Erickson Foundation

The Erickson Foundation is a small, family-operated private foundation based in San Marcos, CA, run entirely by three family trustees — David Erickson (President/Director), Carrie R. Erickson (Secretary/CFO), and Kaitlyn Erickson (Director) — none of whom draw compensation. It has no paid staff, no published grant guidelines, no LOI portal, and no grants-page URL on file, which is the clearest signal of how it operates: relationally, not through open competition. (Note: the domain erickson-foundation.org that surfaces in searches belongs to the unrelated Milton H. Erickson Foundation, a Phoenix, AZ psychotherapy nonprofit — this family foundation has no discoverable public website of its own.) Founded in 2016 with a $600,000 seed contribution, the foundation has built a stable, repeat-donor relationship with a tight cluster of Christian ministries: Hume Lake Christian Camps has received three grants totaling $220,944 (by far its largest and longest relationship), alongside Global Outreach International ($136,000, one grant), Waterstone Church ($100,000), and smaller recurring gifts to Christian Youth Theater, Students International, and the Gideons. Of 18 tracked grants worth $615,664, the large majority (13 of 18) went to California organizations, with smaller clusters in Tennessee (2), Colorado (2), and Mississippi (1) — largely mirroring where trustees or affiliated ministries operate (Hume Lake's camps span CA and other Western states). First-time applicants should understand this is not a foundation that reviews cold proposals against published criteria; it funds organizations already known to the Erickson family, primarily general-operating support (12 of 18 tracked grants are unrestricted "GENERAL OPS" gifts) rather than restricted program grants. The one clear exception is a named "Student International Hardship Grant," suggesting the foundation will occasionally fund a designated sub-program within an existing grantee relationship. Realistic strategy: organizations aligned with evangelical Christian camping, missions, youth ministry, or church-planting in California (or with an existing relationship to Hume Lake's network) have the best odds; a warm introduction through a shared ministry contact is far more likely to succeed than a written LOI to a P.O. box.

Across the 18 grants captured in available data ($615,664 total), the average grant is $34,204, but this average is skewed by outsized anchor gifts — the true distribution is bimodal. Large relationship gifts run from $100,000 (Waterstone Church) to $136,000 (Global Outreach International) and cumulative multi-year support to Hume Lake Christian Camps ($220,944 over three grants, individual gifts likely $60K-$100K+ each). Smaller, more typical gifts cluster from $3,000 (Child Evangelism Fellowship of SoCal) to $22,500 (Helping Hands), with the foundation's own reported "typical grant size" for its most recent filing year showing a median of just $7,500 (range $500-$38,140, average $11,690, n=6) — indicating recent-year giving has skewed toward smaller, more numerous gifts than the historical average. By purpose, unrestricted general operating support dominates: 12 of 18 tracked grants (66%) are coded "GENERAL OPS," with only one designated program grant identified (the Students International hardship fund). Geographically, California receives 72% of tracked grants (13 of 18), with Tennessee, Colorado, and Mississippi splitting the remainder — a footprint that tracks the foundation's stated geographic focus of CA and TN. On the balance sheet, total assets have climbed steadily: $3,481,585 (FY2019) to $3,626,592 (FY2020) to $3,582,857 (FY2021) to $3,358,860 (FY2022) to $3,272,000 (FY2023) to $3,727,125 (FY2024) to $4,447,446 (FY2025, per web filings) — a net gain despite genuine giving volatility. Annual distributions have swung from a low of $70,140 (FY2021, pandemic-era pullback) to highs of $253,555 (FY2020) and $268,038 (FY2022), settling around $220,000-$240,000 in FY2023 and FY2025. A large one-time contributions inflow of $425,813 landed in FY2023, suggesting an additional family gift to the corpus rather than a change in payout policy — the foundation is not spending down, it is growing its base while maintaining roughly 5-7% annual payout, near the IRS-mandated 5% minimum for private foundations.

The Erickson Foundation sits in a cohort of similarly-sized, Human Services-coded family/private foundations, none of which have published websites or disclosed application processes in available data — a pattern typical of foundations in the $4-4.5M asset range, which are almost always closed, relationship-driven funders rather than open grantmakers.

The entire peer set clusters within a $35,000 asset band of one another ($4.41M-$4.45M) and shares the Human Services NTEE code, but none has a public grants portal in the data reviewed — reinforcing that foundations at this asset tier typically fund a small, known circle of grantees rather than run competitive cycles. Erickson's distinguishing trait within this peer group is its explicit faith-based/Christian ministry concentration (camps, missions, church planting), whereas peer foundations' specific sub-focus within Human Services is not disclosed in available records — an applicant fitting Erickson's evangelical/parachurch profile has a narrower but clearer path than with the less-documented peers.

No primary-source news, press releases, or leadership changes were found for the Erickson Foundation in 2025-2026 — expected for a three-person family foundation with no communications function. The most current verifiable activity is financial: the foundation's IRS Form 990 data (aggregated by Instrumentl and Cause IQ, last processed around April 12, 2026) shows total assets of $4,447,446 for the 2025 filing year, up from $3,727,125 the prior year, with total revenue of roughly $1,010,179 against total expenses of about $239,510 — implying a large non-grant revenue event (likely investment gains or a new family contribution) rather than a change in grantmaking pace. Distributions for the 2025 filing year are reported at six to nine grants totaling approximately $220,000, consistent with the foundation's multi-year giving band of $210,000-$270,000 (excluding the pandemic-affected FY2021 low of $70,140). Leadership has been stable throughout the available record: David Erickson (President/Director), Carrie R. Erickson (Secretary/CFO), and Kaitlyn Erickson (Director) appear unchanged across all filings reviewed, with zero reported officer compensation in every year on file. No new program areas, named initiatives, or public grant cycles have been announced. Grantseekers should treat this foundation's activity pattern as steady-state: continued support for its existing Christian ministry and human-services partners, gradual asset growth, and no indication of an upcoming shift toward open or competitive grantmaking.

There is no published RFP, LOI process, deadline, or online application portal for the Erickson Foundation — treat any site claiming to offer one as unverified, since the erickson-foundation.org domain that surfaces in web searches actually belongs to an unrelated psychotherapy-training nonprofit (the Milton H. Erickson Foundation of Phoenix, AZ), not this San Marcos family foundation. Given the total absence of a public intake process, the realistic path in is relational, not procedural: identify whether your organization has any existing tie to Hume Lake Christian Camps, Global Outreach International, Waterstone Church, Students International, the Gideons, or Christian Youth Theater — the foundation's most repeated grantees — since referrals within this network are the most plausible route to a first conversation. Because 66% of tracked grants are unrestricted general-operating support, lead any outreach with your organization's core mission and financial health rather than a narrow project pitch; this is a funder that backs organizations, not proposals. Align language explicitly with evangelical/parachurch ministry framing (camping ministry, international missions, youth discipleship, church planting) — every identifiable grantee sits within this frame, and secular human-services language alone is unlikely to resonate absent a faith-based angle. Given zero paid staff, do not expect a program officer, site visit process, or formal review calendar; direct contact should go to the foundation's registered address (197 Woodland Pkwy, Ste 104 PMB 502, San Marcos, CA 92069) via a brief, personal letter of introduction rather than a full grant application packet, ideally with a mutual-connection reference named up front. The most common mistake would be treating this like a large institutional funder — submitting an unsolicited, generic LOI to the mailing address with no relational context is unlikely to get a response given the family's demonstrated pattern of funding only organizations it already knows. Given typical individual gift sizes now trending toward a $7,500 median (down from historical averages skewed by six-figure anchor gifts), right-size the ask: most realistic first-time requests should fall in the $5,000-$25,000 range rather than assuming access to the foundation's largest historical gifts.