Cogan Family Foundation Trust

The Cogan Family Foundation Trust (EIN 04-6923387, Boston MA, ~$27M assets, tax-exempt since August 2000) is a private family foundation with no public website and no published grantmaking program — the website listed in the database (cogan.com) belongs to an unrelated Canadian industrial storage-solutions company, so do not use it for outreach. The foundation is directed by trustee John F. Cogan Jr. along with family trustees Mary Cornille, Pamela Cogan Riddle, Gregory Cogan, and Peter G. Cogan. Approach this funder as a closed-circle trustee-directed family trust: there is no RFP, no LOI portal, and no published cause area. Before any outreach, pull the most recent 990-PF from ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (last filing January 2026 for FY ending August 2025, $1.5M in charitable disbursements) and study the Grants Paid schedule to identify (a) existing grantees that overlap with your mission and (b) any pattern in geography, sector, or institutional affiliation. The most productive channel is a warm introduction through an existing grantee or a personal connection to one of the five named trustees. Cold letters to the Boston address (c/o the trustee) have very low conversion — expect single-digit response rates without a relational foothold.

Based on ProPublica 990-PF data, the Cogan Family Foundation Trust made $1,535,741 in charitable disbursements in FY 2025 (year ending August 2025), $1,457,761 in FY 2024, and operates consistently near the 5% IRS minimum payout on its $27M asset base. The trust holds zero liabilities and funds its giving primarily through dividend income (~$610K in FY 2025) and net realized gains on asset sales (~$1.9M in FY 2025) — it does not receive contributions. Grant sizes are not publicly summarized, but typical family trusts of this scale distribute via 15–40 grants per year, clustering in the $5K–$100K range with occasional larger anchor commitments. Geography likely centers on Boston and New England given the trustee addresses, though John F. Cogan Jr.'s biographical ties (if he is the Harvard/Stanford-affiliated economist) could extend giving to Cambridge-area higher education, public-policy think tanks, or hospitals. Cause-area focus is not disclosed publicly — only the 990-PF grants schedule will reveal actual interests. Multi-year commitments are rare in trusts of this size.

The Cogan Family Foundation Trust sits in the Boston/New England family-trust peer cluster — private, trustee-directed, no website. Comparable peers:

Unlike Yawkey or Barr (professional staff, published strategy, transparent LOI process), Cogan Family Foundation Trust operates at the opaque/relational end of the peer cluster — closer to the anonymous small-trust tier. If you're pursuing Boston-area funding and Cogan is a reach, Yawkey Foundation II and Boston Foundation are far more accessible parallel targets; use Cogan as a cultivated-relationship target over 12–24 months, not a primary application target.

Public activity for the Cogan Family Foundation Trust is limited to annual 990-PF filings — no press releases, no website, no staff announcements. The most recent 990-PF was filed January 14, 2026, covering fiscal year ending August 2025. Reported revenue was $2.55M, expenses $1.77M, and charitable disbursements $1.54M (up from $1.46M in FY 2024). Total assets grew to $27.05M (from $26.42M), indicating investment-return-driven growth and not significant new contributions. Trustees John F. Cogan Jr., Mary Cornille, Pamela Cogan Riddle, Gregory Cogan, and Peter G. Cogan all receive zero compensation — this is a purely family-directed, volunteer-trustee structure. No notable governance changes in the 2024-2025 filings. No ProPublica-visible enforcement actions, audit flags, or unusual related-party transactions. The trust appears financially stable and continues to grow its asset base at roughly historical rates.

A strong application to a trustee-directed Boston family trust like the Cogan Family Foundation follows a strict relational playbook. First: download the most recent 990-PF from ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 04-6923387, last filed Jan 14, 2026) and study the Grants Paid schedule — identify which institutions the Cogan trustees already support, because this IS the mission statement. Second: look for a personal connection to one of the five named trustees (John F. Cogan Jr., Mary Cornille, Pamela Cogan Riddle, Gregory Cogan, Peter G. Cogan) through your board, major donors, or existing grantees — in trusts of this size, a warm intro converts 10x better than a cold letter. Third: if you do write cold, keep it to a one-page letter of inquiry mailed to the trustee's attention at the Boston registered address (pull address from the 990-PF Part VIII), include a specific dollar ask ($10K–$50K is the right starting range), and propose a concrete, named outcome. Fourth: do NOT ask for multi-year general operating on a first request — small family trusts rarely commit multi-year. Fifth: expect silence as the default response; do not send more than one polite follow-up. Sixth: if you do land an initial grant, steward the relationship carefully with an annual update and a formal thank-you — repeat giving is the real path to transformational support.