Cedar Hill Foundation

Cedar Hill Foundation is a small, closely-held family foundation (EIN 13-3948444, Chicago mailing address c/o Hoffman Mulligan CPAs LLP, no paid staff — all four officers report $0 compensation) whose giving is driven by trustee relationships rather than a published mission or open RFP. The database flags it as "preselected_only" with application instructions literally blank, and web research turned up no application portal, guidelines page, or grants staff — the domain listed for this foundation (cedarhillfoundation.org) actually belongs to an unrelated Hartford, CT cemetery preservation nonprofit, so grant seekers should disregard that URL entirely and not attempt outreach through it. This is a classic "invisible" small private foundation: real, active, and generous within its circle ($747,956-$983,081 given annually over the last five years on file), but structurally not built to receive or evaluate cold applications. With 35 grants totaling $1,621,000 recorded and 17 grants sized $5,000-$90,000 (median $50,000, average $47,706), Cedar Hill favors general-operating, unrestricted support — every recorded grant purpose reads simply "GENERAL PURPOSE" — over restricted program or capital grants. Recipients cluster tightly around institutions with personal or board ties to the Potter Brown/Thieriot/Parsons family: elite New York and Connecticut independent schools (Horizons at New Canaan Country School, Cathedral School of St. John the Divine), New York medical and research institutions (Hospital for Special Surgery, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory), Episcopal churches (Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Church of the Holy Sacrament), and a handful of conservation/wildlife causes (Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Friends of Tusk). Multi-year repeat funding to the same ~15-20 organizations (many appear twice in the top-50 list) indicates this is overwhelmingly a relationship-renewal foundation, not a discovery-oriented one. First-time, unsolicited applicants should treat Cedar Hill as a low-probability target unless they have a genuine board, alumni, or personal connection to one of the four listed officers — Jennifer Potter Brown (President), Julia Thieriot (Vice President), Clare Potter (Secretary), or William Parsons Jr., Esq. (Treasurer) — or sit within its established geographic and institutional footprint (New York, DC, Connecticut, Virginia, Pennsylvania).

Cedar Hill's disclosed typical grant size is $5,000-$90,000 with a median of $50,000 and an average of $47,706 across 17 grants in its most recent full filing year. The broader 35-grant / $1,621,000 dataset (likely spanning multiple filing years) shows an average of $46,314 per grant, essentially confirming that pattern — this is a mid-five-figure funder, not a six-figure lead-gift source, though its single largest cumulative relationships (Hospital for Special Surgery at $165,000 across 2 grants, Saratoga Warhorse Foundation at $160,000 across 2 grants, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute at $140,000 each) show it will fund the same organization repeatedly over time rather than making one-off large gifts. Geographically, giving is concentrated in the New York-Washington corridor: New York leads with 10 of 35 grants, followed by DC and Virginia (6 each), Connecticut (4), Pennsylvania and Texas (3 each), Florida (2), and Oklahoma (1) — matching the foundation's stated geographic_focus of NY, VA, DC, PA, and CT. On assets, total_assets have held remarkably steady in a $12.0M-$14.2M band for over a decade ($12,881,916 in 2011 to $12,718,288 in 2023, currently $12,718,288/$12.72M per the FY2025 filing), meaning payout capacity is unlikely to grow materially absent a major market rally or new contribution — the foundation received $0 in outside contributions in every year on file, so its entire grantmaking is funded by investment returns on a fixed corpus. Total giving (which includes grants plus any administrative/qualifying distributions) ranged from $693,193 (2011) to a high of $983,081 (2021), averaging roughly $800,000-$850,000 across the observed decade, with grants_paid specifically running $650,900-$860,000 per year. By purpose, every single recorded grant in the dataset is coded "GENERAL PURPOSE" (or a filing typo thereof) — there is no program-restricted or capital-campaign language anywhere in the grantee data, reinforcing that this foundation writes unrestricted checks to trusted, recurring partners rather than funding discrete projects.

Cedar Hill sits among a cluster of similarly-sized, similarly-obscure private family foundations classified under the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE category, most with $12.7-$12.8M in assets and no public web presence — a size band where foundations typically operate without staff, without websites, and without open applications.

All five peers cluster within $20,000 of Cedar Hill's asset base ($12.71M-$12.73M) — an unusually tight band that suggests these are all long-established, non-growing family foundations rather than actively fundraising institutions. Only one peer (Scott R Mackenzie Foundation) has a discoverable website; the rest, like Cedar Hill, are effectively invisible online, meaning grant seekers cannot rely on published guidelines for any foundation in this peer set and must instead pursue warm introductions through shared board or institutional networks.

No press releases, news coverage, leadership transitions, or new program announcements for Cedar Hill Foundation turned up in web search for 2025-2026 — consistent with a foundation that has no communications function and does not seek visibility. The only verifiable recent activity is administrative: its FY2025 Form 990-PF filing (available via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) discloses $578,038 in revenue, $872,057 in total expenses, and $747,956 in charitable disbursements against $12,718,288 in net assets, with dividend income ($499,888) supplying 86.5% of revenue and no new contributions received. The four officers of record — Jennifer Potter Brown (President), Julia Thieriot (Vice President), Clare Potter (Secretary), and William Parsons Jr., Esq. (Treasurer) — appear stable across the filing history in the database (some filings list Clare Potter as President and William Parsons Jr. as Secretary/Treasurer in earlier years, suggesting periodic officer rotation among the same small family group rather than external hires). Absent fresh grant-cycle news, the most useful "recent activity" signal for applicants is the multi-year giving trend itself: disbursements peaked in 2021 ($983,081) during a strong investment year (net investment income of $1,056,440) and have since declined toward $748,000-$810,000 as investment returns moderated — a pattern to expect will continue tracking market performance rather than a deliberate strategic pivot, given the foundation draws its entire budget from portfolio income.

There is no formal application process to target: the database's application_instructions field is explicitly blank, there is no application_form_url, and no deadline is on record. Web research confirms this — no grants webpage, LOI portal, or guidelines document exists under the foundation's own name, and the domain sometimes associated with "Cedar Hill Foundation" (cedarhillfoundation.org) actually belongs to a different, unrelated organization (Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation in Hartford, CT); do not submit inquiries there. Given the "preselected_only" designation and the fact that every one of its 35 recorded grants reads "GENERAL PURPOSE" with no restricted programs, this foundation functions as a personal/family giving vehicle for its four officers rather than an institutional grantmaker with review committees or site visits. The single highest-leverage strategy is relationship-building, not proposal-writing: identify whether your organization already has, or can credibly build, a connection to Jennifer Potter Brown, Julia Thieriot, Clare Potter, or William Parsons Jr., Esq. — through board service, alumni ties, medical/patient relationships (Hospital for Special Surgery), Episcopal church affiliation (St. John the Divine parishes), or independent-school communities in the New York/Connecticut corridor. Organizations in the foundation's established geography (New York, DC, Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania) and sectors (hospitals/medical research, independent K-12 education, wildlife/conservation science, Episcopal religious institutions) fit the historical pattern best; a cold applicant far outside that footprint (e.g., unrelated to NY/DC networks) is fighting the base rate. If a connection exists, keep any written material extremely simple — a one-page letter requesting unrestricted general support, mirroring the "GENERAL PURPOSE" framing used in every past grant, is more consistent with this foundation's documented behavior than a detailed program proposal or budget narrative. Common mistake to avoid: treating this like a program-officer-staffed foundation and submitting a formal LOI to a generic info@ address — with zero paid staff and a CPA firm handling compliance, there is no one positioned to triage unsolicited mail. Because payout tracks investment performance (grants fell from $983K in 2021 to $748K by FY2025), timing a first approach for a year following strong market performance may modestly improve odds, but this is a secondary factor behind having a genuine relationship.