Case Family Foundation

Case Family Foundation is a lean, unpaid-trustee family vehicle, not an institution built to receive cold applications. Three Case family members — Perry A. Case (President), Todd A. Case (Treasurer), and Vicky L. Case (Vice President) — serve without compensation, and the only paid role is Jacqueline L. Karam as Secretary ($24,000/year), almost certainly handling administrative and filing work rather than grant review. There is no program officer, no published funding cycle, no application deadline, and the foundation's own record lists application_instructions as none and leaves the application form URL blank, even though it is technically marked as accepting applications.

The grant history reveals the foundation's real operating model: overwhelmingly local and relationship-based. Of 36 tracked grants since 2012 totaling $826,500, 35 (97%) went to Nebraska recipients, heavily concentrated in McCook and Red Willow County — the foundation's own home base (McCook Economic Development Corp, McCook Community Foundation, Red Willow Western Rural Fire, St Patrick's Catholic School). The single outlier is a $10,000 gift to Catholic Community Foundation for a Scottsdale, Arizona rectory campaign, which reads as a personal/family tie (a winter residence or extended family connection) rather than a geographic expansion.

By far the largest relationship is with the Nebraska Community Foundation network: Nebraska Community Foundation Inc ($280,000/2 grants), Nebraska Community Foundation ($116,700/3 grants), and Nebraska Community Fund ($80,000/2 grants) combine for roughly $476,700 — 58% of all tracked giving. This strongly suggests the Case family prefers routing general community-betterment dollars through NCF's countywide affiliated-fund infrastructure rather than vetting operating nonprofits directly.

For a first-time applicant, the realistic path in is a warm introduction — through the McCook Community Foundation, a Nebraska Community Foundation affiliate fund, a Catholic parish/diocese connection, or an agricultural-education organization (Nebraska FFA) — not a cold written proposal to an anonymous inbox. Given the size of the ask relative to the foundation's small unpaid board, patience and a light-touch, low-bureaucracy approach will serve applicants better than a heavily formatted grant application.

Two data sets tell different parts of the same story. Across the full 2012-2023 grantee history (36 grants, $826,500 total), the average grant is $22,958, but the median is much lower — the foundation's own typical_grant_size record shows a median of $10,000, an average of $17,000, and a range of $5,000-$70,000 on its most recent tracked sample. The smallest gifts run $4,800-$5,000 (Women Investing in Nebraska, Teamates Mentoring Program, Red Willow Western Rural Fire) — modest annual/general-support checks to small local nonprofits.

The most recent available filing data (2025, via Instrumentl) shows a marked shift: just 3 awards totaling $230,000, with individual grants ranging from $10,000 up to $185,000 — an average award size of roughly $76,667, more than triple the historical average. Total annual giving has climbed steadily and predictably for over a decade: $124,476 (2012) → $133,325 (2018) → $181,581 (2019) → $216,361 (2021) → $240,336 (2023, including $38,000 in officer/admin compensation) → an estimated $230,000 in 2025. Grants paid specifically (excluding overhead) ran $150,000-$170,000 annually from 2021-2024.

The real story behind the numbers is the balance sheet: total assets grew from $2.5 million in 2012 to $6.06 million by year-end 2023 and an estimated $8.3 million by 2025. That growth was not steady investment appreciation alone — it was fueled by two unusually large capital contributions: $1,153,641 received in 2022 and $2,044,558 in 2023, likely reflecting a family liquidity event (business sale, estate transfer, or planned gift) feeding new capital into the corpus. That newly available capital plausibly explains the 2025 jump to fewer, much larger individual awards.

By purpose, the historical grant list breaks down roughly as: community/economic development and community-foundation intermediaries (~58% of dollars, dominated by the Nebraska Community Foundation network), agricultural/FFA education (~12%, including a dedicated "Milstead Endowment" gift line to Nebraska FFA Foundation), Catholic/faith institutions (~11%, St Patrick's Catholic School, Missionary Society of St Columban, Catholic Community Foundation), and a long tail of small local civic and nonprofit grants ($5,000-$30,000 each) in and around McCook.

All five identified peers sit within roughly $8.3-$8.31 million in assets — a remarkably tight cluster, likely a database sampling band rather than a coincidence — and share the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification with no public website on file, mirroring Case Family Foundation's own thin public footprint. This pattern is typical of small, single-family private foundations nationwide: assets in the single-digit millions, no dedicated staff or communications presence, and giving decisions made informally by family trustees rather than through a competitive process. Grant seekers should not expect any of these funders, including Case Family Foundation, to behave like a staffed regional or national foundation with published guidelines; success with this entire peer tier depends on personal introductions and demonstrated local or family-relevant credibility rather than a strong cold proposal.

No dedicated news coverage, press releases, or leadership announcements for Case Family Foundation were found across four targeted searches (grants awarded, application tips, news/announcements, and funding priorities) covering 2025-2026 — the foundation maintains essentially no public communications presence beyond its IRS filings. The foundation's own website of record, case.org, returned an inaccessible/unverifiable result when checked directly and could not be confirmed as belonging to this foundation; applicants should not treat it as an authoritative source.

The most current verifiable activity comes from third-party 990-aggregator data (Instrumentl): in the 2025 filing year the foundation made 3 awards totaling $230,000, with individual grants ranging from $10,000 to $185,000 — notably larger and fewer than its historical pattern of many $5,000-$70,000 checks. In 2024, the foundation made 4 awards totaling $150,000. Leadership has remained stable across all available filings — Perry A. Case (President), Todd A. Case (Treasurer), and Vicky L. Case (Vice President) continue to serve as unpaid officers, with Jacqueline L. Karam as the sole compensated Secretary at $24,000/year, indicating no recent governance changes.

The most significant recent financial development is not a grant announcement but a capitalization event: the foundation received $1,153,641 in contributions in 2022 and $2,044,558 in 2023, nearly doubling its asset base within two years and pushing total assets from roughly $4 million to an estimated $8.3 million by 2025. This capital infusion, rather than any publicized program change, is the most plausible driver of the larger individual award sizes seen in the 2025 data.

This funder does not operate a public application process, so tips here are about how to realistically get on its radar rather than how to fill out a form. First, do not search for or rely on an online portal — none is published in IRS records, and the foundation's on-file website (case.org) could not be verified as belonging to this organization when checked directly. Treat any 'apply online' claim about this funder with skepticism.

Second, geography and cause area are the strongest signals available. Ninety-seven percent of tracked historical dollars ($800,000+ of $826,500) went to Nebraska organizations, almost entirely in and around McCook and Red Willow County. Organizations outside southwest Nebraska have essentially no track record with this funder except a single Scottsdale, Arizona gift tied to a Catholic parish campaign — a likely personal/family connection rather than a replicable pathway. Within Nebraska, the strongest thematic through-lines are: community and economic development (often channeled through the Nebraska Community Foundation's affiliated-fund network, which has absorbed 58% of tracked dollars), agricultural and FFA-related education, and Catholic parish/school institutions.

Third, calibrate the ask. Historically the foundation's typical grant sits between $5,000 and $70,000 (median $10,000), so a first-time, unproven relationship should not open with anything near the $185,000 ceiling seen in 2025 — that scale of award appears reserved for long-standing, trusted recipients like the Nebraska Community Foundation network. A reasonable opening ask for a new applicant is in the $5,000-$25,000 range, calibrated to match the many smaller grants the foundation has made to first-time local recipients (fire departments, mentoring programs, women's giving circles).

Fourth, use the direct contact channel on file rather than searching for a nonexistent digital front door: the foundation's listed contact is '% Terry G Ellinger' at 1311 W I Street, McCook, NE 69001, phone (308) 345-1242. A short, plainly written letter of inquiry — not a polished multi-page proposal — fits this funder's informal, unstaffed operating style far better than a heavily engineered application package.

The most common mistake an applicant could make here is treating Case Family Foundation like a large institutional funder with a review committee and RFP calendar. It is a three-person unpaid family board with one part-time administrator; credibility, local reputation, and a warm introduction will matter far more than proposal polish.