Hunter Foundation

The Hunter Foundation is a small, unstaffed private family foundation controlled entirely by trustees Andre Hunter and Kelly Hunter, who take zero compensation and operate out of their accountant's office at 575 Lexington Avenue rather than a dedicated foundation address. There is no public grants program, no online application, and IRS records list "application_instructions" as blank — this is a closed, relationship-driven funder, not one soliciting proposals. Of the 151 recorded grants in the dataset, the overwhelming majority went to organizations that received funding in 2 or 3 consecutive years, and the same roughly 50 organizations recur across the giving history. That pattern, combined with geography, tells the real story: 96 of 151 grantees (64%) are in New York, concentrated in Bedford, NY civic institutions (Bedford Free Library, Bedford Fire Company, Bedford Historical Society, Bedford 2030) and New York City performing-arts organizations, while a second cluster of 27 grantees sits in New Hampshire and Vermont (Dartmouth College, Dartmouth-Hitchcock/Geisel School of Medicine, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Upper Valley Haven, Ausbon Sargent Land Trust, Forest Society of NH) — strongly suggesting the trustees split time between Westchester County and the Dartmouth/Upper Valley corridor and give to institutions tied to their own community and alma mater. The single largest disbursement, $2,062,650 across three grants to Jewish Communal Fund, is a donor-advised-fund pass-through rather than a program grant, meaning actual direct charitable giving to operating nonprofits is considerably smaller than the topline total suggests. For an organization with no existing tie to the trustees, this is a low-probability cold-outreach target. The organizations most likely to succeed are New York City theater and performing-arts groups (New York Theatre Workshop, MCC Theater, MasterVoices, and similar mid-size companies appear repeatedly), pediatric health/cancer research institutions (Damon Runyon, Blythedale Children's Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering), and small civic or land-conservation groups in the Bedford, NY or Upper Valley, NH/VT footprint. There is no evidence of an LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; funding instead appears to follow personal relationships and renews quietly year over year at modest dollar levels.

Across the sampled filing years, this foundation's assets held essentially flat at roughly $7.0–7.3M (2019–2024), while total giving swung widely: $280,028 (2019), $414,957 (2020), $1,148,459 (2021), $777,661 (2022), and $667,566 (2023) — a payout rate that has ranged from about 4% to over 16% of assets depending on whether a large one-time gift landed that year. The most recent Form 990-PF (FY2024) shows disbursements of roughly $393,764 against $403,650 in revenue, suggesting the foundation is reverting toward its lower historical range. Grant size is heavily bimodal: the IRS-reported typical grant size shows a median of just $696 against an average of $20,341 (min $100, max $962,650, n=53) — meaning the bulk of individual checks are small, four-figure-or-less gifts, while a handful of large relationship gifts (Dartmouth College, Jewish Communal Fund) pull the average far above what a typical applicant should expect. Excluding the $2,062,650 routed to Jewish Communal Fund (a DAF, not an operating charity), the remaining roughly $392,800 in tracked direct grants breaks down approximately as: Arts & Culture ~29% ($113K — New York Theatre Workshop $24,580/3 grants, Hopkins Center for the Arts $22,500/3 grants, MasterVoices $25,000/2 grants, MCC Theater $13,000/3 grants), Human Services ~25% ($99K — Access Supports for Living $40,000/2 grants, The Guidance Center of Westchester $17,010, Jesuit Refugee Service $10,296/2 grants), Education ~14% ($53K — Dartmouth College $27,390/3 grants, Inner City/Inner City Scholarship Fund $25,000 combined), Health/Medical ~13% ($49K — Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation $19,444/2 grants, Blythedale Children's Hospital $12,500/3 grants), Advocacy ~10% ($40.5K — ActBlue Charities $30,000/2 grants, Planned Parenthood $7,500/3 grants), and small remainders (~5%) split between Bedford, NY civic groups and NH/VT land conservation. Geographically, New York captures 64% of grantee count, followed by New Hampshire (13%), Vermont (5%), and New Jersey (4%), with single-digit representation in DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, Arizona, Colorado, and Pennsylvania.

Hunter Foundation sits at the small end of the private-foundation spectrum — roughly 5–20% the asset size of comparably-named peers like Roy A. Hunt Foundation and Achelis and Bodman Foundation, both of which at least publish formal (if selective) application processes. This foundation offers neither: it has no staff, no communications presence, and no public grant guidelines, placing it closer to the informal, trustee-driven norm typical of unstaffed family foundations under $10M in assets. Where the larger peers spread six-figure grants across over 100 recipients annually, Hunter Foundation's median grant of $696 signals it operates more like a checkbook for the trustees' personal philanthropic relationships than an institutional grantmaking program.

No independent news coverage, leadership changes, or new program announcements could be confirmed for this specific foundation (EIN 13-6094021) in 2025–2026. Andre Hunter and Kelly Hunter have been the foundation's only listed trustees across its available filing history (2012–2024), with no compensation reported in any year, and no staff or officer changes appear in the record. The most recent available filing data (FY2024, per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) shows total assets of $7,020,668 (essentially unchanged from FY2023's $7,082,769) and revenue of $403,650, with charitable disbursements of roughly $393,764 — consistent with the foundation's recent pattern of modest, steady giving rather than any new initiative or expansion. Note that web searches for "Hunter Foundation" surface substantial 2025 news for unrelated organizations sharing the name — most notably the Hunter Family Foundation of Highland Park, IL, which announced a $10 million leadership gift to Ravinia Festival in February 2025 (renaming its main stage the Hunter Pavilion) as part of a $75M capital campaign, and The Hunter Foundation in Scotland, tied to the 2025 Glasgow Kiltwalk. Grant seekers should take care not to confuse these organizations' news, staff, or application processes with this New York foundation, which has no comparable public profile. Absent any signal of change, the safest assumption for applicants is that this foundation's giving will continue on its historical trustee-directed, relationship-based pattern through 2026.

There is no formal application process to optimize for here — the foundation's own records list "application_instructions" as blank, and no online portal, LOI form, or published guidelines exist. Practical guidance for this specific funder: (1) Do not submit to hunterfoundation.org's contact form — that is an unrelated Tannersville, NY nonprofit; the actual mailing address of record is 575 Lexington Avenue, 34th Fl, New York, NY 10022, c/o Hertz Herson & Co (the foundation's accountants), phone (212) 686-7160. (2) Relationship is everything — nearly every organization in the grantee history received funding in 2–3 consecutive years, which means the realistic path in is an existing board, alumni, or personal connection to Andre or Kelly Hunter, not a cold proposal. (3) If your organization sits in one of the foundation's demonstrated communities — Bedford, NY civic/community groups, New York City theater and performing arts, Dartmouth College or the Upper Valley NH/VT region, or pediatric health/cancer research — you have materially better odds than an organization outside those clusters. (4) Set expectations on size: the median tracked grant is just $696, and the large majority of gifts fall under $5,000; requesting a first-time five- or six-figure gift is out of step with this funder's typical behavior (the rare large checks, like $27,390 to Dartmouth College or $2M+ routed to Jewish Communal Fund, went to decades-long relationships, not new applicants). (5) A common mistake would be reading the foundation's 2021 giving spike to $1.15M as evidence of new capacity for grantees — that jump tracked a one-time surge in investment income and contributions, not a change in strategy or an opening for new organizations. (6) Because there's no site-visit or formal review cycle evident in the data, a short, direct letter introducing the organization and any personal/institutional tie to the trustees is more appropriate than a full grant proposal package.