Fettig Family Foundation

The Fettig Family Foundation is a small, closed, family-directed private foundation with no public application process — the internal record flags it as "preselected only," and its listed website (fettig.org) is a bare personal placeholder page for a family member, not a grants portal. All seven directors share the Fettig or Lansdown surname (Jeff M. Fettig, Marcia H. Fettig, Jeff Jay D. Fettig, Jordan E. Fettig, Anne Elise Lansdown, Drew A. Lansdown), all serve uncompensated, and grantmaking decisions run through personal and institutional relationships rather than a competitive review process. Jeff M. Fettig is the former Chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Corporation, headquartered in Benton Harbor, MI — the foundation's own address (417 Champions Way, Benton Harbor) sits inside Whirlpool's corporate campus, and the grantee list includes a direct gift to the "Whirlpool Collective Impact Fund" ($106,000 across two grants), confirming the corporate-family link. Favored organizations fall into three clusters: (1) Southwest Michigan civic and youth institutions near Benton Harbor/St. Joseph — United Way of Southwest Michigan, Boys & Girls Club of Benton Harbor, St. Joseph Public Schools Foundation, Cornerstone Alliance, Feeding America West Michigan; (2) the directors' alma maters and named scholarship funds — Indiana University Foundation (Kelley School of Business), Vanderbilt University ("Fettig-Lansdown Family Scholarship"), Beechwood Educational Foundation (three named family scholarship funds); and (3) a small number of large, mission-specific gifts, notably $200,000 to Mayo Clinic for a musculoskeletal/orthopedic shoulder research program. First-time applicants with no pre-existing tie to the family, to Whirlpool, or to these named institutions should not expect a cold inbound proposal to succeed — there is no LOI form, deadline, or portal to submit to. The realistic path in is a warm introduction through a shared board member, alumni network, or Southwest Michigan civic organization already in the family's orbit.

Giving has scaled sharply upward and unevenly. Per the foundation's own 990-PF filings, total grants paid rose from $161,516 (FY2021, 18 grants) to $335,400 (FY2022), $385,510 (FY2023), $487,486 (FY2024, 26 grants), and then jumped to $1,320,390 in FY2025 across just 21 grants — a roughly 3.4x increase in one year even as total assets fell from $9,546,596 to $5,902,358. Third-party 990 aggregators peg the historical grant range as wide as $100 to $1,135,000, implying at least one very large, likely non-recurring gift drove the FY2025 spike; the platform's cumulative grantee database (56 grants, $832,316 total, $14,863 average) does not yet reflect that filing. Within the available grantee detail, funding splits roughly into three buckets: education/scholarships (Beechwood Educational Foundation $88,000 across 4 grants for three named family scholarship funds, Vanderbilt University $60,000/3 grants, Indiana University Foundation $40,000/4 grants, Tipton County Foundation $3,000) totaling roughly $191,000; youth and community-civic support (United Way of Southwest Michigan $50,000, Boys & Girls Club of Benton Harbor $45,000, Whirlpool Collective Impact Fund $106,000, Boys & Girls Clubs of America $30,000, Diamante First Tee Foundation $25,000, First Tee Benton Harbor $16,200, Brookview Montessori School $25,016) totaling roughly $297,000; and a smaller number of large, targeted institutional gifts led by Mayo Clinic's $200,000 orthopedic/shoulder research program. Geographically, Michigan dominates with 36 of 56 tracked grants, followed by Indiana (11), Georgia and Tennessee (3 each), Minnesota (2), and Texas (1) — a footprint tightly clustered around the family's Benton Harbor, MI home base and the directors' university ties in Indiana and Tennessee.

The five peer foundations were matched on near-identical asset size (all approximately $5.90M, within a $4,500 band of each other) rather than on shared program focus, geography, or disclosed giving levels — none of the peer filings surfaced usable public data on annual payout, focus area detail, or application process in this research pass, so direct comparison is limited to balance-sheet scale. What stands out about Fettig relative to that asset band is payout intensity: at $1.32M distributed in FY2025 against $5.9M in assets, its effective payout rate (~22%) is roughly four times the 5% federal minimum private foundations must distribute, suggesting either a deliberate high-distribution family strategy or a wind-down of accumulated reserves — a pattern grant seekers should weigh against the likelihood that FY2025-level giving repeats in future years.

The most consequential recent development is financial rather than programmatic: the foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF (filed April 16, 2026) shows grants paid of $1,320,390 across 21 grants, more than triple the $487,486 distributed in FY2024 across 26 grants, while total assets dropped from $9,546,596 to $5,902,358 over the same period. That combination — fewer, larger grants and a shrinking asset base — points to one or more sizable, likely one-time distributions rather than a permanent step-up in the foundation's giving capacity. No dedicated news coverage, press release, or announcement from the Fettig Family Foundation itself was found in this research pass; the only "Fettig" news hits in general search results concern an unrelated finance executive (Matt Fettig, newly named Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer at the San Diego Foundation), not this family or foundation. The foundation's own website, fettig.org, is not a functioning grants site — it is a minimal personal landing page for family member Steve Fettig with no grant program content, reinforcing that this is a low-profile, non-marketing philanthropic vehicle. Prior-year activity on record shows steady, modest growth (FY2021 $161,516 to FY2024 $487,486) concentrated in Southwest Michigan civic organizations, named family scholarship funds, and a notable $200,000 gift to Mayo Clinic for orthopedic shoulder research — the largest single-recipient commitment identifiable in the platform's grantee data prior to the FY2025 filing.

There is no public application process to optimize for here — the foundation's own record marks it "preselected only," application_instructions is blank, and fettig.org offers no grant guidelines, LOI form, or deadline. Treat any outreach as relationship-building, not form-filling. First, look for genuine overlap with the family's documented ties before reaching out at all: organizations in or near Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI (the foundation's home base and former seat of Jeff M. Fettig's Whirlpool Corporation leadership); Indiana University (especially the Kelley School of Business and Bloomington campus, where the family funds a dedicated shareholders/student-affairs gift); Vanderbilt University, where a named "Fettig-Lansdown Family Scholarship" already exists; or Mayo Clinic-affiliated medical research, particularly orthopedic/musculoskeletal programs, which received the single largest tracked gift ($200,000). Second, favor a warm introduction over a cold letter — a board connection, shared alumni network, or a Southwest Michigan civic partner (United Way of Southwest Michigan, Cornerstone Alliance, and the Boys & Girls Club network all appear as repeat, multi-year recipients) is far more likely to reach the directors than an unsolicited proposal mailed to the foundation's Benton Harbor address or called in to (269) 923-5842. Third, note the funding pattern skews toward either modest, recurring civic/youth gifts ($400–$50,000, often repeated year over year to the same grantee under "General Support" or "Capital Fund" purposes) or occasional large, mission-specific commitments to flagship institutions — a mid-size, one-off ask from an unfamiliar organization does not fit the observed pattern. Fourth, expect no formal site visit or multi-stage LOI-to-proposal pipeline typical of larger institutional funders; grants to repeat recipients (e.g., Beechwood Educational Foundation, four grants; Indiana University Foundation, four grants) suggest an informal annual renewal relationship once a grantee is established, rather than a competitive reapplication cycle.