Hurley Family Foundation

The Hurley Family Foundation operates as a closely held family philanthropy out of Winnetka, Illinois, governed entirely by five family members — Christopher Hurley (President/Treasurer), Katherine Hurley, Matthew Hurley, Becky Bair Hurley (Secretary), and Daniel Hurley (all Vice Presidents/Directors) — none of whom draw compensation. There is no program staff, no public grants portal, and the foundation's registered domain (hurley.org) is a parked placeholder with no organizational content. Multiple third-party grant directories (Grantable, Cause IQ) independently describe what the foundation's own records flag as preselected-only giving: it funds a fixed roster of organizations and does not solicit or review unsolicited proposals. This makes the Hurley Family Foundation fundamentally a relationship-driven funder, not an open-application one.

The most recent filed grantee list (14 grants to 11 organizations, $294,325 total) reads like a map of the Hurley family's personal and civic network rather than a competitive grants program: Colgate University received the single largest allocation at $175,000 across two gifts; Loyola University Chicago School of Law's 'Hurley Scholarship Fund' and the Indian Hill Scholarship Fund (Winnetka's own school district) each received $25,000 — both named or endowed funds tied directly to the family. Chicago Public Media, Christopher House, Erikson Institute, Metro Squash, and the Winnetka Historical Society round out a portfolio concentrated in Chicago's North Shore civic, educational, and human-services community.

For an applicant with no existing relationship to the Hurley family, the realistic path in is indirect: board or advisory involvement with an organization already in the family's orbit (Winnetka/New Trier-area nonprofits, Chicago Public Media, Loyola Law, Colgate), or a warm introduction through a current grantee or the family's professional network — the foundation's only listed contact point is a phone number (312-602-1415) tied to Christopher Hurley. Cold LOIs or portal submissions are unlikely to be read, let alone funded: there is no application form, no published deadline, and no stated funding priorities in any public filing. Grant seekers should treat this less as 'apply' and more as 'get introduced,' and should expect general operating support — every sampled grant was coded 'OPERATING FUND' — rather than project or capital funding.

Financial data across five available fiscal years (2019-2023) show a foundation with fluctuating, comparatively modest giving built largely on investment income rather than fresh contributions. Total assets peaked at $3,326,349 in FY2019 and declined to $1,773,408 by FY2023 (current on-file balance: $2,632,590), while annual giving swung from $293,467 (2019) to $592,298 (2020) to a dramatic outlier of $2,133,026 in FY2021 — nearly seven times the foundation's typical output — before falling back to $189,122 (2022) and $123,875 (2023). The 2021 spike, paired with a $500,000 maximum single grant in the foundation's overall distribution history, appears to be a one-time large disbursement rather than a new baseline; giving in the two most recent filed years (2022-2023) averages roughly $156,000/year, a better guide to realistic expectations going forward.

Within the most recent filed grantee list (14 grants, $294,325 total, $21,023 average per grant), the distribution is bimodal: a handful of five-figure 'anchor' gifts to institutions with a personal Hurley-family connection (Colgate University $175,000 across two grants, Center for Effective Government $25,000, Indian Hill Scholarship Fund $25,000, Loyola Law's Hurley Scholarship Fund $25,000) sit alongside a long tail of modest gifts (Chicago Public Media $15,000 over two grants, Christopher House $10,000 over two grants, Miami Foundation $5,225, Metro Squash $5,000, Erikson Institute $5,000, Winnetka Historical Society $3,600, and River Forest Community Foundation at just $500). Across the foundation's full multi-year grant history, the typical single grant size is smaller still — a median of $3,000 — with a wide range from $500 to $500,000, confirming that most individual checks are modest even though a small number of large gifts dominate total dollars.

Geographically, 10 of 14 grants (71%) went to Illinois-based organizations, consistent with the foundation's stated Illinois-only geographic focus; the remaining four went to New York (Colgate, 2 grants), DC (Center for Effective Government), and Florida (Miami Foundation) — all tied to specific family or institutional relationships rather than open geographic eligibility. Every recorded grant purpose is 'OPERATING FUND,' indicating the foundation funds general operations exclusively, not restricted projects or capital campaigns.

The IRS groups the Hurley Family Foundation with several similarly-sized (asset-matched) Philanthropy & Grantmaking private foundations clustered around the $2.6M asset mark. None of these peers maintain public websites, underscoring that this is a common profile at this asset tier: small, closely held family foundations with minimal public-facing infrastructure.

All five peers sit within roughly $2,000 of Hurley's $2,632,590 in assets — an asset-matched cohort rather than a mission-matched one, spanning five different states (MN, GA, MA, TX, MO) with no overlapping geography. None publish websites or public grant guidelines, which is typical for family foundations at this scale: IRS Form 990-PF filings are usually the only public record available. For applicants, the practical takeaway is that Hurley is not unusual in its opacity — it reflects a broader pattern among small family foundations of relationship-based, invitation-only giving rather than competitive RFP processes. What distinguishes Hurley from this peer set is that its actual grantee list is visible and shows a clear Chicago/Winnetka-area and Hurley-family-institution concentration, giving applicants an actual pattern to target — something unavailable for the five peers in this dataset.

No news coverage, press releases, leadership changes, or new program announcements were found for the Hurley Family Foundation in 2025 or 2026 — consistent with an all-volunteer family foundation that keeps no active website (hurley.org is a parked/placeholder domain) and no media presence. Web searches surfacing the foundation's name largely return third-party 990-derived grant databases (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Cause IQ, Grantable, Grantmakers.io, Candid) rather than original reporting, and none of these show activity more recent than the FY2023 filing data already reflected in the foundation's own records (last verified 2026-08-15).

The most notable 'recent' development is financial rather than programmatic: total assets fell from a FY2019 peak of $3,326,349 to $1,773,408 by FY2023 (current on-file figure: $2,632,590), and annual giving normalized to roughly $124K-$189K per year in FY2022-2023 after the unusual $2,133,026 outlier in FY2021. There is no indication in available records of new board members beyond the five listed Hurley family directors (Christopher, Katherine, Matthew, Becky Bair, and Daniel Hurley), no announced program changes, and no statement of expanded or narrowed funding priorities.

Given the foundation's structure — no staff, no communications function, no public grant guidelines — grant seekers should not expect to find foundation news through conventional channels. The only reliable way to track its activity is through its annual Form 990-PF filing, most recently reflected through FY2023, which typically becomes publicly available with a 12-18 month lag.

Given the Hurley Family Foundation's confirmed preselected-only giving model — multiple independent directories describe it as funding a fixed roster of organizations and not accepting or reviewing unsolicited requests — the most important tip is recognizing that a traditional LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline does not apply here. There is no application form URL, no deadline, and no published instructions on file (the foundation's own record lists application_instructions as '__none__'); hurley.org, the domain listed as the foundation's website, is a parked page with no programmatic content, contact form, or grant guidelines.

Practical steps for a real shot at Hurley Family Foundation funding: - Build the relationship before you need the money. Every identified grantee ties back to a Hurley family connection — a shared alma mater (Colgate University, $175,000 across two grants), a named scholarship fund carrying the Hurley name at Loyola University Chicago School of Law ($25,000), the local Winnetka school district's Indian Hill Scholarship Fund ($25,000), and Chicago's North Shore civic institutions (Winnetka Historical Society, River Forest Community Foundation). Organizations without board-level or personal ties to the family have essentially no visible path in. - Lead with general operating need, not a restricted project. All 14 sampled grants were coded 'OPERATING FUND' — there's no evidence this foundation funds capital campaigns, research, or narrowly scoped programs. - Don't cold-call the listed phone number (312-602-1415) expecting a grants officer — this is a five-person, all-volunteer family board with no program staff; unsolicited pitches are far more likely to reach Christopher Hurley (President/Treasurer) directly than a formal review process. - Target the Chicago North Shore / Winnetka geography. 71% of grants (10 of 14) went to Illinois organizations, matching the foundation's stated Illinois geographic focus; out-of-state asks need an unusually strong personal connection to clear the bar, as Colgate, DC's Center for Effective Government, and the Miami Foundation apparently had. - Right-size the ask. The typical single grant is modest (median $3,000; most sampled gifts fall between $3,600 and $25,000), even though the foundation is capable of one-time large gifts (up to $500,000 historically, and $2.1M in total giving in the anomalous FY2021 year) — anchor requests in the $5,000-$25,000 range against the realistic baseline rather than the outlier. - Expect no acknowledgment infrastructure. With no grants portal or published contact process, plan for a multi-touch, in-person or board-referred approach rather than a digital application cycle.