Holy Name School Foundation

Holy Name School Foundation is best understood not as a competitive grantmaker but as a dedicated endowment vehicle for a single institution: Holy Name Catholic School, a Pre-K-5th grade parish school of roughly 80 students in Sheridan, Wyoming, founded in 1914. Every grant captured in the platform's grantee data (4 grants totaling $906,552, averaging $226,638 each) went to Holy Name Catholic School itself, and IRS filings show the Foundation's NTEE classification as B82 (Scholarships & Student Financial Aid) with a private non-operating foundation code — the legal and financial structure of a 'friends of the school' fund, not an open community foundation. The five listed officers and trustees (President Arthur Felker, Treasurer John Rotellini, Secretary Richard Kilpatrick, and Trustees Pat Meehan and Ron Mischke) all serve uncompensated, which is typical of a small, closely-held family or parish-affiliated board rather than a staffed grants program. There is no application form, LOI process, funding-cycle date, or grants webpage listed in IRS or web data (`application_process`, `application_deadline`, and `grants_page_url` are all null/none), and the Foundation's own site could not be reached during this research. For an outside nonprofit, the realistic strategy is not to apply cold — there is no evidence this Foundation accepts unsolicited proposals — but to build a relationship through Holy Name Catholic School or the parish (Holy Name Catholic Community) directly, since the school and its allied funders (see below) coordinate giving as a package. Organizations providing direct services to Holy Name Catholic School (curriculum, STREAM/STEM programming, tuition assistance infrastructure, capital projects) have the only plausible path to this Foundation's dollars, and that path runs through the school's administration (Dr. Katy Worman) and pastor (Fr. Glenn Whewell), not a standalone foundation office.

Across the 10 fiscal years captured in Form 990 data (2011-2023, non-consecutive), grants paid ranged from a low of $197,937 (FY2022) to a high of $810,529 (FY2019), with a median of roughly $240,700. Excluding the FY2019 outlier — driven by a one-time $756,033 contribution received that year (versus a typical $2,850-$14,367 in ordinary annual contributions) — steady-state annual grants payments cluster tightly between $197,937 and $320,914. A more recent third-party 990 aggregation shows FY2025 total giving at $215,020, in line with that historical band, though FY2024 shows an anomalous $38,315, most likely a partial or delayed filing rather than a real cut. Total assets have been remarkably stable for over a decade, ranging from $4,437,467 (2012) to $4,983,370 (most recent), implying the Foundation runs as an endowment that spends down investment income and modest annual gains rather than growing through active fundraising — net investment income ($100,000-$450,000/year) consistently exceeds new contributions received (often under $10,000/year outside the 2019 spike). Geographically, 100% of tracked giving stays in Wyoming, and by program area, 100% goes to Catholic K-8 education (per program descriptions: the school itself, 'various scholarship recipients,' and church youth/poor-relief funds) — there is no diversification into health, arts, or other causes. In short: single-recipient, single-state, single-cause giving of roughly $200,000-$320,000 per year in ordinary years, funded from a stable ~$4.7-$5.0M endowment.

The five closest asset-matched peers in the Education NTEE category are similarly small, closely-held foundations clustered around $5 million in assets, none of which disclose a public website or application process — a strong signal that Holy Name School Foundation sits in a common cohort of single-family or single-institution support foundations rather than competitive regional grantmakers.

Holy Name School Foundation is unusual among this peer set only in that its beneficiary (a specific parish school) and giving history are publicly traceable through Form 990s; the other five peers disclose no website and no public grantee data, suggesting they may be even more tightly closed than Holy Name's. None of the six should be treated as an open application target by an unaffiliated nonprofit — all read as vehicle funds for a named family, trust, or institution rather than competitive philanthropies.

No foundation-specific news, leadership changes, or new program announcements were found for 2025-2026. Web searches for the Foundation's name returned only unrelated results from other, larger "Holy Name" schools around the country (Seattle's Holy Names Academy, Oakland's Holy Names High School, Tampa's Academy of the Holy Names, New Orleans' Holy Name of Jesus School) — none of which share governance or funding with the Sheridan, WY foundation. The most concrete recent data point is the third-party 990 aggregation showing FY2025 total giving of $215,020, consistent with the Foundation's historical steady-state range, following an anomalous low of $38,315 in FY2024 that most likely reflects a filing timing issue rather than a real funding cut. On the school side, Holy Name Catholic School (hncswy.org) is currently led by Dr. Katy Worman with Fr. Glenn Whewell as pastor, and the school markets itself as a "Pre-K - 5th Grade, Catholic, STREAM academy" — a slightly narrower framing (through 5th grade) than the Foundation's own IRS program description ("grades 1-8"), which may indicate a recent grade-span or enrollment change at the school worth confirming directly. Total assets have held essentially flat for over a decade (roughly $4.4M-$5.0M since 2011), and there is no evidence of a capital campaign, merger, or governance turnover since the current slate of officers (Felker, Rotellini, Kilpatrick, Meehan, Mischke) was first recorded in the data.

Because Holy Name School Foundation publishes no LOI process, deadline, application form, or grants webpage (all confirmed null/none in IRS enrichment data, and its own domain was unreachable during this research), the standard grant-seeking playbook does not apply here. Practical guidance: (1) Do not submit a cold LOI or generic proposal — there is no reviewer or portal to receive it, and the Foundation's entire traceable grant history (100% of dollars, 4 of 4 tracked grants) has gone to one recipient, Holy Name Catholic School. (2) If your organization IS Holy Name Catholic School, the Holy Name Catholic Community parish, or the Diocese of Cheyenne acting on the school's behalf, engagement should go through the school's own administration (Dr. Katy Worman) or pastor (Fr. Glenn Whewell) rather than treating the Foundation as a separate grants office — the board (Felker, Rotellini, Kilpatrick, Meehan, Mischke) appears to fund the school's budget and scholarship needs directly, likely via an annual request from school leadership rather than a formal RFP cycle. (3) If your organization serves Catholic education in the Sheridan/Big Horn Basin area but is not Holy Name Catholic School itself, redirect effort toward the Thorne-Rider Foundation and the Goar Foundation, both independently documented as co-funders of Holy Name Catholic School and more likely to have a broader, competitive giving posture. (4) Watch for timing: the FY2019 giving spike ($844,874, more than double a typical year) followed a $756,033 one-time contribution received that same year, suggesting the board deploys windfall gifts relatively quickly rather than banking them — a capital request timed to a known bequest or campaign at the school could plausibly unlock above-average support. (5) Common mistake to avoid: treating this as a peer to community foundations like the Thorne-Rider or Goar Foundations that fund a portfolio of grantees — Holy Name School Foundation's structure, board composition, and 100%-single-recipient grant history all indicate it is a dedicated endowment, not a portfolio grantmaker.