Baum Family Foundation

The Baum Family Foundation is a tightly controlled private family foundation headquartered at 2100 Woodruff Rd in Hastings, Michigan — the county seat of Barry County. President Larry R Baum, Vice President David L Baum, and Secretary A Earlene Baum comprise the full board and serve simultaneously as directors with zero compensation. This compact, all-family governance structure means grant decisions are made by personal consensus, driven by the Baum family's direct knowledge of and involvement in their community — not by program staff reviewing competitive applications.

The foundation's preselected-only designation and absence of published application instructions are the defining strategic facts for any prospective grantee. Baum does not discover organizations through RFPs, open portals, or grant databases. It identifies recipients through the family's civic participation in Hastings and Barry County, Michigan. The most effective strategy is therefore relationship-first: earn the Baum family's awareness through genuine community engagement before any conversation about funding.

The giving philosophy is resolutely hyperlocal and civic. 39 of 53 tracked grants (74%) are in Michigan, with the overwhelming majority concentrated in Hastings and Barry County. The foundation funds government entities (Barry County government, City of Hastings), public schools, arts organizations, health systems, and civic anchors (YMCA of Barry County, Barry Community Foundation). This pattern reflects a place-based, community-fabric orientation — the Baums invest where they live and in institutions they personally believe sustain Hastings.

A secondary giving geography in South Carolina's Lowcountry (Hilton Head, Bluffton) accounts for 12 of 53 grants, likely reflecting a family seasonal or retirement presence. SC grants are smaller ($5,000–$25,000 range) and more scattered, confirming this is a secondary philanthropic commitment.

First-time applicants must understand there is no formal LOI-to-proposal pipeline. Organizations like Hastings Area Schools ($230,000 across 4 grants), the YMCA of Barry County ($89,000 across 4 grants), and Barry Community Foundation ($80,000 across 7 grants) have built multi-year repeat relationships. Persistence, demonstrated community value, and genuine relationship capital matter more here than grant-writing craft.

The Baum Family Foundation has distributed a tracked total of $1,872,700 across 53 grants in its available records — an average of $35,334 per grant. However, this mean is skewed by several very large commitments. The recorded median grant size is $7,500, with a range from $100 (Michigan Radio/NPR) to $465,000 and an average of $46,875 across the 16 grants with individually recorded sizes.

Annual grants paid trend (IRS 990-PF data): - 2012: $292,560 - 2013: $385,700 - 2014: $350,000 - 2018: $585,000 - 2019: $581,300 - 2020: $411,100 (COVID-era dip) - 2021: $750,000 (peak year on record) - 2022: $711,600

The 2020 dip to $411,100 likely reflects COVID-19 uncertainty, while the 2021 peak of $750,000 marks the highest single-year giving on record. The 2022 figure of $711,600 suggests stabilization at a higher-giving plateau relative to pre-2018 norms (~$350,000–$585,000).

Program area breakdown by cumulative tracked dollars: - Government and civic infrastructure: ~$726,000 (39%) — Barry County, City of Hastings - Arts and performing arts: ~$446,500 (24%) — Friends of Performing Arts Center, Hastings Band Boosters, school music programs - Education: ~$265,000 (14%) — Hastings Area Schools (academic programs), Calvin University - Health: ~$260,000 (14%) — Spectrum Health Foundation, Digestive Health Foundation, Corwell Health Foundation - Community and social services: ~$175,200 (9%) — YMCA, Barry Community Foundation, United Way, aging services

Geographic split: Michigan receives approximately 94% of tracked dollars (~$1,760,000), South Carolina ~5% (~$95,000), and Illinois ~1% (~$18,000).

With current assets of ~$14.1M and 2022 grants paid of $711,600, the effective payout rate is approximately 5.0% — exactly at the IRS minimum threshold for private foundations. Net investment income in 2022 was $557,976, meaning annual grants slightly exceeded investment returns in that year, modestly drawing on endowment corpus.

The five peer foundations identified in this analysis share comparable asset sizes in the $12M–$15M range and the same NTEE community development category, making them useful benchmarks for understanding Baum's relative positioning.

*Peer annual giving estimates based on 5% IRS minimum payout of reported assets; Baum figure is actual 990-PF data.*

The Baum Family Foundation sits in the middle of its peer cohort by assets and is one of the few for which detailed grantee-level data is publicly available through 990-PF filings. What distinguishes Baum is its extreme geographic concentration in a single county versus the undisclosed or broader focuses of its comparators. The absence of public application portals across all peer foundations confirms that preselected or invitation-only giving is the norm at this asset tier — grant seekers who understand this convention will outperform those expecting open competition.

No press releases, media coverage, or leadership announcements for the Baum Family Foundation were retrievable through web search at the time of this report's preparation (July 2026), consistent with the foundation's deliberately low public profile. Website access to baumfamily.org was also unavailable during research.

The most recent publicly available financial data is from fiscal year 2022, which showed $711,600 in total grants paid. The largest cumulative single-recipient commitment in the tracked record is to Barry County government — $506,000 across three grant purposes: general contributions, a Serenity Village project, and a Sheriff's Department Canine Fund. This reveals the foundation's comfort funding government operations and public safety in addition to nonprofits — an unusual grantmaking characteristic worth noting.

The Hastings Plaza Performance project (funded through City of Hastings, $220,000 across 3 grants) and the Friends of Performing Arts Center ($200,000) represent what appears to be the foundation's most concentrated recent programmatic investment: Hastings' civic arts infrastructure. The $115,000 Hastings Band Boosters Instrument Fund further reinforces a performing arts thesis.

No leadership transitions are visible in available data. Larry R Baum, David L Baum, and A Earlene Baum have appeared as the consistent three-person board across all available filing years, suggesting the foundation remains in its founding-generation operating mode. Zero officer compensation across all years signals a structure designed for simplicity and longevity rather than eventual professional management succession.

The single most important tip for the Baum Family Foundation is this: there is no open application process. The foundation's record explicitly flags it as preselected-only with no published application instructions. Proposals sent cold to the Hastings address or phone ((269) 945-5009) may be received but are extremely unlikely to generate a response without a pre-existing personal relationship.

For Michigan organizations (primary opportunity): - Be visible in Hastings and Barry County. The Baum family's giving directly maps to their civic life. Organizations that collaborate with the YMCA of Barry County, Barry Community Foundation, or Hastings Area Schools — all multi-grant Baum grantees — enter the same community ecosystem the Baums observe and trust. - Work through Barry Community Foundation. With 7 grants totaling $80,000, Barry Community Foundation is the most frequent Baum grantee on record. It likely functions as a trusted community filter and connector. Participating in BCF grant programs or receiving BCF endorsement may create a meaningful warm introduction path. - Align with civic infrastructure, not programs. Baum's largest grants go to capital and institutional purposes: county government, school improvements, instrument funds, performing arts centers, library windows. Frame asks around durable community assets, not one-year program budgets. - Emphasize longevity and local roots. Repeat grantees (YMCA: 4 grants; Barry Community Foundation: 7 grants; Hastings Area Schools: 4 grants) dominate the record. Signal organizational stability and deep Barry County ties — not novelty or scale. - Avoid cold outreach to the foundation directly. With zero staff, the family manages all correspondence personally. Unsolicited letters without a relationship context will not advance an application.

For South Carolina organizations: - Target grant sizes of $5,000–$25,000 only — all SC grants cluster in that range. - Connect through Community Foundation of Low Country (a funded Baum grantee) or Palmetto Animal League for animal welfare asks. - Align with Hilton Head/Bluffton geography specifically.

Timing: No formal deadlines are published. The fiscal year ends December 31. Initial relationship outreach in Q1–Q2 (January through June) is sensible to allow time for a fiscal-year grant decision.