Coombs Family Foundation

Coombs Family Foundation is not a program-driven institutional funder — it is a personal giving vehicle run entirely by three family members (Paul D. Coombs, President; Sallie D. Coombs, Vice-President; Julie Coombs, Director), none of whom draw compensation, and there is no program staff, published mission statement, or focus-area statement on file. The foundation's own record lists its website (coombs.org) as "parked," meaning there is no live grants page, no guidelines, and no online application despite a database flag indicating it is nominally "accepting applications." The application instructions on file simply say to obtain a paper application from the foundation directly, and restrictions note that grants are "focused on needy individuals or organizations" — language typical of a small family trust rather than a competitive grantmaking program.

The grantee list confirms this is a relationship- and geography-driven funder: of 61 tracked grants, 45 went to Texas organizations, concentrated around Montgomery County and the Houston metro area (the foundation's home base), with smaller, likely personal-network gifts to Washington DC (4), Mississippi (3), and Virginia (3). The portfolio spans Texas A&M athletics boosterism (12th Man Foundation, $89,380 across 3 grants), local Catholic/Episcopal parishes, children's hospitals, veterans' causes, and a few national conservative policy organizations (The Heritage Foundation, Judicial Watch) — a spread that reflects the founders' personal interests rather than a defined program strategy.

First-time applicants should not expect a competitive LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; there is no evidence any such process exists. The realistic path in is a direct, personal approach: a phone call to (713) 252-7708 or a letter to Paul Coombs at the foundation's Montgomery, TX address, ideally introduced through an existing relationship with the family, a shared church community, a Texas A&M affinity group, or a Montgomery County nonprofit network the Coombs family already supports (Montgomery County Food Bank, Community Partners of Montgomery County). Cold, unsolicited applications from organizations with no Texas or personal tie to the family are unlikely to be prioritized given the small, recurring grantee list.

Total giving has been volatile year to year rather than steadily growing. Filed 990-PF data shows: FY2018 $90,913, FY2019 $128,632, FY2020 $168,305, FY2021 $268,865 (the outlier year, paired with $246,788 in grants paid), FY2022 $90,681, and FY2023 $95,172. Third-party aggregation of the FY2024 filing puts giving at $68,233 across 25 grants — the lowest total in the six-year window, even as total revenue rose to $279,805 (up from $209,990 in FY2023) on the back of $185,173 in net investment income. Total assets have grown steadily from $1.29M (2018) to $2.43M (2024), suggesting the foundation is compounding its endowment faster than it is distributing it.

Grant sizing is sharply bimodal. The typical_grant_size record shows a median of just $1,000 against an average of $12,339 (range $100-$186,153) — meaning most grants are small, recurring gifts of a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, while a small number of outsized commitments pull the average up. That pattern is visible directly in the grantee data: Land 4 Heroes received $196,153 across just 2 grants (by far the largest cumulative recipient, nearly half of the $397,383 tracked total), while the next 27 recipients each received between $100 and $89,380, with a heavy cluster at or below $5,000 (21 of 28 top recipients).

Geographically, 45 of 61 tracked grants (74%) went to Texas-based organizations, confirming Montgomery/Houston-area giving is the core of the program; Washington DC (4 grants) and Mississippi (3 grants) are the next largest, non-Texas clusters, alongside single grants to California, Colorado, Iowa, New York, and Oregon recipients. By purpose, the largest identifiable categories are veterans/social services (~$202K led by Land 4 Heroes and Wounded Warrior Project), collegiate athletics/scholarships (~$93K led by 12th Man Foundation), and a long tail of health, child-welfare, and faith-based gifts each under $10,000 cumulative — consistent with a personal, cause-by-cause giving style rather than a defined program budget split.

Coombs Family Foundation sits in a large, largely invisible tier of small family foundations that all report roughly $2.4M in assets and file under the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE umbrella — none of the five closest peers by asset size have a discoverable website either, and none publish giving priorities, deadlines, or application processes. This is the norm, not the exception, for foundations at this asset scale: they exist primarily to formalize a family's personal charitable giving and tax planning rather than to run a public grants program. For grant-seekers, the practical implication is that outreach strategy (personal introduction, local ties, family-network connections) matters far more than proposal polish, since none of these funders appear to evaluate cold applications through a competitive process.

No foundation-specific news, press coverage, or public announcements were found for Coombs Family Foundation in 2025 or 2026 — web searches surfaced only unrelated organizations sharing the Coombs name (the Jackson Hole-based Doug Coombs Foundation/Coombs Outdoors, the Edward Taylor Coombs Foundation, and the Jeff Coombs Fund). This is expected for a foundation of this size with no communications function.

The most recent verifiable activity is financial: the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF (data pulled by third-party aggregators, last checked mid-2026) shows total revenue of $279,805, up from $209,990 in FY2023, driven by $185,173+ in net investment income on its roughly $2.4M endowment, while total giving for the year came in at approximately $68,233 across 25 grants — a step down from $95,172 in FY2023 and well below the $268,865 distributed in the FY2021 outlier year. The foundation's internal record shows it was last "web-enriched" on 2026-03-24 and last verified on 2026-06-20, with its listed website (coombs.org) confirmed as a parked domain at that time — meaning there has been no launch of a public grants page or online application in the recent period. Leadership has been stable and unchanged across every filing reviewed (2018-2024): Paul D. Coombs (President), Sallie D. Coombs (Vice-President), and Julie Coombs (Director), all uncompensated. No new program announcements, staff hires, or focus-area pivots were identified.

Because Coombs Family Foundation has no live website, published guidelines, deadline, or online form, standard grant-writing playbooks (compelling LOI, portal submission, aligning with posted priorities) do not apply here — there is nothing posted to align with. The foundation's own file instructs applicants to "fill in application which can be obtained from the sources listed above," which in practice means requesting materials directly rather than finding them online. Treat this as a relationship-first funder: the highest-probability path is a warm introduction through the Coombs family's existing network — Montgomery County, TX nonprofits, Texas A&M University athletics boosters (the 12th Man Foundation is their largest single grantee relationship at $89,380 across 3 gifts), Catholic or Episcopal parish connections, or veterans'-service organizations, since these categories dominate the tracked grantee list.

Direct outreach should go to Paul Coombs at (713) 252-7708 or by mail to 130 April Breeze St, Montgomery, TX 77356. Given that the median tracked grant is only $1,000, applicants should calibrate expectations: most requests that succeed appear to be modest, recurring annual gifts rather than large program grants, and the one outsized commitment on record ($196,153 to Land 4 Heroes across 2 grants) looks like an exceptional, personally-driven decision rather than a repeatable grant size to request. A common mistake would be treating this like a competitive institutional funder and submitting a formal multi-page proposal unsolicited — with no program officer or review committee on record, an unsolicited cold submission from an out-of-state organization with no Texas or personal tie is unlikely to be read, let alone funded. Organizations with an existing Montgomery/Houston-area presence, a personal connection to a board member, or overlap with the family's demonstrated interests (children's health, veterans, Texas A&M, faith communities, child welfare/CASA-type advocacy) have the most realistic shot. Timing appears unstructured — grants are paid out across the year rather than on a fixed cycle — so there is no evidence of an optimal "deadline window" to target; a direct call to ask about timing and process is more useful than guessing.