Hunter Capuzzi Family Foundation

Hunter Capuzzi Family Foundation (EIN 87-2788076, Wilmington, DE) is a small, all-volunteer family foundation with $10,857,249 in reported assets and no paid staff — its four officers (Madlyn A. Hunter, President; Rebecca E. Capuzzi and Matthew T. Hunter, Vice Presidents; Robert J. Hunter, Secretary/Treasurer) each list $0 in compensation, confirming this is a founder-and-family operation rather than an institutional grantmaker with program staff. According to the foundation's own site, it was established in 2021 by Robert and Lynn Hunter and received its formal IRS tax-exempt ruling in June 2024, meaning its public grantmaking infrastructure — including the online application form at huntercapuzzi.org/apply/ — is still relatively new. The foundation's stated preference is explicit and faith-forward: it seeks to partner with organizations that provide "care and development primarily for children and youth, support and lift those in need, and enhance theological education and formation," inspired by the family's Christian faith. Eligibility criteria published on the site require 501(c)(3) status, U.S.-based operations, mission alignment with children/family support, a proven track record, financial transparency, and — notably — a stated preference for organizations with clear religious connections. For first-time applicants, the relationship model appears transactional rather than relationship-built: there is no disclosed Letter of Intent stage, no board interview process, and no program officer to build rapport with ahead of submission. The single online form (name, organization, website, statement of purpose, fund usage, and requested amount) functions as both the LOI and the full application, so applicants should treat it with the depth of a full proposal rather than a quick inquiry. Because the foundation discloses no grantee list and no total_grants in available records, organizations cannot benchmark past awardees by sector or geography — the strongest signal available is the foundation's own mission language and its Philadelphia-area framing on the About page. Faith-based child- and family-serving nonprofits, particularly those with a Delaware Valley presence or theological education component, are the clearest fit; secular organizations without a religious identity are working against a stated preference, not just an unstated one.

Disclosed grant activity is unusually thin for a foundation of this asset size, and the two most recent 990 filings tell a shifting story. In FY2022, the foundation reported $105,000 in grants paid against $4,101,672 in total assets and $2,071,989 in total revenue (including $2,100,000 in contributions received and $28,263 in net investment income). In FY2023, grants paid fell to $0 even as total assets grew to $5,864,088 and contributions received remained substantial at $1,700,000; "total giving" that year was recorded at $27,981 — likely reflecting minor distributions, scholarships, or administrative grant-adjacent spending rather than program grants. Current asset records show $10,857,249, meaning reported assets have roughly doubled again since the FY2023 filing, funded by continued family contributions rather than market performance. No individual grantee records, award amounts, or program-area/geographic breakdowns are available in the underlying data (zero grants in the top-50 grantee list), so funding patterns cannot be benchmarked the way they could for an established funder. The clearest quantitative signal available is the foundation's own published application tiers: $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, or "amounts exceeding $20,000" — strongly suggesting that typical awards cluster in the $5,000-$20,000 range, with larger grants handled case-by-case and likely reserved for organizations with an existing family relationship. One important flag for applicants: a private foundation with roughly $10.86M in assets is generally expected under IRS minimum-distribution rules to pay out approximately 5% annually (roughly $540,000/year) — the disclosed $0-$105,000 in recent grants paid is well below that threshold on the two filings available, which most plausibly reflects either a foundation still ramping up its grantmaking infrastructure post-2024 IRS ruling, or filings that predate a planned distribution increase. Applicants should expect grant volume and dollar totals to rise materially in the next 1-2 filing cycles as the foundation matures.

Hunter Capuzzi Family Foundation sits in a tightly clustered peer set of five other "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" category foundations, all reporting assets within roughly $20,000 of one another (~$10.85M-$10.87M) — an unusually narrow band suggesting these are being compared primarily on asset size rather than mission similarity.

What distinguishes Hunter Capuzzi from this peer set is transparency and accessibility: it is the only one of the six with a live public website, a published mission statement, and a self-serve online application — three of the five peers have no website on file at all, and Under Armour Foundation's corporate structure typically implies an invitation-only or employee-directed giving model rather than open applications. For grant seekers, this makes Hunter Capuzzi meaningfully more approachable than its size-matched peers, even though its disclosed payout history ($0-$105,000/year) is modest relative to a $10.86M asset base and gives little precedent to benchmark against.

No independent news coverage, press releases, or third-party grantee announcements for Hunter Capuzzi Family Foundation were located in web searches covering 2025-2026 — this is consistent with a small, all-volunteer family foundation that does not conduct its own public relations. The most concrete recent milestone on record is the foundation's IRS tax-exempt ruling date of June 2024 (per the underlying data record), which post-dates the foundation's stated 2021 founding by Robert and Lynn Hunter and likely explains why formal grantmaking infrastructure — including the current online application portal at huntercapuzzi.org/apply/ — appears to be a relatively recent addition. As of this research (July 2026), the foundation's website is live and its application form is open and accepting submissions, with no stated deadline or grant cycle window published. Leadership has been stable across the officer roles on record — Madlyn A. Hunter (President), Rebecca E. Capuzzi and Matthew T. Hunter (Vice Presidents), and Robert J. Hunter (Secretary/Treasurer) — with no reported changes. The foundation's asset base has grown substantially in recent filings (from $4.10M in FY2022 to $5.86M in FY2023 to $10.86M in the current record), reflecting continued family contributions ($1.7M-$2.1M/year) well in excess of disclosed grant payouts, which is the most notable "activity" signal available in the absence of press coverage: this looks like a foundation still building toward its intended grantmaking scale rather than one already operating at a steady-state payout level.

Lead with faith alignment, explicitly. The foundation states it is "inspired by our Christian faith" and prioritizes organizations with "clear religious connections" — proposals should name a theological or faith-based dimension of the work where one genuinely exists (chaplaincy, faith-based youth mentoring, theological education, congregational family support programs) rather than relying on secular framing alone. Organizations without any faith component are working against a stated preference and should weigh whether this is a strong-fit funder before investing time. Second, respect the Philadelphia-area framing from the foundation's About page: even though the legal address is Wilmington, DE, the founder describes the mission as serving children and those in need "primarily in and around the Philadelphia area" — Delaware Valley-based organizations, or those with a clear program presence there, have a structural edge over out-of-region applicants. Third, size the ask deliberately: the application form itself presents tiered request amounts of $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000, and "more than $20,000" — pick the tier that matches a specific, describable use of funds (e.g., "$10,000 to fund one year of our after-school mentoring cohort") rather than requesting an arbitrary number, since the tiering suggests internal review may be structured around these bands. Fourth, there is no disclosed deadline, LOI stage, or program officer — the single online form (contact info, org name/website, statement of purpose, fund usage, requested amount, and a 501(c)(3) attestation) is likely the entire review input, so write the "statement of purpose" and "fund usage" fields with the specificity and evidence you would put into a full proposal narrative: concrete beneficiary numbers, a clear budget use, and a one-line case for faith/mission fit. A common mistake to avoid: submitting a generic child-welfare pitch with no religious or Philadelphia-area anchor, since both appear to be genuine filters rather than incidental language. Because officers are unpaid family members with no listed program staff, keep the tone direct and personal rather than institutional — this reads more like writing to a family than to a foundation bureaucracy. Given the foundation's still-low disclosed payout history, applicants should also set realistic expectations about response time and be prepared to follow up, since there is no stated review timeline.