Cronin Foundation

The Cronin Foundation is a small, uncompensated-board family foundation (all six officers — President Mark O'Connell, Vice President David J. DeGraw, Secretary/Treasurer Ronald J. DeGraw, and board members Joseph Caron, Becky Jones, and James Schwartz — list $0 compensation) operating a tightly bounded geographic mandate: the Marshall School District and Calhoun County, Michigan, per the restrictions written into the foundation's governing will. Every one of the 66 grants in the dataset went to a Michigan recipient, and the grantee list reads like a roster of Marshall's core civic institutions: the local hospital, city government, public schools, community college, and a handful of youth-serving and arts nonprofits. This is not a foundation built for broad, out-of-area competition — it is a hyper-local funder that rewards organizations already embedded in the Marshall/Calhoun community. First-time applicants should not expect a competitive open RFP process; instead, expect a relationship-driven, application-form-based process with a quarterly board meeting cadence. The 990 lists an application deadline of "the 1st day of the month of the Quarterly Meeting," waived for good cause — signaling a foundation willing to be flexible for a compelling, time-sensitive need. Because officer compensation is zero and the foundation reports no fundraising or outreach infrastructure, seekers should expect a lean, low-bureaucracy grantmaking operation run largely through the DeGraw family's law practice (Schroeder DeGraw, PLLC) rather than a staffed program office. The strongest path in is a direct, specific written application — what the project is, where it will happen, how it will be executed, the timeline, the total budget, other funding sources lined up, and proof of 501(c)(3) status — mailed or phoned in ahead of a quarterly meeting date. Grantee data shows the foundation is comfortable making multi-year, multi-grant commitments to the same organization (Oaklawn Hospital received 7 separate grants over several years totaling $1.43M; Marshall Public Schools received 7 grants totaling $634,560), so organizations that can demonstrate a track record of responsible stewardship of prior gifts — or that can point to a natural first "starter" project — have a real advantage over one-off newcomers.

Cronin's grantmaking is modest but steady: total giving has risen from $650,004 in FY2014 to $951,714 in FY2023, with grants paid of $888,435 in FY2023, $849,370 in FY2022, and $765,000 in FY2021. Against a relatively flat asset base — $12.4M in 2014 versus $12.1-12.2M in 2023-2024 — this represents a payout ratio near 7.8% of assets, well above the 5% federal minimum, meaning the board is actively distributing investment income (net investment income of $929,656 in FY2023 funded nearly all of that year's $1.01M in total revenue) rather than building the corpus. Contributions received are consistently $0 in most years, confirming Cronin is a closed, endowment-only foundation with no active fundraising. Per the foundation's own reported typical grant size, awards range from $3,000 to $400,000 with a median of $20,000 and an average of $63,750 — a wide spread that reflects both small one-off equipment grants and large multi-year capital commitments. Looking at cumulative grantee totals in the dataset (66 grants, $4,133,675 total, averaging $62,631 per grant), funding concentrates heavily among a few anchor institutions: Oaklawn Hospital alone accounts for $1,432,000 (34.6% of the tracked total) across 7 grants for programs like the "80 Years of Caring" campaign and its food program; the City of Marshall follows at $671,500 (16.2%) across 6 grants for park, public-safety, and downtown-activation projects; and Marshall Public Schools at $634,560 (15.4%) across 7 grants for band uniforms, industrial-arts equipment, and a school nurse/COVID program. Kellogg Community College received $400,000 (9.7%) across two grants for its Eastern Academic Campus expansion, and Starr Commonwealth received $200,000 (4.8%) for youth resilience programming. Together, these top five grantees absorb roughly 81% of tracked giving, leaving the remaining ~19% spread across smaller nonprofits — youth organizations (Battle Creek Family YMCA, $100,000; Boy Scouts, $10,000), arts and culture (Kids 'N' Stuff Children's Museum, ~$115,000 combined; Franke Center for the Arts, $50,000; Brass Band of Battle Creek, $70,000), and civic/historic groups (Marshall Historical Society, $40,000; Calhoun County Agricultural Society, $40,000). By geography, funding is 100% Michigan, and effectively 100% Calhoun County/Marshall-area, consistent with the will's restriction language.

Cronin operates in a dense cluster of Calhoun County philanthropy, and applicants should think of it as one funding source among several to be sequenced or combined rather than pursued in isolation.

At $12.2M in assets, Cronin is the smallest of this peer set by a wide margin next to Battle Creek Community Foundation's $130M, yet its giving-to-asset ratio (~7.8%) is more aggressive than a typical community foundation's, meaning it punches above its size on annual output relative to corpus. Its hyper-local, will-restricted mandate (Marshall School District specifically, not just Calhoun County broadly) also makes it more narrowly targeted than Binda or Battle Creek Community Foundation, both of which serve the wider county — organizations physically based in Marshall itself have the cleanest fit here, while Calhoun County organizations outside Marshall proper may find Binda or the community foundations a better primary target.

Cronin Foundation maintains an unusually low public profile: no press releases, board-change announcements, or grant-cycle updates for 2025-2026 surfaced in web search, and the foundation's own website (croninfoundation.org) currently displays only a "Launching Soon" placeholder with an email signup and contact form — no mission statement, program pages, or application portal are live as of this research (July 2026). This is itself a notable data point for applicants: the foundation is either mid-rebuild on its web presence or has never prioritized one, reinforcing that the paper/phone application channel through Schroeder DeGraw, PLLC remains the operative path in. The most recent verified financial data on file is FY2024 (total assets $12,230,953, total revenue $1,115,364) and FY2023 (grants paid $888,435, total giving $951,714), both filed via IRS Form 990-PF. No leadership changes are evident — the same six officers (O'Connell, the two DeGraws, Caron, Jones, Schwartz) recur consistently across the multi-year officer listings in the data, suggesting a stable, long-tenured board. The clearest "recent activity" signal in the broader Calhoun County funding ecosystem is Ford Community Relations' $1.31M gift via its BlueOval Engagement Fund to the Albion, Marshall, and Battle Creek community foundations — while Cronin was not a direct recipient, it demonstrates active corporate philanthropic interest in the exact same Marshall/Calhoun geography Cronin serves, and grantees may find it useful to pursue blended funding from Cronin alongside these community-foundation channels.

Because Cronin has no online application portal, start with a phone call to (269) 781-9851 or a written letter addressed to Ronald J. DeGraw at Schroeder DeGraw, PLLC, 203 E. Michigan Ave., Marshall, MI 49068, to confirm the foundation is currently reviewing requests and to get the exact quarterly meeting date your application needs to precede — the 990 states the deadline is "the 1st day of the month of the Quarterly Meeting," which moves through the year, so do not assume a fixed annual date. Build the application around the five required elements the foundation's own filing specifies: what the project/program is, where it happens, how it will be carried out, when it will happen, and the total budget with other confirmed sources of income — incomplete budgets or vague timelines are the likeliest reason a request stalls with a board this administratively lean. Always attach proof of 501(c)(3) status; the foundation explicitly lists this as a requirement, and municipal or school-district applicants (which make up a large share of past grantees, like the City of Marshall and Marshall Public Schools) should instead cite their governmental tax-exempt status directly. Geographic eligibility is not a soft preference but a hard restriction written into the founding will — confirm your organization or project physically serves the Marshall School District or Calhoun County before applying; organizations outside that footprint are very unlikely to be funded regardless of mission fit. Grant purposes in the historical data lean toward concrete, budgeted capital needs (equipment, vehicles, facility repairs, program expansion) rather than abstract general operating requests, so frame the ask as a specific, costed project wherever possible — even hospital and school grants in the dataset are broken into named initiatives ("Food Program," "School Nurse/COVID Programs") rather than lump-sum general support. Don't be discouraged by third-party grant directories (Instrumentl, Cause IQ) that flag Cronin as not accepting unsolicited requests — that characterization conflicts with the foundation's own IRS filing, which lays out a standard application process; verify current posture directly rather than relying on the directory listing. Given the small uncompensated board and modest overhead, expect a personal, relationship-oriented review rather than a formal staffed screening process — a warm introduction or an existing relationship with the DeGraw family's practice or a current grantee (Oaklawn Hospital, City of Marshall, Marshall Public Schools) may meaningfully help a first-time applicant get on the board's radar.