Carey Family Foundation

The Carey Family Foundation (Darien, CT; EIN 20-1970720) is a small-to-mid private family foundation with roughly $40.8M in assets that concentrates its grantmaking in a tight cluster of states — Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, and Kentucky — reflecting personal family ties rather than a published open RFP process. There is no public grants portal and no standing application form, so cold outreach is unlikely to succeed. The viable path is a warm introduction through a trustee, donor-advised network, or a prior grantee institution (prep schools, hospitals, museums, and churches are the common 990 beneficiaries). Frame any approach around a specific named program or capital campaign — unrestricted operating requests are rarely funded by foundations of this profile — and keep the ask in the $100K-$500K range to match recent check sizes.

Recent 990s show a concentrated portfolio: the foundation writes only about four grants per year, but each is large, with a median of roughly $376,000 and a maximum approaching $2.07M. Average grant is around $754,000, placing it in the 'few, large, repeat' family-foundation pattern rather than the 'many small checks' model. Geographic footprint is narrow (CT, NY, NH, KY) and sector mix skews toward independent schools, higher education, medical/hospital institutions, and select faith communities. There is no published deadline — the foundation operates on a trustee-meeting cadence, typically one or two decision cycles per year. Payout is close to the 5% minimum, which means the annual grantmaking budget is in the $1.8M-$2.5M range.

Against Connecticut T20 family foundations of similar asset size, Carey is notably check-heavy and roster-thin:

Carey's extreme concentration (4 grants, six-figure medians) is more typical of a donor-advised estate than a broad community foundation — it most closely resembles a single-purpose capital-campaign funder rather than a multi-grantee portfolio.

To have any realistic chance with Carey, you need three things: (1) a warm introduction from an existing grantee or trustee network — the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals and will not respond to cold letters; (2) a named capital project or endowed program in CT, NY, NH, or KY with a specific, nameable outcome (scholarship fund, building, chair, wing) — unrestricted operating support is almost never funded given the four-grant-per-year pattern; (3) an ask scaled to their check size ($200K-$750K is the sweet spot; under $100K looks under-ambitious for a median-$376K funder, and over $1.5M is reserved for their top relationship). Submit via a one-page concept note through a trustee, not a mailed LOI. If you have no connection to an existing grantee or trustee, deprioritize this funder and invest time elsewhere.