Behmann Brothers Foundation

Behmann Brothers Foundation is a small, unstaffed family foundation run entirely by descendants and in-laws of founders Herman and Arno Behmann, who set it up in October 1979 with a fixed set of interests: agricultural research and education, schools, youth groups, healthcare, and service organizations. The governing board — Kosarek, Bluntzer, Anderson, and Lindell family names recur across filings — pays itself nominal $300 director stipends, with only the President drawing meaningful compensation ($37,200 in the most recent captured filing). This is not a professionally staffed program-officer shop; it is a family checkbook operating on strict, self-imposed rules, which means fit with the founders' original five categories matters more than novelty or innovation framing.

Geography is a hard gate, not a preference: only organizations located in Nueces, Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, Refugio, and San Patricio counties are eligible, and the foundation states this restriction on every guidance page. Within that footprint, the grantee list shows the board strongly favors organizations it already knows — large regional institutions (Christus Spohn Health System, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Research, Del Mar College Foundation, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Foundation) alongside a long tail of small, mission-specific nonprofits (animal rescue, pregnancy centers, youth ministries, literacy councils) that recur across multiple cycles rather than appearing once. First-time applicants should expect an exploratory, modest first award rather than a transformational one, and should treat a first grant as the opening move in a multi-cycle relationship rather than a one-off transaction.

The process is deliberately old-fashioned: paper application, mailed only via USPS, reviewed once a year on a February 1–May 1 window, with funding of approved grants completed by June 30. There is no LOI-to-full-proposal ladder and no indication of site visits in available records — the single form and its three required exhibits (IRS determination letter, most recent Form 990, and current board roster with addresses, occupations, and community affiliations) constitute the entire vetting process. That board-roster requirement (Exhibit C) suggests the family board is explicitly checking for community and personal connections, so applicants with a legitimate board-level or community tie to the Kosarek/Bluntzer/Anderson/Lindell circle should make it visible in the narrative.

The foundation's own stated typical grant size is a median of $3,000 and an average of $5,008, ranging from $500 to $36,000 across a 75-grant sample — figures corroborated by third-party aggregators citing the most recent filed tax year (about 78 grants, same $3,100 median, same $500-$36,000 range). The platform's broader grantee history, spanning 305 recorded grants worth $1,646,330 total (average $5,398), shows 301 of those grants going to Texas organizations and only 4 to Indiana — a small out-of-territory outlier likely tied to a national scholarship or professional-association beneficiary rather than a shift in geographic policy.

Dollar concentration reveals where the founders' agricultural and healthcare priorities actually land: Christus Spohn Health System's foundation and development arms together received $180,000 across two purposes (stroke center expansion and emergency department renovation), while Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas A&M AgriLife Research together drew $264,000 — the two largest funding clusters in the visible grantee data, directly reflecting Herman and Arno Behmann's stated fondness for agricultural research and education. Higher-education endowments form a third consistent bucket: Del Mar College Foundation, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Foundation, and a second Texas A&M Corpus Christi Foundation entry each received $40,000 in endowed-scholarship funding. Below that sits a long tail of $10,000-$30,000 grants to service and youth organizations — Halo-Flight, Corpus Christi Pregnancy Center, Nueces County Junior Livestock Show, Kings Crossing Prison Ministries, South Texas Lighthouse for the Blind, and similar Coastal Bend nonprofits — consistent with the founders' "service organizations" and "youth groups" categories.

Total giving has fluctuated with the endowment's investment performance rather than any stated strategic plan: $395,517 in FY2011 (on $6.94M in assets), dipping to $365,621 in FY2019, recovering to $465,769 (FY2020) and $435,088 (FY2021), then peaking at $580,775 in FY2022 as assets grew to $8.05M on $2.26M of net investment income that year. The most recently reported cycle shows assets near $9.7M with distributions moderating to roughly $414,000 — a pattern consistent with a non-operating private foundation smoothing payout against a growing but volatile investment portfolio; the foundation receives zero new contributions in every year on file, meaning all future giving capacity depends entirely on investment returns.

Behmann Brothers sits in the middle of this Coastal Bend peer set by asset size — smaller than Earl C. Sams Foundation (over twice its assets and giving) but larger and more consistently active than the Phillips Foundation, which appears largely dormant in recent filings. Unlike Sams and Howell, which run structured multi-meeting or inquiry-based review processes, Behmann Brothers keeps a single annual paper-based cycle, making it comparatively easier to understand but less flexible for time-sensitive requests. Nonprofits already receiving support from Sams or Howell for overlapping health/youth/service missions are reasonable candidates to add Behmann Brothers to a Coastal Bend funder list, provided they sit inside its eight-county footprint.

Public records show no press coverage or news announcements for the Behmann Brothers Foundation in 2025-2026 — this is an intentionally low-profile family foundation with no communications staff, and the only reliable signals of current activity come from its own website and IRS filings. Two data points confirm it remains active: a Form 990-PF filed May 6, 2025, and a subsequent filing dated March 9, 2026, both on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, showing no lapse in required reporting. The foundation's website carries a 2026-dated Grant Application and Grant Guidelines set, confirming the same February 1-May 1 annual window is running again this year with funding decisions completed by June 30, 2026.

The most notable change visible in available records is a likely leadership transition: the foundation's website currently lists Sherry M. Kosarek as President and the primary contact signatory on the 2026 application, while the most recent captured DB filing record shows Charles L. Kosarek Jr. as President with $37,200 in compensation for that fiscal year. Sherry Kosarek had previously held Secretary and Vice President roles in earlier filings, so this reads as an internal succession within the family board rather than any change in mission or governance structure — the same core group (Kosarek, Bluntzer, Anderson, Lindell) continues to appear across director listings.

Financially, the foundation's asset base has grown from $8.05M (FY2022) to roughly $9.7M in the most recently reported cycle, driven by investment income rather than new contributions — the foundation has received $0 in outside contributions in every year on file, meaning it operates purely as an endowed giving vehicle for the Behmann family's original gift.

The single biggest procedural trap for first-time applicants is submission method: the foundation accepts applications by U.S. Postal Service mail only, explicitly rejecting FedEx, UPS, and email submissions. Confirm your mailing timeline accounts for USPS delivery within the February 1-May 1, 2026 window — postmark-adjacent mailing near the deadline is risky for a foundation this rules-bound.

Eligibility is a hard geographic gate, not a soft preference: your organization must be located in Nueces, Aransas, Bee, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, Refugio, or San Patricio County. Confirm this before investing time in the packet — mission fit will not overcome a location outside these eight counties.

Assemble all three required exhibits before you start the narrative: Exhibit A (IRS determination letter — must be dated within 90 days of application if your organization isn't listed on the IRS's current Cumulative List as a public charity), Exhibit B (your most recently filed Form 990), and Exhibit C (a current Board of Directors list with addresses, occupations, and community affiliations). Exhibit C is unusual among small foundations and signals that the family board is explicitly screening for community and personal connections — if a board member or major supporter has a legitimate tie to the Kosarek, Bluntzer, Anderson, or Lindell families, or to the institutions they're known to support (Christus Spohn, Texas A&M AgriLife, Del Mar College), make that connection visible in your cover materials.

Size your ask to the funder's actual range: the median award is $3,000, the average is $5,008, and the observed ceiling is $36,000 — proposals framed as modest, specific project or equipment needs (as opposed to large capital campaigns or multi-year operating asks) fit this funder's real behavior far better than ambitious six-figure requests, which only appear for large, decades-long institutional partners like Christus Spohn's hospital system.

Use the founders' own language in your proposal — "agricultural research and education, schools, youth groups, healthcare and service organizations" — rather than generic community-impact framing; a board this small and tradition-bound is more responsive to applicants who visibly understand what Herman and Arno Behmann cared about. Do not request funding for lobbying/political activity, individuals, or government entities — all three are explicitly excluded. Finally, call (361) 438-4543 or email Behmannbrothersfoundation@gmail.com before mailing to confirm you have the current-year form, since the foundation republishes a dated application each cycle and an outdated form is an easy avoidable rejection.