Country Born Foundation

Country Born Foundation is a small, all-volunteer family foundation ($4.03M in assets as of FY2025) run entirely by members of the Kunz family — Lois K. Kunz (President & Treasurer), Donald W. Kunz Jr., Eric Scott Kunz, and director Shevelle L. Behrens — none of whom draw compensation, and the organization reports zero employees. There is no evidence of a formal, competitive grantmaking process: the foundation's own website (countryborn.org) does not currently resolve, no application form, LOI template, deadline, or published guidelines exist anywhere online, and the internal database flags this funder as effectively preselected/invitation-driven rather than open to unsolicited inquiries. Grant seekers should treat this as a relationship-based, hyper-local funder rather than an institutional grants program. Its historical grantee roster — Concord Township Volunteer Fire Department ($599,000), Zane Trace Athletic Boosters ($86,000 across 2 grants), Ross County Humane Society ($50,000), Ross County 4-H ($40,000 across 4 rounds of $1,000 scholarships), North Aquatics Club ($38,000), American Heart Association ($10,000), and Austin Methodist Church ($2,000) — is concentrated almost entirely in Ross County, Ohio, with the family's home base of Frankfort at the center. Ten of thirteen tracked grants went to Ohio recipients versus three in Illinois. The single most realistic path in is a direct, personal connection to a board member or a track record as a known local institution (fire department, school athletic booster club, county fair, church, animal shelter) that the Kunz family already supports. First-time, out-of-area applicants with no local tie should not expect a response to a cold proposal. Organizations that do have a Ross County or south-central Ohio footprint should lead with concrete, tangible capital needs (equipment, facility repair, a specific project with a fixed cost) rather than general operating requests, since the pattern of giving strongly favors discrete, nameable projects (a paving project, an equine facility, scholarships) over multi-year program grants. There is no indication of a site-visit or multi-stage review process — awards appear to be decided directly by the family board.

Total giving has swung sharply year to year rather than following a smooth curve: $646,639 in 2020, a steep drop to $35,078 in 2021 (likely a pandemic-era pause), a partial rebound to $126,538 in 2022, $234,210 in 2023, roughly $224,500 in 2024, and an estimated $350,000 in 2025 driven by one large capital grant. Across the 13 tracked grants in the platform's grantee database (totaling $825,000, averaging $63,462 per grant), award size ranges from as little as $2,000 (Austin Methodist Church parking-lot paving) up to $599,000 (Concord Township Volunteer Fire Department) — a nearly 300x spread that reflects a mix of small annual commitments and rare, large capital gifts rather than a consistent grant tier. The most frequent recurring commitment is the Ross County 4-H scholarship program: 10 scholarships of $1,000 each, repeated across 4 grant cycles for $40,000 total, indicating a standing annual obligation the foundation reliably renews. Mid-size awards cluster around $19,000-$38,000 per grant (Zane Trace Athletic Boosters, North Aquatics Club, Ross County Humane Society), suggesting that is the realistic target range for a typical local nonprofit's ask, rather than the six-figure capital outliers. Geographically, funding is almost entirely Ohio-based (10 of 13 tracked grants) with a smaller Illinois presence (3 grants) that does not appear in the more recent activity. By cause, giving spans public safety (fire department), youth/agricultural education (4-H, athletic boosters), animal welfare, health (American Heart Association), and religion (a single church gift) — a broad, community-service mix typical of a family foundation supporting causes with personal significance rather than a defined program strategy. The foundation's income comes almost entirely from investment returns (dividends and asset sales), with zero contributions received in any recent filing year, meaning its total giving capacity is a function of market performance, not fundraising — a foundation this size (~$4M in assets) distributing $350,000 in a single year is paying out close to 8-9%, well above the 5% private-foundation minimum, in a year with a large capital grant.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all clustered near $4.03M-$4.04M) and shared NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking), not on mission or geography — none publish a website in this dataset, and all read as small, closely-held family or single-purpose funds rather than institutional grantmakers. Country Born Foundation is broadly typical of this tier: a sub-$5M family foundation with no staff, no formal application process, and giving driven by trustee relationships rather than open competition. The practical implication for grant seekers is that success with any foundation in this comparison set depends far more on personal or community connections to the controlling family than on the strength of a written proposal.

The most concrete recent activity is a $250,000 capital grant to the Ross County Fair for equine facility improvements, reflected in the foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF data (per Cause IQ and Instrumentl 990 aggregation) — the largest identified award since the historical $599,000 gift to the Concord Township Volunteer Fire Department. FY2025 total assets stood at $4,034,840 against total revenue of $222,421 and total expenses of $377,249, producing a net loss of roughly $154,828 for the year — consistent with a foundation that is drawing down a portion of its investment gains to fund an unusually large capital grant. Charitable disbursements for FY2025 were $352,057, representing 93.3% of total expenses, indicating minimal administrative overhead (consistent with zero officer compensation and no staff). No leadership changes were found; the same four family members (Lois K. Kunz, Donald W. Kunz Jr., Eric Scott Kunz, Shevelle L. Behrens) have held their board seats across the filing years reviewed. No press releases, news coverage, or social media activity were located for the foundation in 2025 or 2026 — it does not appear to issue public announcements about its grants. The foundation's website (countryborn.org) is currently unreachable (DNS does not resolve), which is itself a notable recent-state finding: whatever web presence the foundation once had (the internal record's mission field contains fragments of Squarespace configuration JSON, suggesting a since-lapsed Squarespace site) is no longer live, further reinforcing that this is an informally run, non-solicitous family fund rather than an actively marketed grants program.

There is no published application process, portal, deadline, or contact email for Country Born Foundation — the domain listed in public records (countryborn.org) does not currently resolve, and Form 990-PF filings list zero staff and zero officer compensation. Practically, this means: (1) Do not wait for or search for an online form — none exists. The only realistic channel is a written letter mailed to the foundation's registered address (3950 County Road 550, Frankfort, OH 45628, c/o Donald W. Kunz per IRS records) or a warm introduction through someone who knows a board member personally. (2) Geography is the single strongest filter: virtually every identifiable grant has gone to a Ross County, Ohio organization (fire department, school athletic boosters, county fair, humane society, 4-H, a local church). Organizations outside south-central Ohio should not expect to be considered absent an unusually strong personal connection. (3) Lead with a specific, nameable capital need rather than general operating support — the funding pattern strongly favors discrete projects with a clear dollar figure (a paving project, an equine facility upgrade, program equipment) over multi-year operating grants. (4) If your organization serves youth through agricultural or athletic programming (4-H, school sports boosters, aquatics), you are aligned with the foundation's most consistent giving category — the Ross County 4-H scholarship award (10 x $1,000, renewed across at least 4 cycles) suggests standing programs with a track record are more likely to be renewed than one-off asks. (5) The most common mistake would be treating this like an institutional foundation with published criteria: sending an unsolicited full proposal via a generic nonprofit-grants email blast is very unlikely to reach the board. Instead, build local visibility first (sponsorships, community events, local press) that might put your organization on the family's radar, since every current grantee is a well-known local institution. (6) Given zero contributions received and giving funded entirely from investment income, be aware that the foundation's total distributable capacity varies year to year with market performance — a proposal timed right after a strong investment year (as 2025 appears to have been, given the $250,000 outlay) may find more capacity than one submitted after a down year.