Froderman Foundation Inc.

The Froderman Foundation is a closely held family foundation established in 1961 by Mr. and Mrs. G. Harvey Froderman, still governed by a roughly 15-person board carrying four intermarried family surnames (Froderman, Fuson, Blesch, Biggs), led by President Mark Fuson. There is no professional grants staff, no online portal, and no published RFP calendar — this is relationship- and mission-driven giving run informally out of the family's business address in Terre Haute, Indiana. The process starts with a one-page email summary rather than a formal application; the committee decides whether to invite a full package based on that summary alone, so the first email functions as the real gatekeeper.

The grantee list shows a strong preference for small-to-midsize Indiana nonprofits — 39 of the 51 tracked grants (76%) went to Indiana organizations, concentrated in the Terre Haute/Wabash Valley area and Indianapolis. The foundation favors faith-affiliated ministries (Catholic parishes, missionary societies, a Methodist seminary), human-service and food-security organizations (food pantries, shelters, the Salvation Army), and family/health-focused nonprofits (a women's shelter, a cancer-support group, Special Olympics). It explicitly states it evaluates applications "without reference to race, creed or color," so secular human-service groups compete on equal footing with the many faith-based recipients in its history.

A clear multi-year relationship pattern runs through the grantee data: organizations like St Patrick Catholic Church, Crooked Creek Food Pantry, Sheltering Wings, Women's Care Center, Indiana Special Olympics, Gideon's International, and Kid Kare Project each appear with 2-3 separate grants rather than a single award, implying the foundation re-funds proven relationships rather than constantly seeking new grantees. First-time applicants should treat an initial award as an entry point to a recurring relationship, not a one-off transaction, and should not expect to fund general operating costs — the foundation consistently favors discrete projects, equipment, camp/clothing support, or scholarship funds over unrestricted budget requests.

Across the 51 grants captured in the foundation's tracked giving history, total disbursed was $2,283,851, for an average grant of $44,781 — though individual grants ranged far wider, from roughly $4,471 (Mary Lee Maier Community Pantry) up to a single $820,045 lump distribution recorded under "See Attached Schedule" in FY2021 (a multi-recipient schedule covering scholarships, equipment, camp, clothing, and missionary funds rather than one grantee). Excluding that schedule entry, the largest single named grantee total is St Patrick Catholic Church at $167,702 across three grants, followed by Crooked Creek Food Pantry ($136,943/3 grants) and Sheltering Wings Center for Women ($105,464/3 grants). Third-party sources corroborate a typical award band of $3,000-$500,000.

By rough category, faith-affiliated organizations (parishes, missions, a seminary, Gideon's International, Friends of Tenwek) account for roughly $500,000 of the tracked total (~22%); human-services and food-security groups (food pantries, Salvation Army, Wheeler Mission, cancer-support and child-advocacy groups) another ~$472,000 (~21%); women's/family services (Sheltering Wings, Women's Care Center) ~$165,000 (~7%); education/scholarship giving (Asbury College, Oaks Academy) ~$140,000 (~6%); and health/disability programs (Indiana Special Olympics, Children's Theraplay Foundation) ~$110,000 (~5%).

Geographically, Indiana dominates with 39 of 51 grants (76%), followed by Illinois (3), Kentucky (3), Tennessee (3), Florida (2), and North Carolina (1) — the out-of-state grants track closely to specific institutional ties (a Kentucky Bible college, a Kenya-based mission funded through a Kentucky-based mission agency) rather than open-ended national giving.

On total payout, the foundation's own financials show giving of $690,921 (FY2023) and $480,171 (FY2022) against assets holding steady around $11.4-11.9 million from FY2019-FY2023. Web-sourced 990 data for FY2024 shows a marked jump to $1,172,572 across 19 awards, even as assets slipped slightly to $11,181,774 — a payout rate near or above the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement, suggesting the family board is currently in an active giving phase rather than an asset-preservation one.

Among this Terre Haute-area peer set, Froderman holds the largest asset base and, on a per-award basis, deploys capital across a far wider grantee pool (15-51 grants tracked per period) than the Moench Trust's ultra-concentrated 3-grant model. Unlike Moench, which is closed to unsolicited inquiries, Froderman remains reachable through a simple email summary, making it one of the more accessible private funders in the local landscape for small nonprofits — closer in accessibility to the competitive, deadline-driven Wabash Valley Community Foundation cycles than to its closed-door private-trust peers, even though its review process itself is informal and undated rather than competitive.

Public information on the Froderman Foundation's very latest activity is thin — it has no press office, no news page, and no social media accounts, so most of what's known comes from IRS 990 filings surfaced by grant databases rather than announcements. The clearest recent signal is financial: Instrumentl's 990 report shows total giving rising sharply to $1,172,572 across 19 awards in the foundation's most recent reported fiscal year, up from $646,748 (20 awards) the year before and $480,171 (15 awards) the year prior to that — a near-tripling of payout over roughly three filing cycles, even as total assets slipped modestly from about $11.7M to $11.2M.

GrantStation's most recently reported award list — likely drawn from a 2024 or 2025 filing — names Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana ($49,673), Indiana Special Olympics ($20,000), Mary Lee Maier Community Pantry ($10,000), and Gideon's International ($5,000) as recipients, all consistent with the foundation's established pattern of Indiana-based human-services and faith-affiliated giving. No leadership changes were found; Mark Fuson continues to appear as President across all available sources, and the board composition (Froderman, Fuson, Blesch, and Biggs family members) appears stable going back multiple filing years. No new program areas, geographic expansion, or public strategic announcements were identified in this research pass.

There is no deadline and no formal RFP cycle — the foundation reviews requests on a rolling basis, so applicants should approach when their project is ready rather than waiting for an announced window. Start with a concise one-page email summary rather than a full proposal; sources consistently describe this as the required first step, with the review committee deciding afterward whether to request a complete application package. That summary should include: organization name, address, phone, and website; 501(c)(3) determination number; a brief history and founding date; a specific description of the project or need; the dollar amount requested; and whether the funding is for a one-time need or an ongoing program.

Send the summary to MarkFuson@drivefuson.com (the contact address ties to the Fuson family's business, drivefuson.com, underscoring that this is a family-run process, not an institutional grants office) — confirming the current address by phone at (812) 232-2364 before sending is a reasonable precaution given how informal the infrastructure is. Do not request general operating support; the foundation's own materials and its grant history both point toward discrete, fundable asks — equipment, a specific program, camp or scholarship support, building improvements — rather than unrestricted budget relief.

The grantee history shows a heavy tilt toward Indiana organizations (76% of tracked grants) and toward faith-affiliated and human-services missions, but the foundation states explicitly that awards are made "without reference to race, creed or color," so secular human-service organizations are clearly competitive if the need is concrete and locally rooted. Out-of-state grants in the record (Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina) appear tied to specific institutional relationships — a missionary agency, a Bible college — rather than open national outreach, so out-of-state applicants without an existing connection to a board member or grantee organization should expect longer odds. Finally, the repeat-funding pattern across the grantee list (multiple grants to the same recipients in successive years) suggests that once an organization is funded, stewardship — sending a thank-you note and a brief outcomes update — meaningfully improves the odds of renewal.