Hulsebosch Hope Foundation

Hulsebosch Hope Foundation (HHF) is a young, family-directed foundation — seeded with a $10 million contribution in 2021 and run entirely by Hulsebosch family members (Thomas G. Hulsebosch as President and Nancy Heraty Hulsebosch as Secretary/Treasurer, plus five other family directors, all uncompensated) through Foundation Source in Wilmington, DE. It funds exclusively in metropolitan Chicago, with an explicit preference for the south and west sides, and organizes its giving around three pillars: good health and well-being, quality education, and meaningful work/economic growth. HHF favors mid-sized, growth-oriented 501(c)(3)s with annual budgets between $150,000 and $5,000,000 — it is not a foundation for very small grassroots start-ups or large institutions. The relationship model is structured and multi-stage: a Prospective Grantee Survey gate for new applicants, followed by an invited full application, a site visit, and a funding decision roughly eight months after the initial survey opens. Returning grantees follow a faster, separate cycle (application Feb–Apr, awards from May 21), suggesting HHF builds multi-year relationships once a grantee is admitted — 17 of the 23 organizations in the 2025 cohort were returning grantees, versus only 6 new admits. First-time applicants should treat the survey stage as a genuine screen, not a formality: the foundation explicitly declines scholarships, summer/weekend-only programming, high-school-only mentorship, mental-health services without licensed clinicians, and communications/media-only projects. The DB grantee history (70 grants, $692,289 total, $9,890 average) confirms a strong Illinois concentration (59 of 70 grants) with occasional outliers in WI, NY, CA, and CT — likely tied to family or parish connections (e.g., Lourdes Academy of Oshkosh, WI) rather than a broadening geographic mandate. A recurring vein of Catholic-affiliated grantees (parish capital campaigns, Jesuit refugee relief, Kolbe House prison ministry, Knights of Columbus) suggests values-aligned framing can help, even though the public-facing mission language is secular and outcomes-driven.

Per the foundation's public grant profile, typical individual awards run $100 to $30,000, with grant size scaling to the length of the relationship with HHF — newer grantees start lower and returning grantees can be renewed at higher levels over time. Total annual giving has grown sharply since the foundation's 2021 founding: $0 in 2021 (the funding year, when HHF received its $10,000,000 seed contribution and paid no grants), $115,207 across 16 grants in 2022, $461,875 across 38 grants in 2023, and approximately $400,495 across 45 grants in 2024. Total assets have held steady in the $8.9M-$9.7M range across this period ($9,983,627 in 2021 down to $8,964,166 in 2024), with net investment income ($156,518 in 2023, $96,098 in 2022) providing most of the funding beyond the initial corpus — annual new contributions have been minimal ($5,076 in 2023, $1,042 in 2022). The DB's own 70-grant sample (a partial multi-year window, total $692,289, average $9,890 per grant) breaks down heavily by state: Illinois 59 grants, Wisconsin 6, New York 3, and one each in California and Connecticut. By program area, the largest cumulative recipients span all three pillars: Empower Illinois ($41,414 across 4 grants, tied to St. Thomas of Villanova School's parent-empowerment program — quality education), Urban Growers Collective ($40,000 for a capital campaign — sustainable community/economic growth), All Saints Catholic Congregation ($36,000 capital campaign), Catholic Bishop of Chicago/Kolbe House Jail Ministries ($35,000 across 3 grants — health/human services), and Boxing Out Negativity ($34,100 across 3 grants — youth development). Grant sizes at the low end (several $500-$5,000 grants to groups like Sojourner Family Peace Center and Wags 2 Wishes) suggest HHF also makes smaller exploratory or one-off gifts alongside its core mid-sized program grants.

All six foundations sit in a remarkably tight asset band around $8.96-8.97M, typical of family foundations administered through the same Foundation Source-style back office with similarly sized initial endowments. Hulsebosch Hope stands out from this peer set as the only one with a public, navigable website, a published multi-stage application process, and disclosed grant activity — the other five peers publish no grants pages or public giving data, meaning they likely operate by invitation only or through personal networks. That transparency makes HHF meaningfully more accessible to cold applicants than its near-identical-asset peers, most of which have no discoverable public entry point at all.

HHF's most concrete recent milestone is its 2025 Grantee Reception, publicized via a brochure listing 6 new grantees — Juvenile Protection Association, Raw Talent Performing Arts, Tutoring Chicago, Jewish Free Loan Chicago, Youth Job Center, and Women Employed — alongside 17 returning grantees spanning health (La Rabida Children's Hospital, Mobile Care Chicago, Nourishing Hope, Centro Sanar, Cristo Rey High School, Chinese American Service League, Focus Fairies Mentoring, The Puddle Project), education (Boxing Out Negativity, Something Good In Englewood, Chicago Youth Programs, SkyART, The People's Music School, Shedd Aquarium, BandWith Chicago), and economic growth (Onward Neighborhood House, Sunshine Enterprises, Farmworker and Landscaper Advocacy Project, Mujeres Latinas En Acción, Lawrence Hall). No leadership changes were found — the same seven Hulsebosch/Dimartino family directors have held their roles across the two most recent 990 filings reviewed, with Thomas G. Hulsebosch and Nancy Heraty Hulsebosch as the consistent officers (recently shown as co-presidents). The foundation opened its 2026 new-applicant cycle on February 16, 2026 (survey window through April 30, invitations June 3, applications due July 10, site visits mid-July through mid-September, decisions October 1), while its 2026 returning-grantee cycle ran February 4 through April 15 with awards distributing from May 21, 2026 onward — both cycles are now in progress or recently completed as of this report. No major gift, capital event, or press coverage beyond the foundation's own site and grants-database listings was found for 2025-2026, consistent with a low-profile family foundation that does not seek media attention.

Do not attempt to apply directly — HHF's front door for new organizations is the Prospective Grantee Survey, open February 16 through April 30 each year; only survey respondents who meet the eligibility screen (Chicago-based 501(c)(3), budget $150,000-$5,000,000, primary service to south/west side under-resourced communities) are invited to submit a full application by June 3. Missing the survey window means waiting a full year, so calendar it now for the 2027 cycle. Frame the proposal squarely inside one of the three pillars — good health & well-being, quality education, or meaningful work & economic growth — and use HHF's own language ('effective, sustainable programs,' 'thriving, sustainable communities') rather than generic grant-speak. Explicitly avoid the foundation's stated exclusions: scholarships, summer-only or weekend-only programming, high-school-only mentorship, unlicensed mental-health services, deficit reduction, and media/communications-only projects — proposals that brush against these categories should reframe the ask around direct service delivery instead. Because HHF conducts site visits (mid-July to mid-September for new applicants) before its October 1 decision, be prepared to host foundation representatives at an actual program site, not just a headquarters meeting — this is a foundation that wants to see the work, not just read about it. Given the recurring appearance of Catholic parishes, schools, and ministries in the grantee list (All Saints Catholic Congregation, Kolbe House, Jesuit refugee relief, Knights of Columbus), faith-affiliated organizations serving the same neighborhoods should not hesitate to apply even though HHF's public mission statement is secular. Grant sizes typically start modest ($100-$10,000 range) for first-time grantees and grow with the relationship — Empower Illinois's cumulative $41,414 across 4 grants shows HHF renews and increases support for programs that perform, so first-year applicants should set realistic initial ask sizes ($10,000-$20,000 is the disclosed typical range for new grants) and plan to reapply annually via the faster returning-grantee cycle (Feb-Apr, awards from May 21) rather than treating year one as a one-time gift.