Beartooth Foundation

Beartooth Foundation is a small, closely held family foundation based in Wilmington, NC, controlled by members of the Murchison family — Linda Murchison (Chairman/Secretary), J Reid Murchison (Vice Chairman/Secretary), and Sarah Murchison Campbell and Clare Murchison Powers (Assistant Secretaries) — all serving without compensation. With $3.58M in total assets (FY2025) and roughly $200,675 in charitable disbursements that year (93.2% of expenses), it operates at the scale of a single-family giving vehicle rather than an institutional grantmaker with program staff.

Critically, the foundation's own record flags it as preselected-only, and independent trackers (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io) built from its IRS Form 990-PF filings independently confirm it makes contributions almost exclusively to a preselected list and does not accept unsolicited proposals. There is no grants page, application form, published deadline, or listed opportunities URL anywhere in its record. Grant seekers should treat Beartooth as effectively invitation-only, not an open RFP funder — cold outreach is very unlikely to be read, let alone funded.

Its giving pattern reinforces this. Of $1,936,500 in tracked grants across 17 awards, $1,785,000 (92%) across 11 gifts went to a single intermediary — the North Carolina Community Foundation — almost certainly funding a donor-advised or field-of-interest fund the family directs, rather than direct programmatic grantmaking. The remaining disbursements went to a small, geographically dispersed set of causes tied to family interests: the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY (3 grants, $93,500), Wyoming Chapter Q Inc. ($50,000), and Step-Up Wilmington, a local NC nonprofit (2 grants, $8,000).

For an organization with this profile, the realistic path in is relational, not written: through the North Carolina Community Foundation's Wilmington/Cape Fear-area donor and advisory network, where the Murchison family fund may sit, or through a personal introduction to a family officer. Organizations with ties to Western heritage/conservation causes (echoing the Buffalo Bill Center relationship) or Wilmington community services (echoing Step-Up Wilmington) are the closest demonstrated fit. First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit cycle — no public evidence of such a process exists — and should instead prioritize relationship-building over proposal-writing.

Beartooth Foundation's assets have grown from $203,961 at inception (FY2013) to $3,584,552 (FY2025), driven by two capitalization pushes — $1,016,818 in contributions in FY2014 and $645,040 in FY2015 — after which outside contributions fell to $0 for several years before a $533,425 infusion in FY2023.

Annual giving has been volatile but generally rising over the long run: $50,040 (2013) → $131,999 (2014) → $191,572 (2015) → $205,918 (2019) → $138,842 (2020, a pandemic-year dip) → $223,629 (2021) → $458,328 (2022) → $692,499 (2023, the peak year) → an estimated $467,814 across 5 awards (2024, per Instrumentl) → $200,675 in charitable disbursements (2025, per the IRS filing, 93.2% of that year's expenses).

Grant sizing shows two distinct tiers. The dominant tier is large transfers to a single fiscal intermediary: 11 grants to the North Carolina Community Foundation totaling $1,785,000, averaging $162,272 per grant — almost certainly fund contributions rather than program grants to an outside nonprofit. The second, much smaller tier is the more realistic benchmark for an outside applicant: the foundation's own stated typical grant size has a median of $26,000, an average of $26,800, and a range of $3,000-$50,000 across 5 tracked direct awards. Documented direct grants include Buffalo Bill Center of the West (3 grants, $93,500 total, ~$31,167 average), Wyoming Chapter Q Inc. ($50,000, single grant), and Step-Up Wilmington (2 grants, $8,000 total, $4,000 average).

Geographically, of 17 tracked grants, 13 (76%) went to North Carolina recipients, 3 (18%) to Wyoming, and 1 (6%) to Virginia — reflecting the family's dual footprint in coastal North Carolina (Wilmington) and an apparent personal or philanthropic tie to Cody, Wyoming. The sample of direct, non-intermediary grants is small (6 across the available history), too limited to identify a formal program-area allocation by cause; the visible pattern is relationship-driven rather than issue-area-driven giving.

All five peer foundations cluster within about $1,000 of each other in total assets ($3,584,457-$3,585,184) despite being unrelated organizations registered in five different states — a strong signal that this comparison set consists of similarly sized, single-family "vehicle" foundations of comparable vintage rather than a mission-matched peer cohort. Only Klick Foundation maintains a public website; the other four, like Beartooth, appear to operate with no public-facing application infrastructure, deadlines, or grant listings. Grant seekers evaluating any foundation in this exact asset band ($3.5-3.6M, NTEE Philanthropy & Grantmaking) should expect a closed, relationship-based giving model rather than a competitive RFP process, and should budget outreach effort accordingly.

Searches for "Beartooth Foundation" news are dominated by unrelated organizations that share the name: the rock band Beartooth (announcing a 2026 "Pure Ecstasy" U.S. tour), the Beartooth Billings Clinic Foundation in Red Lodge, MT (EIN 81-0484562 — an unrelated 501(c)(3) that opened an infusion suite and expanded local surgery capacity in 2025), and Beartooth Resource Conservation & Development in Montana. That last organization's domain, beartooth.org, is the website listed in this foundation's own record — but the site and its mission language ("cultivate responsible regional economic development and resource conservation") in fact belong to the unrelated Montana nonprofit, not to the Wilmington, NC family foundation profiled here. No press release, announcement, or media coverage specific to EIN 46-1536745 was found in current search results.

The most recent verifiable activity is financial. The foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF (via ProPublica) shows $343,096 in revenue, $215,284 in expenses, and $200,675 in charitable disbursements (93.2% of expenses) against $3,584,552 in year-end net assets, up modestly from $3,456,740 a year earlier. Instrumentl's tracking shows 5 awards totaling $467,814 in 2024 and just 1 award recorded so far for 2025, indicating a slowdown in grant count even as overall disbursement levels have stayed in a broadly similar range to 2022-2024. Leadership has remained stable, with Linda Murchison, J Reid Murchison, Sarah Murchison Campbell, and Clare Murchison Powers continuing as uncompensated officers and no reported leadership transitions.

Do not submit a cold, unsolicited application or proposal. The foundation's own record (preselected_only) and independent trackers built from its IRS filings (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io) confirm it contributes only to a preselected list of organizations and does not review unsolicited requests — time spent drafting an LOI aimed directly at Beartooth Foundation is unlikely to be read.

There is no public grants page, application portal, deadline, or downloadable form on file for this foundation. Do not confuse the beartooth.org domain with this organization — that site belongs to Beartooth Resource Conservation & Development, an unrelated Montana nonprofit, and contacting it will not reach the Murchison family.

The most productive channel is the North Carolina Community Foundation, which received 92% of the foundation's tracked giving ($1,785,000 of $1,936,500) across 11 separate contributions. Organizations that already have, or can build, a relationship with NCCF's Wilmington/Cape Fear-area donor and advisory network are best positioned to eventually be considered for any pass-through or field-of-interest funding the family directs there.

If your organization's mission overlaps with the two demonstrated outside interests — Western heritage, history, or conservation (Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, WY: 3 grants totaling $93,500) or Wilmington, NC community services (Step-Up Wilmington: $8,000 across 2 gifts) — a warm introduction through a board member, donor, or mutual contact connected to the Murchison family is far more likely to work than a written proposal.

Calibrate any ask, if a relationship is established, to the foundation's demonstrated direct-grant range of $3,000-$50,000 (median $26,000, average $26,800). Do not size a request to the $1.78M Community Foundation transfers — those are not comparable to grants an outside nonprofit could realistically receive.

Officer compensation is $0 across every reported year — this is a genuinely volunteer-run family vehicle with no program staff to pitch. Any legitimate contact will go through an officer directly (phone on file: 910-763-6072) rather than a program office.

Common mistake to avoid: confusing this foundation with the Beartooth Billings Clinic Foundation (Red Lodge, MT) or Beartooth Resource Conservation & Development (also MT) — both are unrelated organizations that dominate generic web searches for "Beartooth Foundation" and could send an applicant down the wrong path entirely.