Fortitude Foundation

Fortitude Foundation is a small, closely held Dallas, Texas private foundation (est. 2013, EIN 38-7055996) governed by just two parties: Bank of America, a paid corporate co-trustee earning $41,675-$54,754 annually for administrative and investment management, and Denise Stack, an unpaid co-fiduciary. There is no executive director, program staff, communications office, or grants department — and the foundation's own IRS-derived enrichment record flags it as "preselected_only," meaning it directs money to organizations the trustee already knows rather than soliciting or reviewing unsolicited proposals. This is a relationship-driven, trustee-directed vehicle, not a competitive grants program.

The 15 grants recorded in available filings (totaling $3,982,043) went to only seven unique organizations, and two of those — Boston College Trustees ($1.7 million across 4 grants) and Star of the Sea Foundation ($600,000 across 4 grants) — together account for 58% of all documented giving. Web research strongly suggests personal affiliation drives these choices: a Denise M. Stack appears among Boston College's own trustees, which lines up precisely with Boston College being the single largest, most repeated grantee. The remaining recipients cluster around greater Pittsburgh, PA (Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, North Hills Regional Catholic Elementary, YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh, and a Sewickley-area Meals on Wheels program) and one Dallas-headquartered national nonprofit, the American Heart Association ($967,043, the largest single-year gift on record).

For grant seekers, the realistic path in is not a cold LOI or online form — none exists (application_form_url, application_deadline, and opportunities_url are all blank in the IRS/enrichment record). Instead, organizations with an existing, personal connection to the trustee network — Boston College alumni/trustee circles, Catholic parishes and schools in the Pittsburgh region, or communities tied to Star of the Sea — have by far the best odds. First-time, unaffiliated applicants should treat this foundation as a long shot: build visibility through shared institutional ties (alumni networks, diocesan or parish connections, board overlaps) well before attempting direct outreach, and expect that even a strong proposal without a warm introduction is unlikely to be reviewed at all.

Fortitude Foundation's giving is modest and highly concentrated. Across the 15 grants captured in available filings, total disbursed giving is $3,982,043, averaging $265,470 per grant. A separate size-typical calculation in the foundation's enrichment data (based on a smaller 3-grant sample) puts the range at $100,000-$500,000, with a median of $100,000 and an average of $233,333 — consistent with a pattern of a few sizable annual grants rather than many small ones.

Recipient concentration is extreme: only seven organizations have ever received a grant. Boston College Trustees leads with $1,700,000 across four separate grants (a $425,000 average), followed by a single $967,043 gift to the American Heart Association — the largest individual grant on record, likely tied to AHA's Dallas headquarters. Star of the Sea Foundation received $600,000 across four grants ($150,000 average). The remaining four recipients — Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank ($250,000, one grant), North Hills Regional Catholic Elementary ($250,000, one grant), YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh ($200,000 across two grants), and North Boroughs-Sewickley Area Meals on Wheels ($15,000 across two grants) — form a distinct Pittsburgh, PA cluster.

Geographically, of the 15 grants: 6 went to Pennsylvania (the Pittsburgh cluster), 4 to Massachusetts (Boston College), 4 to Florida (Star of the Sea), and 1 to Texas (American Heart Association's Dallas HQ) — matching the foundation's own stated geographic focus of PA, MA, and FL, despite the trust itself being based in Dallas.

Annual payout has tracked the foundation's contribution history rather than a steady program budget. Grants paid: $0 (2012, funding year, $5M initial contribution received), $100,000 (2013), $550,000 (2014), $630,000 (2018, following a $1.6M contribution), $860,000 (2019), $1,722,043 (2020, the peak year, following a $2M contribution), $700,000 (2021), and $750,000 (2022). Total assets held steady between $5.4 million and $6.2 million across this period. A ProPublica-sourced FY2024 snapshot shows assets have since grown to $6.7 million, with $877,599 in charitable disbursements (93.5% of $938,167 total expenses) — indicating payout has returned to the $700K-$900K range after 2020's spike, though 2023 figures are not captured in the underlying dataset.

All five peers were matched purely on asset size (each within $2,500 of Fortitude's $6,688,782 in total assets) and share the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification, but this dataset does not include their giving levels or focus areas, and four of the five have no discoverable website at all — a strong signal that most foundations in this asset bracket are similarly closed, trustee- or family-directed vehicles rather than public grant programs. Lear Family Foundation (lear.org) is the one exception with a public web presence and merits a direct look for applicants exploring this peer set. For a foundation this size (under $10M in assets, single-digit grant count per year), Fortitude's pattern — a handful of large, relationship-driven grants rather than a published RFP — is the norm for this bracket, not the exception.

Public-facing news about Fortitude Foundation specifically could not be found — it has no dedicated communications presence, no press mentions, and no social media (confirmed absent in the IRS enrichment record). The domain fortitudefoundation.org, which appears in this foundation's own website field, in fact resolves to an unrelated 501(c)(3) public charity in Montgomery, Alabama (a scholarship and community-service organization founded in 2007, unconnected to this Dallas-based private foundation) — grant seekers should disregard that site entirely and not treat it as this funder's program page or contact channel.

The most recent verifiable activity is financial, drawn from IRS Form 990-PF filings via ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. In fiscal year 2024, the foundation reported total assets of $6.7 million, total revenue of $3.2 million (driven by contributions and asset sales rather than steady investment income), total expenses of $938,167, and charitable disbursements of $877,599 (93.5% of expenses) — indicating the foundation was giving at a level consistent with its 2018-2022 baseline of roughly $700,000-$900,000 per year, after a 2020 spike to $1.72 million tied to a $2 million contribution that year. No leadership changes have surfaced: Bank of America has served as paid co-trustee and Denise Stack as unpaid co-fiduciary across every filing reviewed, with no indication of a transition. Because the foundation does not publish grant announcements, the most reliable way to track its future activity is through annual Form 990-PF filings (typically available via ProPublica or the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search several months after fiscal year-end) rather than news monitoring.

There is no formal application process to describe — Fortitude Foundation has no grants page, no LOI form, no online portal, and no published deadline (application_form_url, application_deadline, and opportunities_url are all blank in its IRS/enrichment record), and it is flagged as "preselected_only," meaning the trustees choose recipients rather than reviewing submissions. Standard grant-writing playbooks (cover letters, LOIs, generic cold email) are unlikely to reach a reviewer, let alone secure funding. What follows is a realistic playbook for this specific closed funder rather than conventional "how to apply" advice:

• Look for a warm introduction through Boston College. Boston College Trustees is this foundation's single largest and most repeated grantee ($1.7 million across 4 grants), and a Denise M. Stack appears among Boston College's own trustees — strongly suggesting the co-fiduciary's personal BC ties drive this giving. Organizations connected to Boston College (affiliated programs, alumni-run nonprofits, BC-adjacent Catholic institutions) have a plausible path via that network.
• Target the greater Pittsburgh, PA corridor. Four of seven all-time grantees are Pittsburgh-area organizations (a food bank, a Catholic elementary school, the YMCA, and a Sewickley-area Meals on Wheels program) — suggesting a second personal or family tie to that region. Nonprofits with parish, diocesan, or school-network overlap with North Hills Regional Catholic Elementary are worth exploring for an introduction.
• Don't contact via fortitudefoundation.org. That domain belongs to an unrelated Montgomery, Alabama charity; using it will not reach this foundation's trustees.
• Bank of America is the administrative co-trustee. If your organization or a board member has an existing Bank of America Private Bank or Philanthropic Solutions relationship in the Dallas or Boston markets, that channel is more likely to route an inquiry appropriately than a general email.
• Expect a single, large, relationship-based gift rather than a competitive small-grants program — recorded grants cluster at $100,000-$500,000 typical size, with $967,043 as the largest single grant on record (to the American Heart Association, likely reflecting its Dallas headquarters).
• Given the total absence of a public process, the most common mistake would be treating this like an open foundation and investing time in an unsolicited proposal; that effort is far better spent identifying and cultivating the personal or institutional connections described above.