Craig Young Family Foundation

Craig Young Family Foundation is a closed, relationship-driven vehicle, not a competitive grant program. It is run entirely by the Young family — Craig S. Young (President), Mary E. Young (Secretary), Margaret Young (Trustee), and Robert Buechner (Trustee) — with zero officer compensation reported in every filing available (2012-2024), a strong signal this is a volunteer-run personal giving vehicle rather than a staffed institution with review committees or published guidelines. Third-party funder databases (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io) and the foundation's own posture confirm it funds only preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited proposals or LOIs; its website carries no application portal, guidelines, or contact form. In the most recent grantee data captured (42 grants, $506,663 total), one recipient — 'Inspiring Service' — received $422,955 across just 3 gifts, or 83% of all tracked dollars, indicating the foundation increasingly concentrates its giving around one or two flagship relationships rather than spreading support across a diversified portfolio. The remaining ~40 grants are small (commonly $100-$3,100) and go almost entirely to organizations in the family's home market of Cincinnati, Ohio (36 of 42 tracked grantees), with only scattered gifts to California, Montana, Wisconsin, and DC recipients. Typical grant size across the foundation's broader giving (per its own reported typical-grant-size data) is a median of $1,000, average $3,134, ranging from $25 to $20,000 — this is a foundation of small, personal-network gifts, not large programmatic awards. For grant seekers: there is effectively no cold-application path here. The realistic route in is an existing personal or civic relationship with Craig or Mary Young, or with trustee Robert Buechner, most plausibly through Cincinnati's civic-philanthropy and social-venture-partner ecosystem (the foundation is a repeat funder of SVP Cincinnati and Impact 100, both collaborative-giving circles the Youngs appear personally engaged with). Organizations without a Cincinnati footprint or a warm introduction should treat this foundation as effectively unreachable through formal channels.

Total giving has been volatile and trending downward from a mid-2010s baseline. Filings show total_giving of $370,580 (2013), $354,613 (2014), $339,124 (2015), then a gap in available filings before a reported 2018 peak of roughly $617,398 (per Instrumentl), followed by a sharp contraction to $173,454 (2019), $172,314 (2020), just $83,776 (2021), $284,510 (2022), $295,216 (2023), and $128,387 in the latest available FY2024 filing. Grants paid (a narrower cash-basis figure) follow the same arc: $277,050-$300,736 annually from 2012-2015, dropping to $53,279 in 2021 before partially recovering to $193,054-$259,750 in 2022-2023 and settling at $128,387 (15 grants, ~$8,559 average) in FY2024. Net assets have stayed comparatively stable in the $5.25M-$5.85M range across the same period (currently $5,338,590), meaning payout as a share of assets has itself become inconsistent — from under 1% (2021) to over 5% (2023) — consistent with a foundation making discretionary, non-formulaic distribution decisions year to year rather than following a fixed payout policy. On a per-grant basis, the foundation's own typical-grant-size data reports a median of $1,000 and average of $3,134 across 17 sampled awards, ranging from $25 to $20,000 — the bulk of gifts are small, symbolic-support amounts. Layered against that is the outsized $422,955 (3 grants) to 'Inspiring Service,' which by itself exceeds the foundation's entire annual giving in most years and points to either a multi-year pledge or an affiliated/pass-through vehicle. Geographically, 36 of 42 tracked grantees (86%) are Ohio-based (Cincinnati-area), with single-digit counts in California (2), Montana (2), Wisconsin (1), and DC (1) — despite the foundation's stated geographic_focus tag listing Ohio and New York, the money overwhelmingly stays local. By purpose, all tracked grants in the sample are coded simply 'DONATION' with no program-area breakdown available, reinforcing that this is undirected, relationship-based charitable giving rather than a foundation organized around defined focus areas (health, education, arts, etc.).

All six foundations cluster almost exactly on assets (~$5.3M), which is a function of how this peer set was built (matched by asset size within the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category) rather than a meaningful strategic similarity. None of the five peers maintain a public website, application page, or published grant guidelines, mirroring Craig Young Family Foundation's own closed posture — small family foundations at this asset tier overwhelmingly operate as private, relationship-based giving vehicles rather than institutional grantmakers with open cycles. Grant seekers should expect the same reality across this entire peer tier: cold outreach is unlikely to succeed absent a personal introduction to a named trustee.

No news coverage, press releases, or public announcements specific to Craig Young Family Foundation were found for 2025 or 2026 in this search — the foundation has essentially no media or press footprint, consistent with its closed, volunteer-run structure. The most current verifiable activity is the FY2024 Form 990-PF filing (the latest indexed by ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer and Instrumentl), which reports $145,491 in total revenue, $162,990 in total expenses, a net asset decrease of $17,499, and $128,387 distributed across 15 grants — down from $259,750 across 13 awards in FY2023. Leadership has been stable and unchanged across every available filing: Craig S. Young (President), Mary E. Young (Secretary), Margaret Young (Trustee), and Robert Buechner (Trustee), with no compensation reported for any officer in any year on record (2012-2024), indicating no staff turnover or governance changes to track. Net assets sit at $5,338,590 as of the FY2024 filing, within the foundation's typical $5.25M-$5.85M range over the past decade — there is no evidence of a major capital event, wind-down, or expansion. Absent contact from the foundation directly, grant seekers should treat FY2024's $128,387 in giving, continuing the post-2018 downward trend from a reported $617,398 peak, as the best available signal of current capacity: this is a foundation giving less than half of what it distributed at its high point, likely due to either a deliberate shift toward fewer/larger flagship gifts (see the $422,955 concentrated in 'Inspiring Service') or reduced family involvement in active grantmaking.

There is no formal application process to prepare for: the foundation's application_instructions field is explicitly blank, its website carries no grant guidelines or portal, and independent funder databases (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io) confirm it funds only preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited proposals or LOIs. Do not submit a cold proposal by mail or email — there is no evidence any filing officer or trustee reviews unsolicited requests, and the $0 compensation reported for all four officers across every year on record suggests no dedicated staff time exists for proposal review in the first place. The realistic path to funding is relationship-based: build visibility within Cincinnati's civic-philanthropy network, particularly through Social Venture Partners (SVP) Cincinnati and Impact 100 — both collaborative-giving circles the foundation has funded repeatedly (3 gifts to SVP Cincinnati totaling $18,100; 3 gifts to Impact 100 totaling $6,600) and where Craig Young has direct civic involvement (listed staff/volunteer profile on Cincinnati Cares). Organizations already active in Cincinnati's youth-service, health, and civic-improvement space (Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Give Back Cincinnati, American Red Cross, Boy Scouts' Dan Beard Council, Kindervelt, YWCA Cincinnati, Crayons to Computers, Tri-State Trails) are the closest analog to what this foundation actually funds — a nonprofit resembling one of these, physically based in or serving greater Cincinnati, has by far the best fit. If your organization already has any board, volunteer, or donor overlap with the Young family or trustee Robert Buechner, that personal connection is a far stronger lever than any written proposal. Given the small typical gift size (median $1,000, average $3,134, max $20,000 in the sampled data), applicants should calibrate expectations toward modest, often one-time or annual-renewal support rather than large programmatic grants — the one outsized exception ($422,955 to a single grantee) appears to reflect a unique, long-standing relationship rather than a repeatable funding tier. Because payout timing is discretionary and not tied to a published cycle, there is no known optimal submission window; instead, focus on being visible in the Cincinnati nonprofit community year-round rather than timing an ask to a deadline that doesn't exist.