Herman Foundation

Herman Foundation is a small, closely held family foundation — $4.1 million in assets, run entirely by two directors, Richard M. Herman (President/Treasurer, drawing $48,000 annual compensation) and Dr. Richard A. Carstens (Vice President/Secretary, uncompensated) — with no program staff, no published RFP, and no evidence of an open application process. Every grant in the tracked history (12 grants totaling $690,000, across only five recipients) went to organizations with multi-year, repeat relationships: University of Nebraska Foundation (3 grants), St Patrick Catholic Church (3 grants), TeamMates Foundation (3 grants), Bennington Community Foundation (2 grants), and Foodbank for the Heartland (1 grant). That pattern — five recipients absorbing 12 consecutive grants — is the clearest signal available: this is relationship-based, invitation-only philanthropy rooted in the Bennington/Omaha metro community, not a competitive grants program. First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; there is no evidence any of that infrastructure exists. Instead, the realistic path in runs through the same institutions the foundation already trusts — a warm introduction via University of Nebraska Foundation's development staff, the Archdiocese/St Patrick Catholic Church network, a local TeamMates mentoring chapter, or the Bennington Community Foundation — since those are the only outfits documented to have successfully engaged this funder. Notably, the website on file, hermanfoundation.org, does not belong to this organization at all; it resolves to an unrelated Arlington, Massachusetts nonprofit. Applicants should treat this foundation as having no confirmed public web presence, discard any application instructions found by searching that domain, and instead contact the foundation directly at its IRS address of record (11923 N 173rd Cir, Bennington, NE 68007). Given the tiny size of the operation (a two-person board, no listed staff, no committee structure disclosed), a short, personal letter — not a polished grant packet — pitched at a modest dollar figure and tied to a specific Nebraska community need is far more likely to get read than a generic cold proposal.

Across the tracked grant history, Herman Foundation has made 12 grants totaling $690,000 to five Nebraska recipients, an average of $57,500 per grant. Giving is concentrated by recipient: University of Nebraska Foundation leads with $350,000 across 3 grants (51% of tracked giving, averaging $116,667/grant, including a $140,000 gift in 2024); St Patrick Catholic Church follows with $250,000 across 3 grants (36%, averaging $83,333/grant, including $60,000 in 2024); TeamMates Foundation received $45,000 across 3 grants (7%, a flat $15,000 each year); Bennington Community Foundation received $40,000 across 2 grants (6%, $20,000 each); and Foodbank for the Heartland received a single $5,000 grant (1%). By program area, that breaks down to roughly half education (University of Nebraska Foundation), over a third faith-based/parish support (St Patrick's), and the remainder split between youth mentoring, community-foundation infrastructure, and hunger relief — all funded exclusively within Nebraska. Total annual giving has trended down over the past decade: $393,154 (2019), $276,812 (2020), $279,863 (2021), $315,920 (2022), $254,078 (2023), and an estimated $220,000 (2024, per third-party 990 aggregation). That's a 44% decline from the 2019 peak, driven by falling net investment income ($206,486 in 2019 versus $74,027 in 2023) rather than a shrinking asset base — total assets have stayed essentially flat, from $4.57 million (2019) to $4.10 million (2024). Officer compensation ($48,000/year to Richard M. Herman) has stayed constant across the same period, meaning distributable grant dollars — not overhead — absorb the swings in investment returns. The foundation's own typical-grant-size data corroborates this: a $15,000–$150,000 range with a $25,000 median and $53,750 average across four most-recent grants, confirming that new relationships, if any form, are far more likely to start in the $5,000–$20,000 range than at the $140,000 level reserved for its oldest partner.

Herman Foundation sits in a cluster of similarly sized, similarly obscure family foundations classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking, none of which maintain a public website or disclosed application process:

All six foundations cluster within $10,000 of each other in total assets ($4.10-$4.11 million), which is a strong signal these are small, single-family vehicles operating near the practical minimum scale for a standalone private foundation rather than active, staffed grantmaking programs. Herman Foundation is the only one of the six with any documented grant history or recipient-level transparency (via its 990 filings), which paradoxically makes it the most approachable of this peer set — an applicant at least knows who has been funded before, even though the foundation itself offers no formal intake process. Organizations exploring this peer tier should expect the same relationship-first dynamic across all six: direct, personal outreach to the named officer/trustee is more productive than a standard proposal.

No 2025 or 2026 news, press releases, or grant announcements specific to this Herman Foundation (EIN 47-0896236, Bennington, NE) turned up in web search — a result consistent with a foundation this size, which files a required 990-PF but otherwise has no communications operation. Search results for "Herman Foundation" news are dominated by unrelated organizations sharing the name, including the Herman Frasch Foundation (agricultural chemistry research grants), the Robert E. Herman Charitable Trust (North Dakota, children/education/end-of-life care), and the We Raise Foundation's unrelated "Richard E. Herman Leadership Award" (2026 nominations due July 13, 2026) — none of which involve this foundation's Richard M. Herman or Dr. Richard A. Carstens. The most recent verifiable activity is the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF, reflecting $304,272 in total revenue, $4,104,779 in total assets, and four grants (to University of Nebraska Foundation, St Patrick Catholic Church, TeamMates Foundation, and a fourth smaller recipient) totaling approximately $220,000, per third-party 990 aggregators CauseIQ and Instrumentl. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or notable one-time large grants beyond the existing pattern were identified. Given the consistent officer roster (Richard M. Herman and Dr. Richard A. Carstens have held the same titles across every filing year in the underlying data) and flat compensation structure, the foundation appears to be operating in steady-state, continuing its existing relationships rather than entering any new phase.

Herman Foundation does not publish an application form, LOI template, deadline, or online portal — treat any application instructions you find attached to hermanfoundation.org as invalid, since that domain belongs to an unrelated Massachusetts nonprofit, not this foundation. Practical guidance, built from what the filing history actually shows: (1) Skip the cold-proposal approach entirely — every dollar in this foundation's tracked history went to one of five long-standing relationships (University of Nebraska Foundation, St Patrick Catholic Church, TeamMates Foundation, Bennington Community Foundation, Foodbank for the Heartland), so a first contact with no prior connection to Bennington/Omaha civic, Catholic-parish, or University of Nebraska circles is unlikely to land. (2) If you have any connection — a board member, donor, or staffer who knows Richard M. Herman or Dr. Richard A. Carstens — use it; with only two directors and no program staff, this is a personal-relationship funder, not an institutional one. (3) Keep the ask modest and specific: three of the five known recipients receive $15,000-$20,000 per grant, year after year; only the oldest relationship (University of Nebraska Foundation) has reached $140,000. A new organization pitching a six-figure ask with no track record here would be starting far outside the pattern. (4) Write a short letter (1-2 pages), not a formal grant application — there's no evidence this foundation reviews packets, budgets, or logic models; officer compensation of $48,000/year to Richard M. Herman suggests he personally handles this work part-time alongside other responsibilities. (5) Anchor the request in Nebraska-specific impact — every recipient in the record serves the Bennington/Omaha metro area directly; a national or out-of-state program with no Nebraska tie-in doesn't match any funded precedent. (6) Common mistake to avoid: mass-mailing a generic proposal packet designed for larger institutional funders — nothing in this foundation's structure (two-person board, no staff, no disclosed committee) suggests it can process that kind of submission. (7) Since there's no disclosed decision calendar, don't expect a fast turnaround; a single polite follow-up after 60-90 days is reasonable, but repeated unsolicited outreach is more likely to be counterproductive with a funder this small and informal.