Huntington Foundation Inc.

Huntington Foundation Inc. is a small, closely-held Huntington, WV private foundation (tax-exempt since 1937, EIN 55-0370129) run by an all-volunteer four-person board — Leon K. Oxley (President), Dr. Todd W. Gress (Treasurer), Dr. Joseph B. Touma (Vice President), and Margaret Mary Layne (Secretary) — each drawing a flat $4,800 annual stipend and holding the identical role across every filing year examined. That officer stability signals a long-tenured, low-turnover institution rather than one cycling through new program staff. The 990 lists a "standard application form submitted to grant committee for approval," but the actual grant record tells a more relationship-driven story: of 41 recorded grants totaling $976,500, the top 10 recipients account for 86.9% of dollars, and every one is a long-established Huntington-area institution — Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, Huntington YMCA, Huntington Museum of Art, Heritage Farm Foundation, Marshall University, United Way of the River Cities. That concentration pattern is far more consistent with a quasi-invited, cultivation-based pipeline than an open RFP process, even though no formal "invitation only" policy is stated anywhere. First-time or unfamiliar applicants should plan for a longer relationship-building runway rather than expecting a cold-submission win. No functioning public website or online portal exists for this foundation — the domain most databases list (huntingtonfoundation.org) actually belongs to an unrelated Long Island, NY school foundation — so applicants must initiate contact by phone at (304) 522-0611 or by mail (PO Box 2548, Huntington, WV 25726) to request the paper application. Best-fit applicants are established 501(c)(3)s based in Cabell/Wayne County, WV (occasionally reaching into Boyd County, KY) requesting capital or equipment support — construction, renovation, HVAC, vehicles, medical/monitoring equipment — rather than general operating dollars or unproven new programs. The foundation is comfortable making multi-year, phased commitments to a single grantee's capital campaign, as shown by its three separate grants totaling $255,000 to Keith-Albee for accessible seating, construction drawings, and a wall rebuild. Given only ~$300K-$380K in typical annual giving against $7.3M in assets, expect selective, incremental award sizes — align a request to one discrete phase or line item of a larger project rather than the full budget.

Across the available multi-year grant record (41 grants, $976,500 total, average $23,817 per grant), giving is overwhelmingly local: 40 of 41 grants went to West Virginia organizations and just 1 to Kentucky, with none recorded elsewhere. The foundation's own typical-grant-size data (most recent sampled year) shows a median of $24,000, an average of $35,211, and a range from $500 to $125,000 — while the full historical range across all years spans $400 (Huntington Blues Society, harmonicas for children's workshops) to a $255,000 cumulative, three-grant commitment to Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center. By recipient share of the $976,500 total: Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center leads at $255,000 (26.1%, 3 grants for accessible seating, construction drawings, and a wall rebuild), followed by Huntington YMCA at $142,500 (14.6%, 4 grants covering house demolition, HVAC, a vehicle, and roofing), Huntington Museum of Art at $100,000 (10.2%, 4 grants for gallery renovation, a living wall, and exhibit connections), Heritage Farm Foundation at $67,500 (6.9%, ski slope, elk enclosure, wildlife program), and Marshall University School of Medicine at $60,000 (6.1%, geriatric program). By purpose category, capital/facilities projects (construction, HVAC, roofing, vehicles) dominate at roughly 45-50% of dollars, followed by health/human services (Facing Hunger Food Bank $45,000; Lily's Place $39,000; Marshall Health $25,200) at about 15%, arts and culture (Keith-Albee, Huntington Symphony Orchestra $15,000, Blues Society) at about 28%, and youth/scouting (Buckskin Council Boy Scouts $50,000) at about 5%. Annual giving has swung with investment performance rather than new contributions — the foundation receives essentially $0 in outside contributions most years and funds giving entirely from net investment income and asset sales. Total giving was $683,065 in 2012 (grants paid $606,949, an outlier year), fell to $265,489-$289,228 through 2013-2019, then recovered to $371,571-$389,670 in 2020-2022, hit $377,482 in 2023 (on a strong $660,641 net investment income year), and settled to an estimated $296,416 in charitable disbursements for 2024 on $447,499 in revenue. Total assets have held steady in the $6.4M-$7.4M band for over a decade, currently $7,308,771 (2024) / $7,228,509 per the most recent 990-PF.

Huntington Foundation Inc. sits at the small end of the Huntington, WV funder landscape by both assets and annual giving, and is unusual among local peers for having no public application channel at all.

Huntington Foundation Inc. gives roughly one-tenth what Pallottine or Tri-State disburse annually and less than 2% of Benedum's grantmaking, but its hyper-local, capital-project focus and long-tenured four-person board make it a realistic target specifically for established Huntington-area institutions already known to the community — a profile closer to a family foundation than a professionally staffed grantmaker. Organizations that also fit Pallottine's health/homelessness mandate or Benedum's education/economic-development mandate should prioritize those larger, formally open funders first and treat Huntington Foundation Inc. as a smaller, supplementary source for a specific capital line item.

The foundation's most recent Form 990-PF was filed November 14, 2025, covering fiscal year 2024, and shows total assets of approximately $7.2-7.3 million with $447,499 in revenue — a jump driven by $253,076 in realized gains from asset sales rather than any new contributions (the foundation has taken in $0 in outside contributions in every recent filing year). No leadership changes surfaced in current research: Leon K. Oxley, Dr. Todd W. Gress, Dr. Joseph B. Touma, and Margaret Mary Layne continue to hold the same officer roles they have held across the filing history reviewed. No dedicated press releases, new program announcements, or website updates from the foundation itself were found in 2025-2026 web searches — this appears to be a low-visibility, non-marketing funder. The most relevant recent activity in its orbit involves its largest historical grantee: the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center reopened in November 2025 after a two-year, multi-funder renovation that also drew a $7,500 Truist West Virginia Foundation grant for a new sound system and $100,000 from Marathon Petroleum's Catlettsburg refinery — Huntington Foundation Inc.'s own $255,000 in prior seating, drawings, and structural-wall grants to the same theater were part of that broader capital campaign. Separately, the much larger Pallottine Foundation of Huntington announced $575,000 in homelessness-program grants on March 3, 2026, underscoring that Huntington's philanthropic activity is currently concentrated among a handful of larger, more visible funders while Huntington Foundation Inc. continues its quieter, lower-volume giving pattern.

Because there is no public application portal, the first and most important step is a direct phone call to (304) 522-0611 (or a letter to PO Box 2548, Huntington, WV 25726) to confirm the foundation is still accepting the "standard application form" referenced on its 990-PF and to request that form directly — do not rely on any web search result claiming to link to an online portal, since the domain most databases associate with this foundation belongs to an unrelated New York school foundation. Lead with a specific, named local project rather than general operating support: the grant history shows a strong preference for tangible capital and equipment needs — construction, renovation, HVAC, roofing, vehicles, and specialized medical/monitoring equipment — over program funding or new/unproven initiatives. Quantify the project's Huntington/Tri-State community impact concretely (population served, capacity added, accessibility improved), mirroring language used in funded projects like Keith-Albee's "accessible seating" upgrade and the YMCA's HVAC and roof replacements. Since 86.9% of recorded dollars went to a small set of repeat, well-established institutions, organizations without an existing track record or connection in the Huntington nonprofit community should expect this to be a longer-term cultivation target rather than a first-year win — consider building visibility through shared grantees or board-adjacent institutions (Marshall University, United Way of the River Cities, YMCA) before applying cold. Don't request the full cost of a large capital project; the typical award is $24,000 (median) and tops out around $125,000, so frame the ask as one discrete phase or component — the foundation has shown willingness to fund the same institution across multiple years/grants for sequential phases of one project (as with Keith-Albee's three separate awards). A common mistake would be treating this like an open community foundation with rolling deadlines and marketing outreach; instead, budget extra lead time for a manual, phone-first process and confirm the grant committee's review cadence directly, since no meeting schedule or annual deadline is published anywhere online. Avoid requesting funding for programs or geographies outside Cabell/Wayne County, WV (with rare Boyd County, KY exceptions) — every recorded grant in the data stayed within this hyper-local footprint.