Hitchcock Foundation

The Hitchcock Foundation (EIN 86-0474259, Cave Creek, AZ) is not a conventional grantmaker — it is primarily an operating foundation that runs the Lobo Ranch in Paulden, AZ, as a working cattle ranch and a museum housing founder Ed Hitchcock's Western art collection. The IRS-matched grantee data confirms this: across the available filing years, the foundation made just 8 outside grants totaling $16,000, and its own records flag grantmaking as 'preselected only,' with no published application instructions. First-time applicants should treat this as a relationship-driven, closed network rather than a responsive RFP funder.

Every outside dollar tracked went to organizations with direct mission overlap — Western heritage and cowboy-culture museums. Phippen Museum (Prescott, AZ) received the largest share, two grants totaling $10,000 ($5,000 each); Cave Creek Museum, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum (Oklahoma City), and the Prescott Western Heritage Museum each received two smaller grants totaling $2,000 apiece ($1,000/grant). Six of the eight grants stayed within Arizona; two went to Oklahoma. This is a peer-support pattern among fellow Western-heritage institutions, not an open competitive program.

Governance is a small, tight family/insider board: Kurt McFarland (President), Daniel Samsill (Vice President), Melanie Phelps (Secretary/Treasurer), and directors Jack Ingrao, Randy Edwards, and Kathryn Lee Weaver. Compensation data (Ingrao at $30,000, Phelps at $25,725-$27,534) suggests these are working, hands-on roles tied to ranch and museum operations rather than a large professional program staff reviewing proposals.

Practical takeaway: organizations with a genuine, demonstrable connection to Western ranching heritage, cowboy culture, or Arizona/Southwest historical preservation — especially fellow museums or heritage nonprofits already known to the board — have the only realistic path in. A cold, generic LOI addressed to a program office is unlikely to be reviewed; a warm introduction through the existing Western-heritage museum network (Phippen, Cave Creek Museum, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum) is the more credible route.

Financial size and outside giving diverge sharply for this foundation, and both numbers matter for calibrating expectations. Current reported assets stand at $6,063,642 with income of $1,495,100 — a foundation capable of meaningful giving in theory. But the matched grantee dataset shows only 8 recorded outside grants totaling $16,000, averaging $2,000/grant, with a real range of $1,000 to $5,000 per grant. By state: 6 of 8 grants stayed in Arizona, 2 went to Oklahoma.

The Form 990 financial history tells the capitalization story: assets sat at essentially nominal levels for most of the 2010s ($3,193-$11,302 in FY2011-FY2020), then jumped to $1,006,218 in FY2021 (the year founder Edward B. Hitchcock died) on a $1,000,000 contribution received, then to $1,149,457 in FY2022 and $4,707,563 in FY2023 on a further $3,500,000 contribution. This is consistent with a founder's estate flowing into the foundation post-2021, not organic investment growth (net investment income has stayed under $21,000 in every reported year).

Critically, 'total giving' figures ($811 in FY2021, $324,239 in FY2022, $180,822 in FY2023) are not third-party grant totals — the 'grants paid' line shows just $8,000 in FY2022 and $0 in every other reported year. The bulk of 'total giving' is direct program spending: ranch operations, livestock care, museum upkeep, and staff (officer compensation reached $57,534 in FY2023, $55,725 in FY2022, versus $0 in years before the estate transfer). One program is listed on file, with $267,165 in program service expenses, matching the single stated purpose of operating the ranch/museum. In short: this is a well-capitalized foundation whose spending is overwhelmingly self-directed, with outside grantmaking a rounding error — under $20,000 lifetime in the matched data, split among four peer museums.

No true peer-funder dataset was returned for this foundation, which itself is a signal: it does not appear in typical grantmaker directories as an active competitive funder. The most important comparison is the naming collision with the Omaha-based Gilbert M and Martha H Hitchcock Foundation, which is unrelated but shares the exact 'Hitchcock Foundation' name and a similar-looking website (hitchcockfoundation.org vs. the Cave Creek foundation's actual site, thehitchcockfoundation.org) — a real risk of grant seekers applying to, or citing guidelines from, the wrong organization. The other rows are peer Western-heritage museums that received Hitchcock Foundation support, included here to illustrate the network this foundation actually funds within, rather than as comparable funders.

No 2025 or 2026 news coverage, press releases, or public announcements were found for the Cave Creek, AZ Hitchcock Foundation in web search. The foundation maintains a minimal public web presence (thehitchcockfoundation.org) describing its mission and contact details but no news section, blog, or grants-page updates. The most significant known event in the foundation's recent history is the death of founder Edward B. Hitchcock in 2021, which appears to have triggered a major capitalization of the foundation — assets rose from roughly $1M (FY2021, on a $1,000,000 contribution) to $4.7M (FY2023, on an additional $3,500,000 contribution) and now stand at $6,063,642 in the most recent available figures. Current leadership is Kurt McFarland (President), Daniel Samsill (Vice President), and Melanie Phelps (Secretary/Treasurer), with directors Jack Ingrao, Randy Edwards, and Kathryn Lee Weaver — this board composition appears stable across the available filings, with no reported leadership turnover. The Lobo Ranch in Paulden, AZ, and its office in Carefree, AZ, remain the foundation's operating base; there is no indication of a new grant program, RFP cycle, or strategic pivot toward external grantmaking in any source reviewed.

This foundation has no formal grant application process — 'application_instructions' is explicitly recorded as none, and its grantee pattern (8 grants, all to peer Western-heritage museums, over the available filing years) indicates a closed, preselected giving circle rather than a responsive program. Generic cover letters, standardized LOI templates, or mass email blasts to a general info address are unlikely to get traction here.

What to know before reaching out: - Verify you have the right foundation. The correct website is thehitchcockfoundation.org, not hitchcockfoundation.org (that domain belongs to the unrelated Gilbert M and Martha H Hitchcock Foundation in Omaha, NE). Confirming this before drafting anything avoids wasted effort on the wrong org's guidelines. - Alignment must be genuine and specific: every outside grant in the matched data went to an organization preserving Western ranching heritage, cowboy culture, or American West art/history (Phippen Museum, Cave Creek Museum, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Prescott Western Heritage Museum). A proposal from an organization outside that lane has essentially no precedent of being funded. - Grant sizes are modest — the matched history shows $1,000-$5,000 per grant. Do not pitch a large capital ask; this foundation's outside giving behaves like small-dollar peer support among heritage institutions, even though its own balance sheet is now in the multi-million-dollar range post-2021. - Contact channels: the foundation lists a Cave Creek, AZ mailing address (PO Box 4945) and a Carefree, AZ office (11 Sundial Circle Suite 3), phone (480) 488-8714, and email info@thehitchcockfoundation.org on its current site — note this differs from the (480) 522-6692 number in older IRS/BMF records, so confirm the number before calling. - Given the small, hands-on board (President, VP, Secretary/Treasurer, three directors — several in working ranch/museum roles rather than program-officer roles), a warm introduction through an existing Western-heritage museum contact is far more likely to be read than a cold written proposal. - Do not expect a public RFP calendar, site-visit process, or multi-stage review cycle — none is documented anywhere in the foundation's own materials or third-party sources.