Evertrust Foundation

Evertrust Foundation is a lean, one-employee, invitation-only company-sponsored foundation — its own IRS filing checks the box confirming it "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations" and its 990 record marks `preselected_only: true`. First-time applicants should not expect an open portal, RFP calendar, or online form: the foundation's own website (evertrustfoundation.org) is a bare landing page reading "Building Trust, Empowering Communities" with nothing beyond an email sign-up field, and every third-party aggregator (Instrumentl, GrantStation, Candid) independently confirms no published guidelines exist. This is a legacy bank-affiliated foundation (linked historically to Everett Mutual Savings Bank/Everett Trust Bank, ruling date October 1991) run by Executive Director/Secretary Mary B. Sievers, the sole compensated staff member ($114,600 in FY2023), alongside an unpaid volunteer board of directors and officers (President Nancy Kniest, Treasurer Robert W. Bauer, Secretary-Treasurer Thomas J. Gaffney, and several co-vice presidents and directors).

The realistic path in is relationship-based, not application-based. Of 199 tracked grants totaling $3,586,220, the great majority went to a stable roster of ~40-45 recurring Snohomish County nonprofits that have received multiple awards across several years — Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County (10 grants, $180,000), Volunteers of America Western Washington (6 grants, $170,000), and Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center (6 grants, $165,000) top the list. New organizations should not cold-submit a full proposal; instead, initiate contact by phone at (425) 339-1286 or a short letter of introduction addressed to Gaffney or Sievers, ideally with a warm introduction from a current grantee or board member, since directors like Kathy Atwood, Larry Hanson, Sarah Duncan, Ross Rettenmier, and Bill Rucker are drawn from the local Everett/Snohomish civic and banking community. Once a relationship is established, the typical progression is an annual or near-annual operating grant (median $15,000-$18,000) that can grow over time, occasionally punctuated by a larger one-time capital gift — Imagine Children's Museum received $145,000 across 3 grants, including a capital campaign contribution. Expect a long runway: this is a foundation built for sustained local partnerships, not one-off project funding.

Across 199 recorded grants, Evertrust Foundation has distributed $3,586,220 at an average of $18,021 per grant. The foundation's own typical-grant-size data (most recent reporting year, n=40) shows a median of $15,000, an average of $20,033, and a range from $2,500 to $100,000 — a wider ceiling than the $40,000 cap cited by some aggregators, reflecting the occasional large capital or campaign gift layered on top of routine operating support. All 199 tracked grants went to Washington-state recipients (100% WA concentration), and grantee names confirm the geography is tightly Snohomish County/Everett-centered.

Grantmaking splits into two clear tiers. Tier one is a set of roughly two dozen anchor partners receiving repeated, multi-year support: Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County ($180,000/10 grants for basic operations, phone system replacement, and general operating costs), Volunteers of America Western Washington ($170,000/6 grants for hunger prevention and food distribution), Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center ($165,000/6 grants), Homage Senior Services ($160,000/5 grants, entirely for Meals on Wheels), Boys and Girls Club ($155,500/9 grants spanning Kids Cafe, summer camp, and health programs), and Imagine Children's Museum ($145,000/3 grants, including a capital campaign). Human services (domestic violence, senior/meals programs, child advocacy, homelessness prevention, behavioral health) dominate this tier, with youth development and education-adjacent programs (Everett Public Schools Foundation, Everett Community College Foundation scholarships) as a secondary theme.

Tier two is a broad annual "Christmas Gift" tradition — the phrase appears in the purpose field for more than 20 different recipients, typically layered as a small add-on ($500-$5,000 range implied by grant counts) alongside a larger program grant, spreading holiday-season goodwill widely across the nonprofit community rather than concentrating it.

Foundation-level giving has declined from a pandemic peak of $1,371,515 (FY2020, when emergency COVID response drove both revenue and payout) to $739,114 (FY2023), while total assets slid from $8.4M (2019) to $6.8M (2023) — consistent with a closed-corpus foundation (contributions received: $0 every year on record) drawing down modestly rather than growing.

Evertrust Foundation occupies the small end of Washington's private-foundation landscape: a sub-$7M-asset, single-staff, invitation-only funder concentrated entirely in Snohomish County. It sits alongside a mix of larger invitation-only health/human-services funders and mid-sized community and family foundations that Snohomish County nonprofits also compete for.

(Peer asset and giving figures are rounded approximations from general public-filing knowledge, not sourced from the same 990 pull as Evertrust's figures, and should be treated as directional scale references rather than precise benchmarks.)

The practical takeaway: Evertrust is roughly 1/20th to 1/30th the asset size of the region's larger invited-only health and human-services funders, meaning its grants stay concentrated in the $2,500-$100,000 band rather than the six-figure-plus awards those larger peers can make. Unlike Kongsgaard-Goldman or the Community Foundation of Snohomish County, it offers no open LOI or competitive cycle at all — its closest process analog is Satterberg or Stewardship's relationship-driven, invitation model, just at a fraction of the giving capacity and with a purely local (not regional) geographic lens.

The most recent third-party filing data (2024, via Cause IQ) shows Evertrust Foundation's total revenue jumping 491.9% to $790,308, driven almost entirely by a one-time $605,709 gain from the sale of a non-inventory asset — likely a portfolio rebalancing rather than new contributions, since the foundation has recorded $0 in contributions received in every year on file. Investment income grew a more modest 13.7% to $184,599, and total assets stood at $6,848,569 as of the most recent snapshot, roughly flat versus the FY2023 DB figure of $6,781,982.

On the grants side, Cause IQ counts 56 grants in the 2024 cycle while Instrumentl's read of the same filing period counts 40 grants totaling $511,700 (average $12,793) — the discrepancy likely reflects different fiscal-year windows or how each aggregator counts split/multi-purpose grants to the same recipient. Named recent awards include $25,000 to Homage Senior Services for its Meals on Wheels program, $25,000 to Project Access Northwest for specialty medical care access, and $25,000 to Volunteers of America for a March Against Hunger campaign — all continuations of long-standing relationships visible in the multi-year grantee history (Homage alone has received 5 grants totaling $160,000 over time).

No leadership changes surfaced in the search: Mary B. Sievers continues as Executive Director/Secretary, with compensation rising modestly year over year ($102,600 in 2020 to $114,600 in 2023, and roughly $117,600 per the 2024 filing). A City of Everett archive page references an EverTrust Foundation grant that helped launch the city's Streets Initiative, though the archived PDF could not be fully parsed for the exact date or dollar amount. No new program announcements, name changes, or website relaunches were found — the foundation's public-facing presence remains minimal and unchanged.

Because Evertrust Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications — its own 990 filing marks it as funding "preselected charitable organizations" only — the standard grant-writing playbook (find the RFP, meet the deadline, submit the form) does not apply here. Success depends on relationship-building and being visible to a small, locally embedded board and a single staff decision-maker.

Start with a direct human contact, not a portal search: call (425) 339-1286 or send a concise letter of introduction to PO Box 1245, Everett, WA 98206, addressed to Secretary-Treasurer Thomas J. Gaffney or Executive Director Mary B. Sievers. Because the board is composed of Everett-area civic and banking figures (President Nancy Kniest; Co-Vice Presidents Tom Collins and Margaret Bavasi; Directors Kathy Atwood, Larry Hanson, Sarah Duncan, Ross Rettenmier, and Bill Rucker), a warm introduction through a current grantee, a Snohomish County United Way partner, or a mutual board connection will do more than a cold outreach ever could.

When you do get a conversation, lean on language that mirrors what this funder actually pays for: "basic operations," "unrestricted general operating support," and named direct-service programs (Meals on Wheels, child advocacy, domestic violence shelter operations, homelessness prevention, food distribution) rather than research, advocacy, or national-scope asks — every one of the top 10 grantees is a Snohomish County direct-service nonprofit. Grant sizes cluster tightly: request in the $10,000-$25,000 range for a first ask (the median is $15,000), and reserve larger $50,000+ capital-campaign-style requests for once a multi-year relationship exists, as Imagine Children's Museum's $145,000 capital gift illustrates.

Common mistakes to avoid: submitting a generic LOI to an email address (none is published — `contact_email` is blank in public records and the website offers only a marketing sign-up form, not an inquiry channel); assuming a large ask will be considered on a first contact; and pitching programs outside Snohomish County, since 100% of tracked grants stayed in-state and the foundation's geographic focus is explicitly WA/Everett. Because giving is modest ($739K in FY2023) and the foundation runs on one staff member, patience and a light-touch follow-up cadence (annual check-in, not repeated pestering) will serve better than an aggressive pursuit.