C E Mendez Foundation Inc.

The C.E. Mendez Foundation, Inc. (EIN 59-1086491, headquartered in Atlanta, GA with operating offices in Tampa, FL) is a private OPERATING foundation under IRC 4942(j)(3) - a distinct legal posture from the conventional private grantmaking foundations most fundraisers approach. Rather than awarding grants to outside nonprofits, the foundation deploys its charitable disbursements (approximately $2.76M of $3.33M total expenses, or 82.8%, in the fiscal year ending June 2024) to fund its own programmatic activities: developing, publishing, and delivering the Too Good for Drugs and Too Good for Violence K-12 prevention curricula. The strategic implication for prospective applicants is critical: this foundation does not maintain an open application portal, RFP cycle, or unsolicited grant review process, and the IRS-mandated qualifying distributions of an operating foundation must by definition flow to its own active conduct of charitable activities. Founded by Charles E. Mendez Jr. (Chairman/President) and continued under family stewardship (Charles E. Mendez III serves as Vice President/Secretary; Yvonne L. Mendez, Janet Y. Mendez, and Lauren E. Mendez sit on the board), the foundation has spent more than 40 years building a vertically integrated prevention-education enterprise that combines curriculum R&D, publishing/fulfillment, educator training, and direct service delivery by salaried Prevention Specialists in Hillsborough County Public Schools (175,000-student district). External organizations seeking value from the foundation should pursue program partnerships - purchasing or licensing Too Good curricula via toogoodprograms.org, contracting Mendez Prevention Specialists for school-based delivery, or co-hosting community awareness events such as the Too Good for Drugs Walk and the Too Good for Drugs Jr. Gasparilla Distance Classic - rather than submitting traditional LOIs or grant proposals.

Form 990-PF data extracted from the IRS through fiscal year ending June 2024 shows total assets of $35.7M, net assets of $34.8M, revenue of $4.51M, and expenses of $3.33M, producing net income of $1.18M. Revenue is endowment-driven: the largest sources are sales of assets ($524,705, 11.6%), dividends ($397,513, 8.8%), and interest ($286,855, 6.4%); program-related earned revenue from curriculum sales accounts for the remaining $179,589 in 'Other Income' line plus the bulk of activity captured below the program expense line. Direct contributions received from outside donors totaled only $45,339 (1.0% of revenue), confirming the foundation is endowment-self-financed rather than fundraising-dependent. On the expense side, charitable disbursements of $2,755,376 (82.8%) cover the two primary program lines from the 990-PF: $1,949,042 for curriculum publishing/dissemination to roughly 2,500 school systems nationwide and $470,465 for direct-service program delivery in Tampa/Hillsborough schools. Officer compensation is significant: Charles E Mendez III (VP/Secretary) at $295,000, Charles E Mendez Jr (Chairman/President) at $280,000, plus additional six-figure compensation for Business Manager Bradley Bramlett ($155,000), Program Development lead Laura Marolf ($128,000), VP Training Cynthia Swartzwelder ($123,000), and Inventory Controller Stuart Pheil ($121,000). The pattern of stable endowment returns, steady ~$3.3M annual program spend, and zero observable external grantmaking line item across fiscal years 2023-2024 establishes a consistent operating-foundation funding signature - applicants should not anticipate that this foundation will pivot toward open grantmaking, as that would jeopardize its 4942(j)(3) status.

The C.E. Mendez Foundation occupies an unusual niche among Florida-Atlanta connected private foundations: it is one of the rare operating foundations focused exclusively on K-12 substance abuse and violence prevention. Compared to similar-sized private foundations active in youth development and prevention, it is fundamentally different in posture.

For nonprofit fundraisers actually seeking grant capital for prevention work, the realistic peers to approach are grantmaking foundations like Conn Memorial, Allegany Franciscan, the Hilton Foundation's prevention portfolio, or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Drug-Free Communities federal program - not Mendez. For SCHOOLS and community partners seeking to implement Too Good curricula, Mendez peer-comparable suppliers are LifeSkills Training (National Health Promotion Associates), CASEL-aligned SEL publishers, Botvin LifeSkills, and Lions Quest. Mendez is differentiated within that peer set by its in-house Prevention Specialist field corps and its 40+ year track record of evidence-based program iteration.

Most recent IRS filing is the Form 990-PF for fiscal year ending June 2024, submitted May 14, 2025 (per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer records). Year-over-year comparison: revenue grew from $3.75M (FY2023) to $4.51M (FY2024), expenses held relatively flat at $3.42M -> $3.33M, and net assets advanced from $31.1M to $34.8M, reflecting a strong investment year. Programmatically, the foundation maintains active partnerships with the Florida Department of Children and Families and Hillsborough County Public Schools and continues operating the City of Tampa Summer Parks Program. The Too Good for Drugs Jr. Gasparilla Distance Classic (children's distance-running event branded with the Tampa Gasparilla festival) and the Too Good for Drugs Walk and KidFest are recurring annual community events. The board remains family-led - Charles E. Mendez Jr. (Chairman/President), Charles E. Mendez III (VP/Secretary), Yvonne L. Mendez (VP), Janet Y. Mendez and Lauren E. Mendez (Directors) - with outside directors Michael D. Annis, Dr. Charles F. Mitchell, Henry Gonzalez III (Treasurer), Melissa Hoffman, Baerbel Freudenthaler, and David Franklin contributing business, medicine, law, real-estate, banking, and education expertise. Curriculum distribution reach reported by the foundation is approximately 2,500 school systems and community organizations across the United States, with impacted student populations cited as 'several million people.' No publicly announced new grant program or open application cycle has been launched.

Tactical guidance for organizations engaging with the C.E. Mendez Foundation:

1. DO NOT submit unsolicited grant proposals or LOIs. As a 4942(j)(3) private operating foundation, Mendez does not maintain an external grants office and unsolicited requests will not be reviewed. Sending a cold proposal wastes your time and signals weak grants-research diligence.

2. If your goal is to implement prevention curriculum in your school, after-school program, parks-and-rec system, or community coalition, the correct entry point is toogoodprograms.org. Call 800-750-0986 Option 3 (Implementation Information and Technical Assistance) to discuss site licensing, fidelity training, and pricing. Many districts cover Too Good purchases through Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment funds, SAMHSA Drug-Free Communities (DFC) sub-grants, state opioid abatement settlement dollars, or Medicaid school-based services funds.

3. If you want to BRING Mendez Prevention Specialists into your Hillsborough County school or community organization for direct service, contact the Tampa office at 813-251-3600. Direct service is a tightly geographic offering - the foundation's salaried prevention educators work in the Tampa Bay area only.

4. Partnership and co-branded event opportunities are possible (the foundation co-hosts events with the City of Tampa and the Gasparilla Distance Classic). If your organization has aligned youth-prevention programming and can co-sponsor or contribute in-kind to the Too Good for Drugs Walk/KidFest or the Jr. Gasparilla, write directly to the Tampa office expressing partnership interest - do not frame as a funding request.

5. If you are a researcher or evaluator, the foundation is open to evidence-base collaboration. Too Good is registered on national prevention-program registries; reach out via the contact form on mendezfoundation.org and target Laura Marolf (Program Development) or Cynthia Swartzwelder (VP Training & Implementation) for substantive program-design conversations.

6. For comparable PREVENTION FUNDING capital, redirect your grants pipeline toward: SAMHSA Drug-Free Communities Support Program (~$125K/yr for 5 years, federal), CDC Overdose Data to Action, state opioid abatement boards (post-settlement allocations vary by state), Conrad Hilton Foundation Substance Use Prevention Initiative, Conn Memorial Foundation (Tampa), Allegany Franciscan Ministries, and your state's Department of Children/Families or Health prevention block grants. These are the realistic capital sources you were probably hoping Mendez would be.