First Citizens Foundation

First Citizens Foundation (EIN 57-1108547, Raleigh, NC) is the corporate philanthropic vehicle of First-Citizens Bank & Trust, but its grantmaking is overwhelmingly rooted in South Carolina — 103 of its last 117 recorded grants (88%) went to South Carolina organizations, with the balance scattered across North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, and Massachusetts. Grantseekers outside South Carolina, and especially outside the Columbia, SC metro area where GrantStation notes the Foundation places 'emphasis,' face a steep uphill climb regardless of mission fit. This is a small, low-overhead family/corporate foundation: officer compensation is $0 across all reported years, the board is a tight four-person group (Chairman Frank B. Holding Jr., Directors Hope H. Bryant and Peter M. Bristow, Treasurer Craig L. Nix), and there is no dedicated program staff — applications are processed centrally, likely alongside the bank's broader community-relations function. First-time applicants should not expect a multi-stage LOI-to-site-visit courtship; the Foundation's own filings describe the process simply as a 'Request for Grant Form to be completed,' with 'NO RESTRICTIONS' listed on both deadline and eligibility criteria in its IRS filing. That openness is real but should not be mistaken for a high bar for acceptance — with $2.27M distributed across 117 grants recently tracked (average $19,416), this is a high-volume, modest-dollar funder, not a transformational one. The Foundation clearly favors organizations with an established local track record and a general-operating or capital ask over first-year or highly experimental programs: the top grantee, the NC Museum of Art, received $500,000 across two grants, dwarfing every other recipient, while the bulk of activity clusters in $15,000-$50,000 general-purpose gifts to YMCA-type human-service agencies, K-12-adjacent education funds, and community foundations. Applicants should frame requests around general operating support, capital/facilities, or scholarship funding rather than pilot programs, and should explicitly name a First Citizens Bank branch or banking relationship in their community where possible, since board composition suggests bank-relationship proximity matters.

Financials confirm a small, steady, non-operating private foundation. Total assets have held in the $11.3M-$14.3M band since 2011 (most recently $12.27M in FY2023, down from $14.27M in FY2021 as markets cooled), while annual grant payout has trended up modestly: $661,801 (2011) → $597,800 (2019) → $928,746 (2022, the recent peak) → $758,667 (2023). The Foundation typically pays out more than its investment income each year, drawing down principal slightly, and receives no new contributions (contributions_received is $0 in every reported year) — this is a closed-corpus foundation funded once and now distributing off its endowment. Grant sizing is skewed toward small-to-midsize gifts: the median matched grant size in the platform's own typical-grant-size data is $16,667 (range $5,000-$50,000, average $18,568 across 39 sized grants), while the broader 117-grant sample shows an average of $19,416. The distribution has a long tail at the top — the $500,000 NC Museum of Art commitment and a $140,000 Richland County School gift are outliers — with the vast majority of awards falling between $15,000 and $50,000 and a cluster of $20,000-25,000 general-support and scholarship gifts. By geography, South Carolina captured 103 of 117 grants (88% of count) and the large majority of dollars, with North Carolina (4 grants, including the $500K NC Museum of Art gift) accounting for an outsized dollar share despite few grants, and Virginia (6), Michigan (2), and Massachusetts (2) rounding out the remainder. By purpose, 'general'/'general purpose' funding dominates (roughly 40+ of the top 50 grants), followed by scholarships (Wofford College, Claflin University, South Carolina State University) and targeted human-services asks (housing, homeowner assistance, children's advocacy). There is no visible program-area quota system — this looks like relationship-driven, broad-purpose community giving rather than a strategic initiative-based portfolio.

The Foundation sits within a cluster of similarly asset-sized private foundations (roughly $12.5M in assets), though its total giving and grant volume are markedly higher than typical peers of that asset size, reflecting an unusually high payout relative to corpus (roughly 6-8% of assets annually vs. the 5% IRS minimum).

All five peers share the same NTEE 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' classification and near-identical asset bases (~$12.5M), but the platform's data bundle does not include their giving totals or application posture, so a like-for-like payout comparison isn't possible from this data alone. What differentiates First Citizens Foundation from a typical family foundation of this size is its corporate parentage (a major regional bank) and its resulting institutional, form-based application process rather than an invitation-only family-trustee model — a structural advantage for cold applicants relative to peers that may rely purely on trustee relationships.

The most recent complete fiscal year in the Foundation's own filings is FY2023 (ended within calendar 2023, filed with the IRS), showing $758,667 in grants paid against $836,876 in total giving and $97,872 in total revenue — a year in which net investment income ($352,979) comfortably covered payout despite a soft top-line revenue number. Public web sources report that First Citizens Bank's separately run Charitable Foundation channel distributed $226,200 in combined December 2025/January 2026 donations, and that the bank's parent, First Citizens BancShares, has layered a $16 billion, five-year Community Benefits Plan (announced with NCRC) on top of its traditional foundation giving, targeting affordable housing, small-business lending, and neighborhood revitalization in low- and moderate-income communities. It is important to note that web search results for 'First Citizens Foundation' surface several unrelated organizations with confusingly similar names — First Citizens Federal Credit Union (Fairhaven, MA), a separate 'myFCB' First Citizens Bank charitable foundation (Iowa/Minnesota), and First Citizens Group's Sports Foundation (Trinidad & Tobago) — none of which are this EIN 57-1108547 entity. No foundation-specific leadership changes, new initiatives, or named large grants dated in 2025-2026 could be confirmed directly against this EIN in available web sources; grantseekers should treat the $500,000 NC Museum of Art commitment and the 2019-2023 payout growth trend as the most recent verifiable signal of the Foundation's giving trajectory, and confirm current-cycle priorities directly with the Foundation before applying.

The Foundation's own IRS filing lists its application instructions simply as 'Request for Grant Form to be completed,' with 'NO RESTRICTIONS' on both deadline and eligibility — meaning there is no published cutoff date to plan around, but also no published preferred submission window, so applicants should apply as soon as their project is ready rather than waiting for a cycle. Related First Citizens giving channels operating on a similar model report quarterly review dates and a roughly 60-day notification window, so applicants should expect a multi-week to two-month wait rather than an immediate decision, and should avoid submitting within about a week of an internal review cutoff since that pushes consideration into the next cycle. Given the heavy concentration of dollars in South Carolina (88% of grant count) and specifically the Columbia, SC metro area, out-of-state or non-SC applicants should lead with any Columbia-area program presence or partnership, since geography appears to be the single strongest predictor of funding. Because average grant size clusters at $15,000-$50,000 with a median near $16,667-$19,416, first-time applicants should size their ask realistically in that band rather than requesting six-figure sums — the $500,000 NC Museum of Art gift and $140,000 Richland County School gift are clear outliers reserved for flagship institutional relationships, not a realistic target for a new or mid-size nonprofit. Applications should be built around general operating support, capital/facilities needs, or scholarships — the dominant purpose categories in the grant history — rather than pilot or one-time program funding, which is comparatively rare in the portfolio. A cover letter on organizational letterhead with a clear mission statement, specific dollar ask, and any volunteer-engagement opportunity for bank employees should accompany the grant form; naming a specific local First Citizens Bank branch relationship, if one exists, is worth including given the Foundation's tight, bank-linked governance structure. Common mistakes to avoid: conflating this Foundation with the unrelated 'First Citizens Federal Credit Union' (firstcitizens.org, Massachusetts) or other same-named entities when researching contact information — verify correspondence goes to First-Citizens Bank & Trust's Raleigh, NC-based community/foundation contact, not a look-alike organization. For requests above the Foundation's typical range, or for CRA-qualified community-development projects (affordable housing, small business, workforce development), consider approaching the bank's separate Community Benefits Plan channel rather than the Foundation's grant form, as that program operates with a substantially larger budget.