Fasken Foundation

The Fasken Foundation operates as a relationship-driven, operationally-focused private funder with 70 years of West Texas roots. Founded in 1955 by Andrew A. Fasken, Robert Murray Fasken, and William B. Neely — beginning with just twenty shares of Midland National Bank stock — the foundation has grown into a $44.7M asset base that deploys roughly $2.4–$2.5M in total giving annually.

The foundation's giving philosophy centers tightly on transforming the lives of underprivileged youth in the Permian Basin. It has recently and deliberately narrowed its focus, culminating in an August 2025 decision to stop accepting applications from New Mexico-based organizations entirely. Organizations must make youth-serving programming — especially for disadvantaged populations — the explicit center of any application. Generic community benefit framing will not clear the foundation's Grants Committee screening.

Geographic reality shapes strategy profoundly. Approximately 80% of grants go to organizations in and around Midland, Texas. The remaining 20% flows to communities where board members and directors reside, and applications from outside Midland require an explicit board member recommendation. With Fasken family members still serving on the board (Paula Fasken as Secretary and Susan Fasken Hartin as Director), this foundation retains a strong community identity rooted in its founders' legacy.

First-time applicants must navigate a formal two-step process. Submit a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) with forms SF-CP and SF-1 through the online portal at grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=faskenfoundation. The Grants Committee reviews the LOI and invites — or declines — a full application. Plan 6–9 months ahead to account for both the LOI review and the quarterly board cycle.

Repeat grantees demonstrate that relationships develop over years: Communities in Schools of the Permian Basin ($135,000 across 5 grants), Odessa Family YMCA ($130,000 across 3 grants), and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Permian Basin ($51,000 across 3 grants) all reflect sustained partnerships. The foundation also operates a Director's Choice mechanism allowing Executive Director Jeff Alsup ($160,000 annual compensation) to recommend select grants outside the competitive cycle — investing in a direct relationship with Alsup can open opportunities beyond standard application windows.

The Fasken Foundation distributed $2,466,041 in total giving in FY2023, the most recent complete filing year, split between $1,635,690 in organizational grants paid and an estimated $830,000 in scholarships. Total giving peaked at $3,197,105 in FY2021 — likely a pandemic-era distribution surge — before settling back to $2.47M in FY2023 and $2.74M in FY2022. Grants paid have ranged from $1.27M (FY2019) to $1.71M (FY2022), with net investment income of $3.05M (FY2023) and $4.21M (FY2022) providing stable grantmaking capacity.

From the foundation's grant size data (149 recorded transactions), the median individual grant is $5,000 and the average is $10,928, with a range from $13 (scholarship micro-disbursements) to $125,000. In practice, operating grants to established nonprofit partners are substantially larger: Casa of West Texas, Midland Children's Rehabilitation Center, and Communities in Schools of the Permian Basin each received approximately $50,000/year across multi-year relationships. The foundation's largest single relationship — IDEA Public Schools — totaled $750,000 across 3 grants ($250,000/year), reflecting a large-scale charter education investment.

Scholarship disbursements dominate transaction volume but are smaller individually: 57 Texas Tech University scholarships averaged $2,163 each, 20 Texas A&M scholarships averaged $2,267 each, and 14 Angelo State University scholarships averaged $2,447 each. Scholarships account for roughly 30–35% of total annual giving by dollar amount.

By program area, human services and youth development claims the largest organizational grant share, encompassing YMCA, Safe Place of the Permian Basin, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Midland Teen Court, Family Promise of Odessa, and Casa de Amigos. Education — charter operators, public school partnerships, and tutoring programs — is a strong second. Health organizations (Community Children's Clinic, Cook Children's Health Foundation, Midland Children's Rehabilitation Center) represent a consistent minority. Historically, arts and cultural organizations received regular funding, though NM-based recipients (Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Santa Fe Pro Musica) are now ineligible.

Geographically, 461 of 500 database grants (92.2%) went to Texas organizations, with 36 (7.2%) to New Mexico — now excluded — and 3 (0.6%) to New Jersey. Total assets have grown from $15.9M (FY2012) to $44.7M (FY2024), nearly a threefold increase over 12 years.

The Fasken Foundation sits as a targeted, mid-scale private funder in a West Texas philanthropic ecosystem that includes significantly larger community foundations.

Fasken's $44.7M asset base is roughly 13% of the Permian Basin Area Foundation's $331M and about 33% of Abell-Hanger's $133.9M. Despite its smaller scale, Fasken offers a meaningful advantage to youth-serving operational nonprofits: it is one of the few area funders explicitly restricting support to operational (non-capital) needs, removing the complexity of capital campaign alignment. Both PBAF and Abell-Hanger accept capital project requests — Abell-Hanger even instituted a capital moratorium in June 2024 — while Fasken simply never funds capital projects at all, making it a cleaner fit for program-delivery budgets.

Fasken's quarterly application cycle (4 deadlines/year) also provides more entry windows than PBAF's semiannual cycle (2/year), though Abell-Hanger's three-times-yearly cadence is comparable. The key differentiator is access: PBAF and Abell-Hanger both accept open applications from eligible Texas nonprofits, while Fasken requires first-time applicants to pass through an LOI screening — gatekeeping that reflects the foundation's preference for established relationships. Notably, PBAF itself received a $50,000 Director's Choice grant from Fasken in 2022, underscoring the interconnected nature of Midland's philanthropic community.

The most significant recent development is the August 2025 policy change: the Fasken Foundation stopped accepting grant applications from New Mexico-based organizations. This contraction is material — 36 NM grants represent 7.2% of total grant count in the database, with top affected recipients including National Dance Institute of New Mexico ($130,000 across 5 grants), Communities in Schools of New Mexico ($120,000 across 3 grants), New Mexico School for the Arts ($102,500 across 4 grants), Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival ($60,000 across 3 grants), and Community Against Violence Inc. ($55,000 across 4 grants). Organizations in New Mexico that depended on recurring Fasken support must now seek replacement funding.

The foundation has also publicly stated it has recently narrowed its focus in an attempt to make a larger impact on transforming the lives of underprivileged youth, indicating intentional internal strategy work beyond the geographic change. This aligns with observed grantee data, where repeat partnerships with core Permian Basin youth-serving organizations dominate.

Financially, assets have held steady: $42.3M (FY2022), $43.6M (FY2023), and $44.7M (FY2024). Total giving dipped modestly from $2.74M (FY2022) to $2.47M (FY2023). Executive Director Jeff Alsup maintains stable leadership with compensation rising from $150,000 (FY2021) to $155,000 (FY2022) to $160,000 (FY2023), reflecting organizational continuity. The foundation celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2025. No board leadership changes were identified in public records during the research period.

Start in the online portal, not with a phone call. All submissions — including first-time Letters of Inquiry — must go through the foundation's grants management system at grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=faskenfoundation. A preliminary call to (432) 683-5401 or email to jeff@faskenfoundation.org can help gauge interest, but formal consideration begins only through the portal.

First-time applicants: your LOI is your audition. Accompany your Letter of Inquiry with forms SF-CP and SF-1. Lead with a specific youth impact metric — not an organizational mission statement. The Grants Committee evaluates whether your work directly reaches disadvantaged youth in the Permian Basin; broad community benefit language will not clear this bar. If the LOI is approved, you'll receive an invitation to submit the full application; if declined, you'll know the fit is not there for this cycle.

One application per year — choose your deadline strategically. The four submission windows (September 30, December 31, March 31, June 30) each have a 5pm hard cutoff. Since only one application is permitted annually, select the deadline when your financials are freshest and your narrative is strongest. The June 30 deadline feeds the July board meeting — useful for organizations beginning new fiscal years in July.

Frame every dollar as operational, not capital. The foundation explicitly excludes capital improvements. Structure your budget around program delivery: direct service staff, program supplies, and operating overhead. Do not include equipment purchases, renovations, or construction costs — they are categorically ineligible.

Contact the Nonprofit Management Center of the Permian Basin first. The foundation's own application instructions reference NMCPB as the official packet distributor for new applicants. Engaging NMCPB signals institutional sophistication and regional rootedness.

Outside Midland? Secure board sponsorship before applying. The 20% of non-Midland grants explicitly require that the applicant operates in a community where a board member resides. Research current directors — Gerald Nobles Jr., Tevis Herd, Tracy Elms, John Wilkins Jr., Thomas Kelly, Alex Hale — and their home communities before submitting from a non-Midland location.