The realistic opening move for an unconnected organization is not a large ask but a small, well-introduced first gift that can be nurtured into repeat support. Because most listed grant purposes are "General & Unrestricted" rather than tied to a specific project, once a relationship is established the foundation appears comfortable funding operating support rather than requiring project-restricted proposals. Applicants should also not misread FY2024's revenue dip (down 66% from FY2023 due to lower realized investment gains) as a funding freeze — total giving stayed within its normal multi-year band, since payout tracks a longer-run asset base near $13 million rather than any single year's returns.

Typical grant size in our database spans $5,000 to $100,000 (17-grant sample), with a median of $25,000 and an average of $31,765; other trackers cite awards up to $150,000. Across a broader 73-grant historical sample totaling $2,345,676, the average award is $32,133. Annual total giving has ranged from a low of $433,638 (2012) to a high of $759,121 (2022), with $630,210 in FY2023 and an estimated $468,500-$513,820 in FY2024 (sources vary slightly on the exact figure). Total assets have held steady near $13.0-13.5 million for over a decade, while revenue swings sharply with investment performance — $272,168 in 2022 versus $2,961,769 in 2023 versus $1,008,524 in 2024 — meaning giving is smoothed relative to the foundation's own income volatility. By cause, health and medical research dominates: Compassion and Choices ($400,000), Tidepool ($300,000), UMass Medical School Foundation's vitiligo/type-1-diabetes research ($300,000), Diatribe Foundation ($157,500), and Dysautonomia Foundation ($10,000) together total roughly $1.17 million, or about half of all tracked giving. Education is the second-largest bucket at roughly 18%, anchored by Adam J Lewis Academy's $275,000 across five grants plus smaller gifts to Mercy Learning Center ($50,000), Foote School Association ($20,000), and Wesleyan University ($5,470). Food security and food systems account for roughly 11% ($251,500), spanning the Rhode Island Community Foundation's FarmFreshRI Fund ($95,000), Southside Community Land Trust ($75,000), Farm Fresh Rhode Island ($50,000), and FareStart's Sanctuary Kitchen project ($31,500) — a theme reinforced by the new December 2024 City Seed grant. Civic engagement and local journalism account for roughly 6% ($149,756), including Fairfield County's Community Foundation ($55,000), the National Conference on Citizenship ($44,756), and Connecticut News Project ($40,000). Geographically, Connecticut dominates with 38 of 73 tracked grants (52%), followed by California (10), Rhode Island (6), and single-digit counts in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, DC, Vermont, and Washington.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size — all cluster within about $17,000 of Apple Pickers' $13,008,704 — rather than on mission overlap, and none carry a public website or independent giving/focus data in our records. Every peer shares the same generic "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification, which typically denotes a small, professionally administered family trust rather than a mission-branded foundation, so their application processes are unknown but very plausibly also closed. Applicants should not expect open RFPs among true peers at this asset tier; Apple Pickers' documented grant purposes and (mismatched) web presence are, if anything, unusually visible for a fund this size.

The foundation's most recent Form 990-PF was filed November 4, 2025, covering fiscal year 2024 (ending December 2024). That filing shows total revenue of $1,008,524, down 66% from FY2023's $2,961,769 — a swing driven by lower realized gains on asset sales, not reduced program activity — against charitable disbursements of roughly $468,500-$513,820 across an estimated 15-21 grants (sources vary slightly on the exact count). December 2024 recipients cited by third-party trackers include City Seed, which received $75,000 to help launch planning for a new food hub at 162 James St in New Haven, CT — a newly initiated relationship; Tidepool, which received $75,000 in general support, continuing a multi-year relationship that has totaled $300,000 across four prior grants; and Adam J Lewis Academy, which received $50,000 in general support, another installment in a five-grant relationship totaling $275,000 to date. No leadership changes were identified: trustees John Warburg and Michael Warburg have appeared on every filing since the foundation's 2007 founding, with Daniel S. Warburg appearing on more recent filings. The foundation continues to operate with zero paid staff and $0 officer compensation, consistent with a Foundation Source-administered family vehicle. No press releases, foundation news pages, or media coverage were found for 2025 or 2026 — this funder does not appear to issue public announcements about its grantmaking. Notably, the website listed for this foundation in our records (applepickers.org) actually resolves to an unrelated Indianapolis-based Apple-product enthusiasts' club, not the foundation itself, so annual IRS Form 990-PF filings (EIN 20-7196513) remain the only reliable, current source of information on this funder's activity.

There is no open call for proposals here, so "application tips" are really relationship-building tips. First, do not send a cold or unsolicited proposal — the foundation's own IRS filings list application instructions as blank, and Instrumentl, Candid, and CauseIQ all independently confirm it funds only preselected organizations. Second, lean into the Connecticut concentration: over half of tracked grants went to CT nonprofits, particularly in Fairfield and New Haven counties (Mercy Learning Center of Bridgeport, Fairfield County's Community Foundation, Adam J Lewis Academy in New Haven, Spring Glen Church in Hamden, Fairfield Police Foundation/Union). Organizations based in or serving southwestern Connecticut sit in the foundation's most likely geography. Third, be aware of the apparent personal cause connection to diabetes and related autoimmune/neurological research — Tidepool, the Diatribe Foundation's Time in Range Coalition, UMass Medical School's vitiligo/type-1-diabetes research project, and the Dysautonomia Foundation together account for roughly half of all tracked giving. Organizations in this exact niche should lead with that alignment, though breaking in without a direct connection remains difficult. Fourth, food systems is a live and growing theme, not a legacy one: the new December 2024 City Seed grant for a food hub sits on top of years of support for Farm Fresh Rhode Island, Southside Community Land Trust, and the RI Community Foundation's FarmFreshRI Fund — a clear multi-year regional food-access thesis centered on Rhode Island and Connecticut. Fifth, expect a relationship-based funding model: Compassion and Choices, Tidepool, Adam J Lewis Academy, and Diatribe Foundation each received three to five separate grants over multiple years rather than a single gift, so the realistic goal for a new organization is a small first grant that can grow into repeat support, not a large one-time ask. Sixth, most listed grant purposes are "General & Unrestricted" rather than project-specific, so once trust is established, unrestricted operating requests appear well received. Finally, because there is no portal or deadline, the only real channel is direct outreach — by phone at (800) 839-1754 or by mail via Foundation Source at 501 Silverside Rd, Wilmington, DE 19809 — but expect low responsiveness to any contact that isn't preceded by a warm introduction from a current grantee or shared board connection.