Chase Home Inc.

Chase Home Inc. is not a competitive-RFP foundation; it is a hyper-local, relationship-driven intermediary funder. Nearly all 89 recorded grants ($238,437 total) are tagged "TO SUPPORT THE RENTER EVICTION AVOIDANCE PROGRAM" and were paid directly to landlords, property managers, or the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis on behalf of individual female tenants — not as general operating grants to nonprofits. The organization traces its mission to Hester Chase Ridout's 1886 will and, since the Chase-Lloyd House (a 1769 National Historic Landmark) stopped housing women in 2020 due to structural issues, has redirected roughly $7-8 million in endowment assets toward funding eviction prevention and rehousing rather than running the building itself.

Favored organization types fall into three tiers: (1) individual women and heads of household referred through established legal-aid and social-service partners — Arundel Community Development Services (ACDS) and its Renter Eviction Avoidance Program (REAP), Community Legal Services, Civil Justice, and the "Benevolence Coalition" network of churches and agencies; (2) housing authorities and property managers who receive payments as the payee of record, led by the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis ($107,442 across 5 grants, by far the largest documented recipient); and (3) rare adjacent grants, such as $5,000 to The Light House for general homelessness support and a $1,000 University of Maryland historic-preservation scholarship tied to the Chase-Lloyd House legacy.

There is no public LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, no application form, and no posted deadline (application_process, application_form_url, and funding_cycle are all unset in Chase Home's own filings). Funding instead flows through referral relationships the all-volunteer Board of Trustees — chaired by Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, with President/Vice roles rotating among Nancy Clagett and Stephen Esmacher, Treasurer Mark Grimes, and Secretary Carol Richards — has cultivated since the 2021 partnership with ACDS. First-time applicants should not expect a written decision process; expect instead a phone or email introduction followed by board-level review at typically modest dollar amounts (median recorded grant $2,679, range $500-$107,442 when the outlier Housing Authority payments are included, $500-$8,097 for the typical individual-property grant). Organizations whose mission sits outside Anne Arundel County, outside eviction prevention/rehousing for women, or that seek general operating support rather than a specific rent-gap payment are unlikely to find a fit here.

The clearest financial signal in Chase Home's giving is the gap between its Form 990 "total giving"/qualifying-distribution line and its actual third-party grants line. Total giving (which includes the $515,233 FY2023 program-expense classification tied to the historic Chase-Lloyd House itself) ran $601,695-$719,335 per year from FY2021-FY2023, but the cash grants actually paid to outside recipients (Part XV) were far smaller and have been rising steadily: $0 in FY2019 and FY2020, $26,976 in FY2021, $51,061 in FY2022, and $58,278 in FY2023. That trajectory reflects the organization's pivot from operating a shelter to funding third-party eviction-prevention work.

Across the 89 individual grants captured in the record ($238,437 total, average $2,679), distribution is heavily skewed: the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis alone received $107,442 across 5 grants — 45% of all recorded dollars — while the remaining 88 grants averaged roughly $1,490 and were paid directly to apartment communities and property managers (St. Anne's Parish, $15,000/3 grants; Annapolis Gardens, $8,097/4 grants; Nautilus Point and Southgate Apartments & Townhomes, $7,500/3 grants each; Quiet Waters Landing, $5,500/4 grants) as tenant-designated rent-arrears payments. A single grant went to a different cause entirely — The Light House, $5,000, "TO SUPPORT THE HOMELESS" — and one $1,000 grant funded a University of Maryland historic-preservation scholarship, the only clearly non-housing use of funds in the dataset.

Geographically, funding is 100% Maryland (89 of 89 grants), and in practice concentrated in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County — there is no evidence of giving outside this footprint. On the asset side, total assets declined from $9.6 million (FY2021) to $7.8 million (FY2023), consistent with drawing down the endowment to fund the post-2020 pivot; net investment income remains the dominant revenue source ($304,508 of $403,961 total revenue in FY2023, about 75%), with new outside contributions minor ($42,415 in FY2023). The organization's own typical-grant-size metadata (min $1,000, max $20,976, median $5,000) is drawn from a very small internal sample but is broadly consistent with the individual-property grant range seen in the full grantee list.

Chase Home is by far the smallest active third-party grantmaker among Annapolis-area organizations serving women's housing needs, distributing roughly one-hundredth the cash grant volume of the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County. Unlike CFAAC's open, competitive process, Chase Home is a closed, relationship-based intermediary funder — while The Light House and the YWCA are, like Chase Home historically was, direct-service providers rather than grantmakers, making them better described as complementary partners or grant recipients than as competing funders. Nonprofits seeking Chase Home support are effectively competing for a very small annual pool (under $60,000 in FY2023) concentrated on rent arrears and deposits for individual women, not for general operating or program grants of the scale CFAAC or county government can offer.

In 2025, Chase Home added a fourth funding program, the Community Reinvestment and Repair Commission Eviction Prevention Grant Fund (CRRC-EPP), targeting women in Anne Arundel County communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs. The program was seeded by a one-time $70,000 grant Chase Home received on September 30, 2025, on top of its three existing funds: the Eviction Prevention Program (EPP, run with Community Legal Services), the Emergency Discretionary Fund (EDF, for rapid disbursement via Benevolence Coalition members), and the Rehousing Relief Fund (RRF, covering first month's rent or deposits for unsheltered women).

Chase Home's own reporting cites 2026 impact figures of 78 homeless women and children housed, 44 evictions prevented, 129 children housed, and 73 female clients funded directly, building on a cumulative total since the 2021 pivot of 315 women assisted and 499 children kept stable (average client age 41). On March 19, 2026, the organization is hosting public tours of the Chase-Lloyd House grounds for Maryland Day/Maryland 250; the historic house interior has remained closed since 2020 structural issues forced out its last residents, though the garden is open Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

The Baltimore Banner has reported ongoing, still-unresolved discussions about transferring the vacant Chase-Lloyd House property to the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland — whose bishop, Eugene Sutton, chairs Chase Home's board — a step required by Hester Chase Ridout's 1886 will if the property permanently ceases functioning as a women's refuge. No leadership-change news was found for 2025-2026; the most recent named executive director in available reporting is Heather East (as of a 2021 article), which could not be independently confirmed as current.

Chase Home has no online application, no published deadline, and no formal LOI process — application_process, application_form_url, and funding_cycle are all unset in its own filings, and its website describes accepting referrals through partner organizations rather than open proposals. The single most important tip is therefore to enter through an existing channel: Arundel Community Development Services (ACDS) and its Renter Eviction Avoidance Program (REAP), Community Legal Services, Civil Justice, or a Benevolence Coalition member congregation. Nearly all 89 documented grants were paid directly to landlords or property managers on behalf of a named tenant, so proposals framed as general operating support are a poor fit; proposals framed as a specific rent-arrears, deposit, or first-month's-rent payment for an identified female head of household in Anne Arundel County match the actual grant history far better.

Timing: the FY2023 cash-grants budget was just $58,278, but the new CRRC-EPP fund (seeded with a $70,000 grant received September 30, 2025) suggests expanding capacity for the 2026 grant year — this is a better moment than the prior three years to make an introduction. Because decisions run through an all-volunteer board (chaired by Bishop Eugene Sutton, with Nancy Clagett, Stephen Esmacher, Mark Grimes, and Carol Richards among the officers), expect a slower, more personal decision process than an institutional foundation — a direct phone call (410-263-2723) or email (chasehomeinc@gmail.com) to the board office, addressed to contact Sharon Wimbish, is more effective than a mailed packet.

A common mistake would be treating Chase Home as a general Annapolis-area philanthropy prospect; its grant history shows essentially no giving outside eviction prevention and rehousing for women, with only two documented exceptions ($5,000 to The Light House for homeless services, and a $1,000 University of Maryland historic-preservation scholarship tied to the landmark Chase-Lloyd House). Alignment language should reference the founding 1886 Hester Chase Ridout will and the mission of helping "women overcome hardships, achieve stability and have safe housing" — echoing the organization's own framing signals familiarity with its history rather than a generic ask. Given the small dollar amounts involved (median $2,679, typical individual-property grant $500-$8,000), keep requests modest and specific rather than proposing large multi-year program grants.