Hickey Family Foundation

Hickey Family Foundation is a small, closely-held family foundation, not a professionally staffed institutional grantmaker. It is governed by four members of the Hickey family: Robert M. Hickey (President), Gregory R. Hickey (Secretary — the only compensated officer, historically paid $2,185–$3,797/year), Douglas L. Hickey (Treasurer), and Kontanze L. Hickey (Vice President). With total assets of $5,973,675 and annual giving of roughly $430,000–$500,000 in most years, HFF functions more like a personal giving vehicle for the Hickey family than a funder with staff-reviewed open RFPs. Its own IRS filing data lists the application process simply as "BUSINESS LETTER REQUEST," with awards made at "BOARD DISCRETION." There is no online portal, published RFP, or dedicated foundation website — the URL on file, hickeyfamily.org, actually resolves to the Hickey family's personal site (calendar, recipes, photo galleries), not a grants page.

The foundation's tracked history of 124 grants totaling $1,669,000 (average $13,460/grant) shows two parallel giving patterns. First, sustained, repeat support to a small set of anchor organizations: Catholic University of America alone received 7 grants totaling $480,000 tagged "DIAMOND PROJECT" and "ATHLETICS – BASEBALL," suggesting a personal or alumni tie rather than a competitive award. Second, a long tail of modest ($2,000–$40,000), largely "UNRESTRICTED" recurring gifts to Chicago-area Catholic and civic institutions (Catholic Charities, St. Elizabeth Catholic School, the Art Institute of Chicago, Lincoln Park Zoo) alongside international relief and global-health nonprofits (Against Malaria Foundation, SolarAid, Give Directly, Malaria Consortium).

First-time applicants should treat HFF as a relationship-driven, not competition-driven, funder. Cold proposals compete against an established roster of grantees the family already trusts and re-funds year over year. The realistic path in is a warm introduction — through a current grantee, a Chicago Catholic-institution network, or a shared interest in global health or anti-poverty work — followed by a concise business letter (not a formal grant application) describing the organization, the specific need, and an unrestricted or narrowly scoped ask in the $2,000–$40,000 range, which covers the bulk of HFF's typical grant distribution.

The foundation's most recent typical-grant profile (44 awards) runs from $2,000 to $100,000, with a median of $5,000 and an average of $9,648 — a distribution skewed by a handful of larger, repeat grants against a base of small annual gifts. Looked at across its full tracked 124-grant, $1,669,000 history, average grant size rises to $13,460, reflecting multi-year cumulative totals to top recipients.

Recipient concentration is high: Catholic University of America accounts for $480,000 of the $1.67M tracked (29%), more than the next two recipients combined — Against Malaria Foundation ($300,000/3 grants, 18%) and SolarAid ($100,000/4 grants, 6%). The top three recipients alone represent 53% of all documented giving, while dozens of smaller grantees ($2,000–$30,000 total) round out the rest.

Total annual giving has grown substantially over the foundation's history: $140,150 in its founding year (FY2012, funded by a $4.275M initial contribution), $214,010 (FY2013), $380,068 (FY2019), $428,504 (FY2020), $439,680 (FY2021), then a one-year spike to $835,732 (FY2022) before settling to $496,500 across 40 grants (FY2024) and roughly $490,505–$495,308 across 44 grants (FY2025, per Instrumentl and ProPublica respectively). FY2025 revenue of $486,765 came almost entirely (95.6%) from dividends and net investment income rather than new contributions — the foundation is funding grants purely off its existing $5.97M endowment.

Geographically, grantees cluster heavily in Illinois (46 of 124 tracked grants, 37%), followed by DC (17, 14%), Florida and New York (13 each, 10%), and a notable secondary cluster in Hawaii (9 grants, 7% — Hope Services Hawaii, Family Programs Hawaii, Holualoa Foundation for Arts & Culture), which is not reflected in the foundation's own stated geographic_focus of IL/DC/NY and likely signals a personal family connection. Purpose tags are overwhelmingly "UNRESTRICTED," with occasional disaster-relief-specific tags (Hurricane Ian, Ukraine, Puerto Rico earthquake, Yemen relief) rather than defined multi-year program buckets.

These five peers were selected on near-identical total asset size — all within $2,500 of HFF's $5,973,675, essentially the same wealth tier — rather than on giving pattern, geography, or program focus, and none discloses public giving data or maintains a working foundation website (all list website: null in available data). What distinguishes HFF within this tier is transparency of intent: its 990 filings expose an actual grant-by-grant history (124 grants, $1.67M cumulative) and an explicit, if informal, application channel ("business letter request," board discretion). None of that is independently confirmed for the five peers; as small, single-family vehicles with no web presence, they most likely operate the same closed, relationship-only model HFF does, making this peer set more useful as an asset-tier benchmark than as a menu of comparably accessible funders.

Most web search results for "Hickey Family Foundation" return an unrelated, much larger foundation (EIN 86-6331657, Mesa, AZ / Omaha, NE, ~$138.5M in assets) that happens to share this name — that organization's invitation-only policy and much larger grant sizes do not describe the Chicago foundation covered here (EIN 46-1476598), and applicants should disregard any advice tied to that profile.

For the correct foundation, the most recent verified activity is its FY2025 Form 990-PF (available via ProPublica and Instrumentl as of a May 25, 2026 data refresh): total assets of $5,973,675, total giving of approximately $490,505–$495,308 across 44 grants, funded almost entirely (95.6%) by dividend and net investment income rather than new contributions — the foundation is spending down investment returns on its existing endowment, not raising new money. This continues a stable giving pattern in the ~$490,000–$500,000 band across FY2024 ($496,500/40 grants) and FY2025, following a step-up from the ~$430,000–$440,000 levels of FY2020–FY2021 and a one-year spike to $835,732 in FY2022.

Leadership is unchanged in the most recent filing: Robert M. Hickey (President), Gregory R. Hickey (Secretary, sole compensated officer), Douglas L. Hickey (Treasurer), and Kontanze L. Hickey (Vice President) continue to govern. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or press coverage specific to this Chicago foundation surfaced in available web research as of August 2026 — its public footprint is limited to nonprofit-data aggregator profiles (ProPublica, Instrumentl, CauseIQ) rather than its own communications or media coverage, consistent with a foundation that has no dedicated website or public relations presence.

There is no online application, application portal, or published RFP for this foundation — its own IRS filing data lists the process as a "BUSINESS LETTER REQUEST," reviewed at "BOARD DISCRETION." Do not spend time looking for a grants portal or an application_form_url; none exists in the foundation's public record. Instead, mail or deliver a concise business letter to 141 W Jackson Blvd, Ste 2250, Chicago, IL 60604, and consider calling (312) 922-0062 first to confirm the right recipient and mailing preference, since no contact_name or contact_email is on file — correspondence likely routes to Gregory R. Hickey, the foundation's Secretary and only compensated/administratively active officer.

Because board discretion, not staff scoring, governs decisions, frame the request as building a relationship rather than winning a competition. Anchor the pitch to demonstrated interests rather than assumptions: Catholic and faith-based Chicago institutions (Catholic Charities, St. Elizabeth Catholic School, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago), global-health and anti-poverty organizations (Against Malaria Foundation, Malaria Consortium, Give Directly, SolarAid), and Chicago cultural/civic anchors (Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Park Zoo, Shedd Aquarium, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Botanic Garden). A proposal outside these lanes is a weak fit regardless of quality.

Size the ask realistically: request $2,000–$40,000 for a first approach — this covers the large majority of the 44-grant FY2025 distribution (median $5,000, average $9,648). Requesting anywhere near six figures as a cold, first-time applicant is unrealistic; grants that size (Catholic University of America's cumulative $480,000) reflect an established, multi-year relationship, not a single large award. Since 90%+ of tracked grants are tagged "UNRESTRICTED," a general-operating-support request is more consistent with HFF's actual practice than a tightly scoped, restricted program ask.

There is no stated deadline or funding cycle (application_deadline and funding_cycle are both blank in filings) — treat this as rolling, informal giving rather than a cycle to plan around. The single biggest mistake to avoid is submitting a lengthy, multi-page formal application packet; the "business letter request" language strongly implies the board prefers a short, personal letter. Given the foundation's tiny administrative footprint (three of four directors are unpaid), a warm introduction from an existing grantee — for example, Catholic Charities, Misericordia, or one of the global-health grantees — will do more than a polished but cold submission.