Charleys Kids Foundation

Charleys Kids Foundation is a small, founder-run corporate-cause foundation, not a professionally staffed grantmaking institution — its entire leadership (President/Executive Director Charley M. Shin, Treasurer Candra Alisiswanto, Secretary Kyu Chang Han) draws zero compensation, and the fund is capitalized by a ten-cent-per-combo-meal checkout donation across Charleys Philly Steaks' 700+ locations. That structure has real implications for applicants: this is a relationship-oriented, high-touch funder operating at modest scale ($11.7M in assets, $874,999 in FY2023 total giving), not a foundation with a large program-officer staff reviewing hundreds of blind applications. The foundation states a strong preference for organizations it can fund on a recurring, monthly basis rather than one-time gifts, explicitly "to stay connected and learn about the difference we are making in the lives of children together" — meaning the ideal applicant is not a one-off project but an established program the foundation can build a multi-year relationship with. Eligibility is narrowly defined: registered 501(c)(3) status, direct delivery of education, food, and/or mentorship to at-risk children at least twice weekly, and — critically — the specific program must already have existed for a minimum of three years. This rules out new pilots and start-up programs entirely; Charleys Kids wants proven, operating programs, not innovation bets. The grantee list bears this out: recipients like Asian-American Community Services (5 grants, $97,239 cumulative), Asia's Hope (5 grants, $86,973), and Elevate Orlando (5 grants, $75,389) show a clear pattern of repeat, near-annual funding to the same organizations rather than one-and-done awards — of the top 50 grantees, the large majority received 3-5 separate grants. First-time applicants should read this as: expect a modest opening grant (the stated range is $500-$10,000, though 990-PF filings show grants up to $29,123), and understand that the real prize is being invited back year after year. The foundation does not fund full program costs, so proposals should clearly show the total program budget and where this grant fits alongside other funding sources.

The foundation's grantmaking has grown steadily but not linearly. Total giving rose from $501,286 (FY2019) to $727,956 (FY2021) to a peak of $950,211 (FY2022), then pulled back roughly 8% to $874,999 (FY2023) even as total assets kept climbing to $10.7M. Cash grants paid (a stricter measure than total qualifying distributions) followed a similar arc: $388,284 (FY2019) → $401,341 (FY2020) → $609,150 (FY2021) → $729,670 (FY2022) → $586,625 (FY2023), roughly a 51% increase over the five-year window despite the 2023 dip. Across the 271 grants captured in filings, the average award is $11,278 and cumulative giving totals $3,056,456. The most recent 990-PF grant schedule (37 grants) shows a median award of $9,708, an average of $10,847, and a range of $650 to $29,123 — confirming that while the foundation's public guidance caps individual grants at $10,000, some grantees receive awards above that threshold, likely reflecting multi-tranche or enhanced commitments to long-tenured partners. One clear outlier is Casa Hogar Friends Of, which received $153,088 across just 3 grants (~$51,000/grant average) — by far the largest per-grant recipient in the dataset and a useful benchmark for what a "flagship partner" relationship can look like. Geographically, giving is concentrated but not exclusive to the foundation's Columbus, Ohio headquarters: Ohio leads with 42 grants, followed by California (34), Washington DC (33), North Carolina (21), and Arizona (20) — a reasonable proxy for both HQ bias and Charleys' restaurant footprint. By program purpose, the two largest categories are mentoring/afterschool support (life-skills mentoring, afterschool tutoring, mentorship programs) and education (college/career prep, academic tutoring), with smaller allocations to food security/nutrition programs and international orphan care (e.g., Rapha House, Asia's Hope, Pathways International). Applicants whose programs blend education and mentorship — rather than a single-issue focus — most closely match the funded pattern.

Charleys Kids Foundation sits in a tight cluster of small, similarly-capitalized private foundations, all classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking (NTEE T20) and all holding roughly $11.7 million in assets — a size band that appears to reflect a shared foundation-formation vintage rather than coincidence. None of the identified peers publish a public giving figure or open application process in available data, which itself is telling: Charleys Kids is comparatively more transparent, publishing explicit eligibility criteria, a grant-size range, and application instructions on its own website, while several peers (M&D Bawabeh, Goldstine Family, Ron and Carole Woods, R&T P Foundation) have no public website at all.

For grant seekers, this comparison is a practical argument for prioritizing Charleys Kids over most of its asset-tier peers: it is the only one in this group with a documented, accessible application process and a track record of recurring, multi-year grants to the same nonprofits, whereas four of the five peers offer no discoverable public entry point at all.

The most substantive recent milestone on record is the foundation's announcement — amplified across Charleys.com, Charleys Franchise communications, QSR Magazine, and Nation's Restaurant News — that it had distributed over $1 million in cumulative grants to more than 60 organizations since January 2021, its largest total to date, with 2022 grants alone reaching an estimated 60,000+ youth. That release named specific grantees including Bright Prospect (serving 2,700+ high school and college students in California), kidsPACK Inc. (weekend food-backpack assistance in Polk County, Florida), and Asian-American Community Services (funding transport for 27 students to a youth health program in Ohio) — all three also rank among the foundation's top cumulative recipients in filing data (Asian-American Community Services alone has received $97,239 across 5 grants). Beyond that announcement, available web sources show no distinct 2025 or 2026 press coverage, new program launches, or leadership changes. Leadership has been stable across the filing history reviewed: Charley M. Shin (President/Executive Director), Candra Alisiswanto (Treasurer), and Kyu Chang Han (Secretary), all uncompensated. The foundation's Candid/Foundation Directory Online profile was refreshed September 3, 2025, with underlying grant data current through December 4, 2024, indicating the foundation continues to file and update routinely even without new press activity. Financially, FY2024 (the most recent year in the data bundle) shows total assets of $11,708,061 and total revenue of $1,591,914, both consistent with continued, steady operation rather than any disruption. Given the absence of confirmed 2025-2026 news, applicants should treat the 2021-2022 grant cohort and the associated named organizations as the best available signal of current funding behavior rather than assume a new strategic direction.

Because Charleys Kids Foundation is run by an unpaid, three-person leadership team out of Charleys' corporate office rather than a dedicated grants staff, treat this as a relationship-first funder: the first move for organizations not already in the pipeline should be a direct, concise email to charleyskids@charleys.com (the contact channel confirmed in company communications) rather than a cold portal submission, even though the foundation states applications can be completed at charleyskids.org. Timing matters — the foundation's own guidance references an annual cycle historically opening in the fall, so plan outreach and materials well ahead of that window rather than in the weeks before an anticipated deadline; because this cycle detail on file is several years old, confirm the current-year opening date directly with the foundation before assuming a specific month. Do not apply with a new or pilot program: the stated eligibility bar requires the specific program to have existed for a minimum of three years and to serve children at least twice weekly, so lead with operating history and consistent service cadence, not innovation or growth potential. Since the foundation explicitly will not fund an entire program budget and prefers monthly (not one-time) giving, structure the ask as a defined, recurring contribution to a specific, already-funded program line — and say so explicitly, echoing the foundation's own stated preference to "stay connected and learn about the difference we are making in the lives of children together." Common mistakes to avoid: requesting funding for general operating support or capital projects (the eligibility language is specific to direct child-facing education/food/mentorship programming), applying without three-plus years of program history, and treating this as a one-time transactional ask rather than the start of a multi-year relationship — filing data shows most top grantees received 3-5 separate grants, so the real strategic goal is securing the first, modest award ($500-$10,000 typical, occasionally up to ~$29,000 for established partners) and then demonstrating impact clearly enough to be renewed annually. Use alignment language mirroring the foundation's own three pillars — education, food, and mentorship — and, where relevant, cite service to at-risk youth ages 8-18 from low-income families, which is the demographic the foundation names directly in its published criteria.