Bayes Family Foundation

The Bayes Family Foundation is a nascent Texas private foundation operating at the threshold of active grantmaking. Incorporated on December 5, 2024, and granted IRS 501(c)(3) status in March 2025, the foundation received a $20 million initial endowment from the Bayes family of Fulshear, Texas — a master-planned community in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston. The foundation's first 990-PF (filed November 2025 for fiscal year 2024) recorded zero charitable disbursements, confirming it has not yet made any grants.

Governance is tightly held within the family: Eric D. Bayes serves as President, Jennifer C. Bayes as Secretary, and Donald K. Bayes as Treasurer. No outside staff or independent board members appear in public filings, and no officer compensation was paid. This structure is characteristic of closely held family foundations where strategic decisions — who to fund, how much, and in what areas — rest exclusively with the founders, and the philanthropic thesis is still being formulated internally.

The foundation's NTEE classification of P20 (Human Services — Individual and Family Services) is the strongest public signal of intended focus. This code covers organizations providing direct assistance to families and individuals: family counseling services, emergency assistance programs, homemaker and household services, and individual and family social support. Whether the Bayes family intends to focus narrowly within P20 or interpret Human Services more broadly remains undisclosed.

Given this early stage, the appropriate posture for prospective grantees is preparation and positioning rather than active solicitation. Private family foundations at this asset level and stage almost universally operate through invitation and existing relationships. There is no indication of a formal LOI process, proposal review cycle, or site visit protocol — because no such process has been announced.

The most productive relationship-building channels are Fort Bend County civic and nonprofit networks, the Greater Houston philanthropic community, and organizations the Bayes family may already support as donors or board members. Fulshear's explosive residential growth — the city's population increased more than 1,000% between 2010 and 2023 — has placed acute pressure on local human services infrastructure, creating obvious alignment opportunities for organizations working in that corridor. First-time applicants should plan for a 12–24 month horizon before formal grantmaking begins and use that window to build authentic relationships.

All available financial data for the Bayes Family Foundation derives from its single 990-PF filing covering fiscal year 2024. The picture is unambiguous: the foundation was fully capitalized in year one with no grants paid.

Total assets as of fiscal year-end 2024: $20,040,304. Total liabilities: $0. Net assets: $20,040,304. Revenue breakdown: $20,000,000 (99.8%) from initial contributions and $40,304 (0.2%) in dividend income. Expenses: $0. No officer compensation was paid. No grants were disbursed.

Under IRS Section 4942, private foundations must annually distribute at least 5% of the average fair market value of their non-charitable-use assets as qualifying distributions. Applied to the Bayes Family Foundation's current asset base, this implies a minimum annual grant obligation of approximately $1.0 million. If the foundation distributes at a more typical 6–8% rate for family foundations at this asset tier, annual grant budgets would range from $1.2 million to $1.6 million. These are the realistic budget parameters to anchor any grant request within.

No grant size ranges, median award figures, or programmatic allocation percentages can be derived from empirical data because no grants have been made. However, peer foundations in the $19–21 million asset range within the Human Services category typically award grants from $5,000 to $250,000, with the mode concentrated in the $25,000–$75,000 range for program support and $100,000–$200,000 for capacity-building or capital investments.

Geography is likely to shape the initial portfolio significantly. Fort Bend County — where Fulshear is located — is routinely ranked among the top five fastest-growing counties in the United States, with the county's population roughly tripling between 2000 and 2020. This growth has generated substantial unmet need for social services across income levels. It is consistent with the founders' context, though not confirmed, that early grants will concentrate in Fort Bend County and the Greater Houston metro area.

Multi-year general operating support is common at this asset level when a family foundation has strong conviction in its grantees. Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate measurable outcomes — families served, crises prevented, incomes stabilized — rather than relying on narrative impact claims alone.

The five peer foundations identified by asset size are all independently governed family foundations classified under Human Services, each holding between $19.5 million and $20.5 million in total assets. None maintain fully open public application processes, consistent with private foundation norms at this asset tier.

The Bayes Family Foundation is the newest entrant in this peer cohort — the only foundation formed in 2024 — and stands apart as the only one with no publicly reported grantmaking history. The other five foundations, while maintaining low public profiles, have multi-year 990-PF filings that document disbursement patterns and grantee relationships.

The structural commonality across this cohort is instructive: family foundations at the $20 million asset level almost universally operate with invitation-only or relationship-driven models, minimal public-facing infrastructure, and concentrated geographic or thematic focus. None of these peers accept unsolicited grant applications through an open portal, and the Bayes Family Foundation is unlikely to be an exception when grantmaking commences.

The Bayes Family Foundation has a brief but documented paper trail as a newly minted private foundation. The organization was formally incorporated in Texas on December 5, 2024, at 30719 Riverlake Rd, Fulshear, TX 77441 — a residential address in a master-planned community in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston. Within roughly three months, the IRS granted 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status in March 2025, with a private foundation designation and a Human Services (NTEE P20) classification.

On November 10, 2025, the foundation filed its first Form 990-PF with the IRS for fiscal year 2024. That filing disclosed $20,040,304 in total assets, the three family officers — Eric D. Bayes (President), Jennifer C. Bayes (Secretary), and Donald K. Bayes (Treasurer) — and confirmed zero grants paid and zero administrative expenses during year one. This is a common pattern for newly formed foundations of this size, which typically spend 12–24 months after formation establishing internal processes and developing a philanthropic strategy before making external grants.

No media coverage, press announcements, or philanthropic community news about the Bayes Family Foundation was identified through public web searches as of June 2026. The foundation maintains no confirmed public website. A distinct, unrelated organization — Bayes Impact, a Paris-based AI-for-social-good nonprofit founded by Paul Duan in 2014, which received a $5 million Google.org grant in January 2026 — shares name similarity with this foundation but has no known connection to the Bayes family of Fulshear, Texas. Practitioners should exercise care not to conflate these two entities in their research.

The Bayes Family Foundation does not operate a public application process as of June 2026. No grants portal, RFP, or formal submission guidelines have been issued. The following guidance is drawn from the foundation's structural profile, the norms of newly established family foundations at the $20 million asset tier, and the geographic and programmatic signals available from public filings.

Do not cold-apply. Without a published application process, unsolicited grant requests are likely to go unanswered and may signal poor judgment about how private family foundations operate. Reserve formal outreach until a grants program is publicly announced or a personal introduction has been secured through trusted intermediaries.

Build relationships in Fort Bend County networks. The Bayes family is based in Fulshear, TX, served by Fort Bend County's nonprofit ecosystem. Organizations active with the United Way of Fort Bend County, Fort Bend Education Foundation, local civic associations, or community foundations in Sugar Land and Richmond are most likely to have natural points of intersection with the founders' existing philanthropic connections.

Frame around family stability outcomes. The NTEE P20 designation (Individual and Family Services) favors language that centers on family unit outcomes — families stabilized, crises prevented, economic trajectories improved. Avoid abstract systemic-change framing in early relationship conversations; lead with specific, measurable human impact in the Greater Houston corridor.

Align on geography first. Fort Bend County is one of the fastest-growing and most economically diverse counties in the US. Demonstrating deep local rootedness — clients served in Fulshear, Katy, Sugar Land, Missouri City, or Stafford — is a more powerful differentiator than program design sophistication alone, at least in the foundation's early years.

Monitor 990-PF filings closely. The FY2025 990-PF, expected from the IRS in late 2026, will reveal the foundation's first grantees, award sizes, and funded program descriptions. Use ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 33-2315363) or IRS TEOS to track it — this is the single highest-value intelligence resource available.

Prepare a strong one-pager now. Have a concise organizational overview ready — mission, population served, geography, budget size, and outcomes metrics — to share through informal channels when a relationship introduction occurs. First impressions with family foundations often happen outside formal application windows.