Do It Best Foundation Inc.

Do It Best Foundation Inc. is a young corporate foundation — established in 2019 by Do It Best, the Fort Wayne-based hardware and lumber cooperative — operating under the guiding philosophy "Serving others as we would like to be served." It is not an endowed grantmaker living off investment returns; FY2023 filings show contributions received of $1,180,036 against net investment income of just $28,722, confirming this is a pass-through corporate-giving vehicle funded by parent-company, vendor, and staff contributions rather than a large endowment. The Foundation favors small, locally embedded direct-service nonprofits over research institutions or national organizations: of 99 tracked grants totaling $867,558, 80 (81%) went to Indiana organizations clustered around the Fort Wayne headquarters, with the remainder spread thinly across Illinois, Oregon, Texas, Nevada, Ohio, South Carolina, and Arizona — mirroring Do It Best's distribution-center footprint. Grants are overwhelmingly coded "GENERAL SUPPORT," so proposals should emphasize flexible, tangible community impact rather than narrowly scoped research or advocacy agendas. There is no formal LOI-to-full-proposal ladder or documented site-visit tradition; applicants submit directly into a quarterly review cycle managed by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne (CFGFW), which the Foundation partnered with to streamline intake. The relationship progression that does exist is repeat funding: Turnstone Center for Children (3 grants, $35,415), Mustard Seed Furniture Bank (4 grants, $18,500), the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims (4 grants, $12,500), Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne (3 grants, $30,000), St Joseph Missions (3 grants, $30,705), and Ronald McDonald House Charities (3 grants, $20,800) all show the Foundation returning to proven local partners across multiple cycles rather than one-off giving. The board is composed entirely of senior Do It Best executives — CEO Dan Starr, President Nick Talarico, CFO Doug Roth, and General Counsel Gary Furst — with day-to-day grantmaking run by Executive Director Curtis Smith (appointed October 2024). First-time applicants should treat this as a lean, corporate-adjacent funder: confirm geographic eligibility first, lead with a concrete, near-term community benefit tied to a town where Do It Best has a facility, and expect a fast, low-friction quarterly decision rather than a drawn-out cultivation process.

Total giving has grown roughly 40-fold in four years: $16,520 (FY2019) → $150,949 (FY2020) → $114,219 (FY2021) → $329,336 (FY2022) → $647,499 (FY2023). Grants actually paid out track the same climb — $0, $136,400, $63,205, $168,215, and $467,923 respectively — while total assets grew from $75,581 to $1,582,932 over the same span (the Foundation's current listed asset base is roughly $2.76 million, implying continued growth into FY2024-25). Revenue is almost entirely contribution-driven rather than investment-driven: FY2023 contributions of $1,180,036 dwarfed net investment income of $28,722, underscoring that Do It Best's corporate and vendor giving — not portfolio returns — funds the grant pool. The Foundation's own reported "typical grant size" for its standard quarterly cycle is a median of $5,000 (average $6,495, range $1,400-$15,000, n=21) — the tier a first-time applicant should expect. But the fuller historical grantee ledger (99 grants, $867,558 total, average $8,763) shows the real range extends much higher for flagship partners: a single $150,000 general-support grant to Neighborhood Health Clinics Inc, $50,000 each to Fort Wayne Zoological Society and Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne, and $48,000 to Pray Fort Wayne. Web research confirms this pattern continuing in 2025, with American Red Cross receiving $115,104 and Fort Wayne Children's Zoo $50,000, plus a separate $100,000 flagship gift to Ronald McDonald House Charities tied to the Foundation's Cookin' Fort Wayne fundraising event — distinct from the standard quarterly grant pool. Geographically, of 99 tracked grants: Indiana 80 (largely Fort Wayne/Allen County), Illinois 4, Oregon 4, Texas 4, Nevada 3, Ohio 2, South Carolina 1, and Arizona 1 — an 81% Indiana concentration despite ten eligible states. By cause, funding clusters around health and disability services (Turnstone Center $35,415, GiGi's Playhouse $20,000, Healthier Moms and Babies $10,000), housing and basic needs (Habitat for Humanity $30,000, Blessings in a Backpack $20,000, Mustard Seed Furniture Bank $18,500), youth development (TeenWorks $15,000, The Crew Youth Center $6,000), and arts/community institutions (Arts United $50,000, Science Central $12,500). Roughly a quarter of tracked grantees received multiple awards across cycles, indicating sustained-partner funding rather than a purely one-time-gift model.

Do It Best Foundation sits in an asset tier nearly identical to its five closest database peers (all roughly $2.76-2.77M), but it is functionally in a different category of grantmaker: it is the only one in this peer set with a live website, a published quarterly application calendar, a named Executive Director, and a documented, growing grant flow (from under $17K to over $647K annually in four years). The peer foundations appear to be small family or estate-linked trusts with no discoverable public grant programs, meaning Do It Best is comparatively far more accessible to unsolicited nonprofit applicants despite similar balance-sheet size — a corporate-giving structure rather than a private family trust drives that difference.

Curtis Smith was appointed Executive Director in October 2024, formalizing professional management of a grants program previously run informally by Do It Best's own corporate officers. On 2025-10-14, the Foundation publicly announced more than $115,000 in new grants, pushing its cumulative giving since 2019 past $2 million. Roughly three months earlier (2025-07-01 reporting), a Q2 2025 round distributed about $93,000 nationally, including a $10,000 grant to The League in Fort Wayne. Separately, the Foundation's largest single 2025 disbursements on record include $115,104 to American Red Cross, and $50,000 each to Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne and Fort Wayne Children's Zoo — grants that sit well above the Foundation's typical $5,000-$20,000 quarterly range, suggesting they are treated as flagship or event-linked gifts. The Foundation's Cookin' Fort Wayne fundraising event has also culminated in a marquee $100,000 gift to Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Indiana, run alongside — not instead of — the standard quarterly grant cycle. As of this report, the Foundation is accepting applications for its current giving cycle through September 25, 2026 (Q3 2026), with the next cycle opening October 19, 2026. No leadership departures, funding pauses, or negative news were found in this research; all recent coverage reflects steady, expanding grantmaking activity consistent with the Foundation's five-year growth trend in the underlying financial filings.

Apply through the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne's GrantInterface portal, which the Foundation uses to manage intake and quarterly review — do not attempt to apply directly on doitbestfoundation.org beyond the informational pages. Confirm geographic eligibility before drafting anything: applicants must be 501(c)(3) organizations located in or near one of ten specific Do It Best hub cities — Fort Wayne, IN; Dixon, IL; Sikeston, MO; Mesquite, NV; Montgomery, NY; Medina, OH; Woodburn, OR; Lexington, SC; Milbank, SD; or Waco, TX — communities where Do It Best employees actually live and work; this is the single most common disqualifier. Time submissions to the 2026 quarterly windows (Q1: Jan 5-Mar 6; Q2: Apr 6-Jun 12; Q3: Jul 6-Sep 25; Q4: Oct 19-Nov 20), all closing at 4:30 PM ET sharp, with decisions typically issued within about four weeks of the deadline — submit early in the window rather than at the last hour given the hard cutoff. Anchor the request in one of the Foundation's four stated buckets — The Community, Youth Enrichment, Health & Wellness, or The Arts — and frame the ask as direct, tangible community benefit (equipment, program materials, project costs) since salaries, general operating expenses, product donations, and raffle prizes are explicitly excluded from funding. Calibrate the request size to the evidence: the Foundation's own reported typical grant is a $5,000 median (range $1,400-$15,000), and most first-time or mid-size grantees in the historical data land between $5,000 and $20,000; six-figure or $50,000 gifts (Neighborhood Health Clinics Inc at $150,000, Arts United and the Zoo at $50,000 each, American Red Cross at $115,104) appear reserved for long-tenured, high-visibility community institutions or flagship-event partners, not new applicants. Explicitly reference the local Do It Best workforce connection in the narrative — it echoes the Foundation's own eligibility language and signals genuine local fit. Build for the long game: nearly a quarter of tracked grantees (Turnstone Center, Mustard Seed Furniture Bank, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fort Wayne, the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims, St Joseph Missions, Ronald McDonald House Charities) received repeat grants across multiple cycles, so a modest first award followed by continued reporting and relationship-building is a realistic path to larger future support. If eligibility or focus fit is unclear, email info@doitbestfoundation.org directly before submitting rather than risking a wasted cycle.