Hunsaker Family Foundation

The Hunsaker Family Foundation is a young, closed-door private foundation — IRS ruling dated March 2022, seeded with a $6,000,012 contribution in its founding year — governed entirely by the Hunsaker and Arne families (Chairman/President Bryan Hunsaker; Vice Presidents Erik W. Hunsaker, Tyler L. Hunsaker, and Kennedy B. Hunsaker; Secretary/VP Emily T.L. Arne; Treasurer Reid Arne). There are no outside trustees and no advisory committee on record. Its own data confirms the foundation "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations" and "does not accept unsolicited applications for funds" — the application_instructions field in public records is literally blank ("__none__"), and there is no grants page, LOI form, or opportunities URL anywhere in its filings. Grant seekers should treat this as a relationship-only funder, not a competitive RFP program: cold proposals, portals, and generic LOIs will not reach a decision-maker. The most plausible entry points are (1) an existing personal, family, or congregational tie to the Hunsaker/Arne family, given the foundation's largest documented grantee is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for "Mission Support"; or (2) a Utah-based, Salt Lake County-area nonprofit working in adaptive recreation, disability services, or community human-services, following the 2024 grant activity tied to Wasatch Adaptive Sports Inc. Note also a data caution: the website on file, hunsaker.org, resolves to an unrelated Vancouver, WA small-business automation company ("Hunsaker Software Solutions") — not this foundation — so it should not be used for outreach or cited as an authoritative source; no verified foundation-owned web presence was located. First-time prospects should not expect a site visit or multi-stage review process typical of larger funders; at $5.4M in assets and two grants per year, this is a lean, family-directed giving vehicle where a warm introduction — not a polished application packet — is the deciding factor.

Giving has been small, volatile, and non-linear since the foundation's 2021 founding. Total giving by fiscal year: $0 in 2021 (the foundation's first year, funded by a $6,000,012 initial contribution and near-zero net investment income of $12); $117,500 in 2022 (1 grant); $455,065 in 2023 ($448,900 in grants paid, 1 grant); and $369,870 in 2024 (2 grants). Third-party 990 aggregators put the foundation's grant-size range at roughly $42,000 to $448,900, with the largest single checks landing in the $250,000–$500,000 band — meaning this is a foundation that writes a small number of large checks rather than distributing many smaller grants. The DB's cumulative grantee ledger shows the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the top all-time recipient, with 2 grants totaling $235,000 (average $117,500 each) coded "Mission Support" — strongly suggesting faith-based giving has been the dominant historical category. Geographically, third-party data concentrates giving in Florida and Utah, consistent with a family-network-driven, not geography-formula-driven, distribution pattern. Financially, the foundation is stable but not growing: total assets have held in a tight $5.2M–$6.0M band across FY2021–FY2024 ($6.00M → $5.29M → $5.20M → $5.42M), and net investment income (~$190K-$193K in 2022 and 2023) is roughly sufficient to fund annual giving without eroding the corpus. Annual giving as a share of assets — roughly 2%-9% depending on the year — is inconsistent, another marker of a foundation still settling into a steady payout cadence rather than following a fixed formula or percentage-of-assets policy. There is no evidence in filings or web sources of program-area budgets, matching requirements, or multi-year grant commitments.

Granted AI grouped Hunsaker with four other "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" (NTEE T20) foundations that sit within about $2,500 of its $5.42M asset base — a size-matched cohort rather than a mission-matched one.

Three of the five peers have no public website at all, and none disclose a formal application process in available records — underscoring that at this $5-6M asset tier, minimal public infrastructure is the norm, not the exception, for family-run private foundations. Hunsaker is comparatively more transparent than most of this cohort simply by virtue of having identifiable board members, a filed grantee name, and a (mislabeled) web domain, but it shares the same closed, non-competitive structure as its peers.

The most recent public data point is the FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed November 13, 2025, which shows total giving of $369,870 across 2 grants — more than triple the $117,500 given in 2022, though still below the $448,900-$455,065 distributed in 2023. That filing also marks the first year the foundation reported compensated personnel: Brett Paulsen ($49,967) and Obiakaraije O. Esonu ($28,356), a modest but notable shift from an entirely unpaid, all-family operation in its 2021-2023 filings. Secondary 990 databases (Instrumentl) associate 2024 grant activity with Wasatch Adaptive Sports Inc., a Utah adaptive-recreation nonprofit, which — if accurate — would mark a broadening beyond the foundation's earlier, singularly religious grantmaking (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Mission Support," $235,000 across 2022-era grants per Granted AI's grantee ledger). No press releases, news coverage, leadership changes, or program announcements for 2025-2026 were found in web search — unsurprising for a foundation this size with no public communications function. The next public signal will be the FY2025 Form 990-PF, expected to file around November 2026; until then, there is no way to independently confirm current-year (2025-2026) grant activity beyond what is inferred here from third-party 990 aggregators.

There is no formal application to optimize — the foundation's own record lists application_instructions as blank and confirms it does not accept unsolicited proposals, so generic grant-writing advice (strong LOI, compelling budget narrative, etc.) does not apply here. The realistic strategy is relationship intelligence: (1) Identify any existing tie between your organization and the Hunsaker or Arne families, or to LDS Church institutional/congregational channels, since the foundation's clearest documented giving pattern is "Mission Support" grants to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (2) If your organization works in adaptive sports, disability services, or Utah community human-services, note the 2024 grant activity associated with Wasatch Adaptive Sports Inc. and look for shared board, donor, or community connections in the South Jordan/Salt Lake County area. (3) Do not send a cold LOI, proposal, or grant application to any address associated with hunsaker.org — that domain belongs to an unrelated Vancouver, WA software business, not this foundation, and using it risks a dead end or reputational misstep. (4) Because the board is exclusively Hunsaker and Arne family members with no outside program staff or independent trustees, warm introduction through a trusted personal or professional intermediary is the only channel with any evidence of working. (5) Common mistake to avoid: treating the $5.4M asset base as a sign of an active, structured grants program — the foundation has made only 4 grants total across its 3 years of recorded activity (2022-2024), so outreach volume should be calibrated to a very small, personal-network funder, not a mid-size institutional grantmaker. (6) Timing: with filings landing each November, any outreach that references "recent IRS filings" or "your FY2024 grant to [organization]" (if you can verify it) will signal real due diligence rather than a form letter.