Brandenburg Foundation

Brandenburg Foundation is a family-directed, relationship-driven micro-foundation, not an institutional grantmaker. Founded in 2023 (IRS 501(c)(3) determination dated April 2023) with a $3.9 million founding contribution — almost certainly tied to the sale of the family's Cleveland manufacturing company, Prince & Izant — it is governed entirely by five unpaid family trustees: Kim, Kurt, Bo, Matt, and Jane Brandenburg. There is no staff, no program officer, and no published LOI or RFP process (the application_instructions field on file is blank despite the foundation flagging itself as open to inquiries). All six of its tracked FY2023 grants went to Northeast Ohio organizations, reflecting the family's local roots and pre-existing personal relationships rather than a competitive review process. First-time applicants should treat this less like applying to a foundation and more like courting an engaged individual/family donor: a warm introduction — through a shared board connection, a Make-A-Wish Northern Ohio gala touchpoint (the family has sponsored that gala since 2018, years before the foundation existed), or a mutual contact with one of the five trustees — will do more than a polished cold proposal. Grant sizes vary enormously with relationship depth. The single largest 2023 award, $156,750 to Make-A-Wish Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana, represents 56% of that year's total giving and reflects a multi-year sponsorship relationship, not a one-off pitch. Mid-tier awards ($26,000-$50,000) went to causes with direct family interest — law enforcement support (Edge Tactical Foundation) and K-8 education for students with learning differences (Julie Billiart Schools) — while smaller awards ($5,000-$7,500) show the family is willing to seed modest, hyper-local causes (Transplant House of Cleveland, a STEM/maritime career-pathways nonprofit) once some connection exists. Applicants should lead with plain alignment to the foundation's five published priorities — health & wellness, humanitarian relief, land conservation, character development, and educational scholarships — and expect a slow, cumulative, personal courtship rather than a single-cycle win.

Total assets have held essentially flat and slightly declined: $3,910,950 (FY2022) to $3,955,044 (FY2023) to $3,856,432 (FY2024), consistent with a foundation now paying out faster than its investment income replaces. Revenue tells the founding story clearly — $3,900,950 in FY2022 was almost entirely the one-time contribution that seeded the endowment, versus $336,251 (FY2023) and $392,928 (FY2024) in ordinary investment/dividend income once the foundation was operating normally. Grants paid were $0 in FY2022 (the foundation's first year was spent receiving its founding gift), $278,250 in FY2023 across 6 grants (average $46,375; range $5,000-$156,750), and roughly $485,500 in FY2024 per its most recent Form 990-PF — a roughly 75% year-over-year jump in payout. Total charitable disbursements in FY2023 ($292,157) ran slightly above tracked grants, implying a modest amount of non-grant charitable spending alongside the six awards. By recipient, FY2023 giving was heavily concentrated: Make-A-Wish Ohio/KY/Indiana took 56% of dollars ($156,750), Edge Tactical Foundation (law enforcement support) 18% ($50,000), Julie Billiart Schools (K-8, learning differences) 12% ($33,000), Lake Erie Council Boy Scouts of America 9% ($26,000), Argonaut (STEM/aerospace-maritime career pathways) 2.7% ($7,500), and Transplant House of Cleveland 1.8% ($5,000). Geographically, all six tracked grants (100%) went to Ohio-based organizations, making this a hyper-local Northeast Ohio funder in practice, notwithstanding web-stated priorities like land conservation and humanitarian relief that suggest broader geographic ambition not yet reflected in the grant data. No multi-year pledges or capital-campaign gifts appear; every award looks like a single-year program or general-operating grant. With $3.86 million in assets, expect total annual giving to remain in the roughly $275,000-$500,000 range for the near term, most likely spread across 6-15 grantees per year as the payout rate continues to grow off its low FY2022 base.

All five identified peers sit within about $2,800 of Brandenburg's $3,856,432 in assets, a striking clustering that likely reflects similarly timed single-donor funding events (a business sale, an estate distribution, or a coordinated year of foundation formation) rather than any shared program strategy. None of the five peers has a public website, grants page, or disclosed giving history in the data available — they read as closed, single-family pass-through vehicles with essentially no public grant-seeking channel. By that standard, Brandenburg is comparatively the most accessible foundation in its own peer set: it maintains a live website, publishes five stated focus areas, and keeps an active social media presence (LinkedIn and Instagram), even though it still lacks any formal application process. Grant seekers should not expect an open RFP from any foundation in this asset tier; Brandenburg's public-facing presence is the exception, not the rule.

The most concrete recent signal is financial: the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF (filed November 6, 2025) shows grants paid rising to roughly $485,500, up about 75% from FY2023's $278,250 — evidence the family is actively increasing payout as the foundation moves past its 2022 endowment-funding year. No leadership changes have occurred; the same five family trustees (Kim, Kurt, Bo, Matt, Jane Brandenburg) have served, unpaid, since inception. No press coverage of a new program launch, staff hire, or geographic expansion was found for 2025-2026, which is expected for a foundation with no communications staff. The most visible ongoing public activity remains the family's sponsorship of the Make-A-Wish Northern Ohio Wish Gala, a relationship dating to 2018 — predating the foundation's 2023 tax-exempt status — through which the family reached Make-A-Wish's Constellation Society donor tier (cumulative giving of $500,000 or more) in 2023. The foundation's five published focus areas (health & wellness, humanitarian relief, land conservation, character development, educational scholarships) have not visibly changed since GrantedAI's last web enrichment in February 2026. Given the absence of media coverage or a dedicated news page on the foundation's own site, the clearest way to track this funder going forward is the annual Form 990-PF cadence (EIN 92-0933126, filed via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer each November) — the next filing, expected around November 2026, will show whether FY2025 giving continued climbing and whether the Ohio-only geographic pattern starts to broaden.

There is no formal grant application, LOI template, or deadline published for Brandenburg Foundation — treat this funder as a relationship-first family giving vehicle, not a program office. Because every trustee is a Brandenburg family member with deep Northeast Ohio ties, the single highest-leverage move is finding a warm connection: board overlap with past grantees (Make-A-Wish Ohio/KY/Indiana, Julie Billiart Schools, Lake Erie Council Boy Scouts of America, Edge Tactical Foundation, Argonaut, Transplant House of Cleveland), a mutual contact from the family's former company Prince & Izant, or a touchpoint through the Make-A-Wish Northern Ohio Gala circuit the family has sponsored since 2018. Cold inquiries should go through the website contact form or the foundation's LinkedIn/Instagram (@brandenburgfoundation) — there is no portal, so keep the initial outreach to a short, plain-language note, not a formal packet. Explicitly name one of the foundation's five stated priorities (health & wellness, humanitarian relief, land conservation & preservation, character development, or educational scholarships) rather than generic mission language; the family appears to fund concrete, tangible programs (wish-granting, K-8 special education, youth character programs like Scouting, career-pathway STEM programs) over abstract policy or advocacy asks. Calibrate the dollar ask to the visible pattern: five of six known FY2023 grants fell between $5,000 and $50,000, so a first ask in that range is far more realistic than a six-figure request unless a Make-A-Wish-level, multi-year relationship already exists. A common mistake would be treating this like a large institutional foundation with a review calendar — with no staff, response times will be slow and unpredictable, so a single polite follow-up after several weeks is appropriate, not persistent re-pitching. Because the foundation's payout rose roughly 75% from FY2023 to FY2024, capacity for new grantees is likely still expanding — an organization that was too small a priority in 2023-2024 may be worth re-approaching in the next cycle once new 990-PF data is available. Above all, lead with an Ohio (ideally Northeast Ohio/Cleveland) nexus — 100% of tracked grants to date have gone to organizations physically rooted there.