J Homer Butler Foundation

J Homer Butler Foundation is a small, volunteer-run, faith-directed family foundation, not a professionalized grantmaking shop — its board of roughly nine directors (several with Jesuit "SJ" affiliations, including President James J. Yannarell SJ and Vice President James F. Keenan SJ) draws token or near-zero compensation ($200-$400/year for most directors), signaling a mission-first, relationship-first culture rather than a metrics-driven one. The foundation favors small, on-the-ground Catholic and Jesuit-affiliated missionary operations over large NGOs or academic/research institutions: its top recipients over time — Embrace A Village ($121,000 across 4 grants for leprosy care in Tamil Nadu), Jesuit Refugee Service ($60,000 for asylum-seeker medical care in South America), Damien House ($52,739 for leprosy care in Ecuador), and Mission Fuel ($40,000 for water wells and leprosy care in Andhra Pradesh) — are almost all sub-$2M annual-budget missionary or medical-mission charities with direct Catholic institutional ties. First-time applicants should understand that this is fundamentally a repeat-relationship funder: of its recognizable grantees, most receive multiple grants across several years rather than a single one-off award, and new entrants (like the 2026 "Rising Star of India" grantee) tend to enter through an existing missionary/diocesan network rather than a cold application. Because the foundation explicitly does not wire funds directly overseas, the practical entry point for most prospective grantees is a US-registered 501(c)3 with either its own missionary program abroad or a fiscal-sponsorship relationship with one — foreign-based organizations must also produce a letter of endorsement from a local diocesan bishop. Expect a simple, letter-based intake (no online portal beyond a request-for-materials step) and a genuinely small check size: this is a foundation to approach for a specific, budget-line-item need (medicine, wound care kits, a well, orthotics, PPE) rather than for general operating support or a capital campaign.

On total assets of $3.81-4.46M over the last decade (peaking at $4.46M in 2011, now $3.81M in FY2023) and annual net investment income in the $70K-$300K range, the foundation's total giving has ranged from a low of $167,509 (FY2013) to a high of $319,338 (FY2011), with FY2023 giving at $220,080 against $131,000 actually paid out in grants that year (the gap reflects multi-year grant commitments and program/admin costs). Across the full grantee history in this dataset (80 recorded grants), the average grant is $9,358 and total recorded giving is $748,639; the foundation's own reported typical-grant-size figure is tighter — median $5,000, average $7,690, range $2,000-$31,000 across 21 recently tracked awards — consistent with public commentary that awards "typically range from $5,000-$15,000," with occasional larger awards up to $30,000-31,000. Multi-year, multi-grant relationships dominate: Embrace A Village, Mission Fuel, and Concern America each received 4 separate grants; Jesuit Refugee Service, Damien House, Solidarity Bridge, and Austin Smiles each received 3. By program focus, nearly every recorded grant purpose maps to direct medical relief — leprosy/Hansen's disease care (Embrace A Village, Damien House, Mission Fuel, Holy Cross Brothers, Missionary Oblates), HIV/AIDS treatment (Global Peace Media, Visions Made Viable), general medicine/medical-supplies/PPE (Catholic Medical Mission Board, Med Wish, Passionist Missionaries, Little Sisters of the Poor), and surgical/reconstructive care (Solidarity Bridge, Austin Smiles, Healing Hands Abroad) — with a handful of infrastructure grants for wells and clinic buildout. Geographically, recorded grantee mailing addresses cluster in the US Northeast and Midwest (NY 21, IL 12, CA 9, DC/MA/PA 6 each) because grants route through US-registered sponsor organizations, but the actual program geography is overwhelmingly the Global South: India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur), Sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia, Burundi, Congo, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana), Latin America (Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru, Belize), plus occasional grants in the Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq, and Gaza.

J Homer Butler sits at the very small end of the Catholic-mission-funding landscape — roughly 1-2% of Raskob's asset base and giving a median grant one-quarter Raskob's size ($5,000 vs. $20,000). Unlike Raskob (broad Catholic social/educational mandate) or the invitation-driven Papal Foundation, Butler's niche is narrow and clinical — leprosy and chronic/infectious disease relief — and its checks are small enough that it functions less as a lead funder and more as a reliable, repeat gap-filler for missionary organizations' specific medical-supply and equipment needs; note that American Leprosy Missions and CMMB are themselves service-delivery NGOs (CMMB is in fact a Butler grantee), not peer grantmakers, and are included here for field context.

The most concrete recent signal is a June 20, 2026 news post on the foundation's own site announcing a new grantee — a Tamil Nadu mobile-medical-unit program serving 30+ leprosy-affected colonies and roughly 400 children of leprosy patients with medicines, wound care, iron supplementation, vision screening, and lice treatment — indicating the board is still actively adding new grantees within its core leprosy niche as of mid-2026. Earlier posts show a steady cadence of small, specific-purpose grants: emergency home-rebuilding for a Tamil Nadu Hansen's disease community after storm/drought damage (October 2023), continued multi-year support for custom orthotic devices via longtime grantee Embrace A Village (summer 2023), and a dental-outreach grant to Austin Smiles for programs in Honduras and Veracruz, Mexico (January 2024) — both reciprocated with grantee-produced video documentation, suggesting the board values visible, reportable field impact. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or public statements were found for 2025-2026 beyond this grantee news; officer compensation data (all directors near $200-$400/year except a modestly paid assistant secretary at $26,200-$26,400) suggests a stable, unpaid volunteer board with low turnover risk and no signs of governance disruption. Financial filings show total giving softened somewhat by FY2023 ($220,080) compared to the FY2011-2015 range (typically $260K-$320K), consistent with a small endowment recovering from post-2020 investment-income volatility rather than any strategic pullback.

Apply toward one of the foundation's two annual deadlines — June 30 or December 31 — since the volunteer board meets only twice a year and reviews are batched around those dates; a proposal that misses a cycle sits for roughly six months. Initiate contact by letter or the site's "Apply Now" request (mail: P.O. Box 1634, New York, NY 10159; phone 917-941-4035; email jhomerbutler@gmail.com) to receive the three-part Request for Application form — do not attempt to skip straight to a full proposal, as the foundation does not publish an open online form. If your organization is not a US-based 501(c)3, secure two supporting documents well in advance: a letter of recommendation from a local diocesan bishop attesting to your organization's standing, and a signed agreement from a US-based 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor willing to receive and forward funds — the foundation does not remit money directly overseas, so this step is not optional. Keep the ask concrete and modest: request funding for a specific line item (medicine, wound-care or orthotic supplies, a water well, PPE, a clinic repair, surgical/dental outreach costs) in the realistic $2,000-$30,000 range (median historical award ~$5,000-$9,000) rather than general operating support or a large capital campaign — nearly every funded purpose in the record is a named, tangible medical or infrastructure need tied to a leprosy, HIV/AIDS, or chronic-disease population. Use explicit Catholic-mission and Hansen's-disease/chronic-illness framing in the narrative — grantees that reference Jesuit, diocesan, or other Catholic institutional affiliation and explicitly name the disease population served (leprosy, HIV/AIDS, congenital disease, waterborne illness) dominate the funded list. Expect to build a multi-year relationship rather than a single transaction: the majority of recognizable grantees (Embrace A Village, Mission Fuel, Jesuit Refugee Service, Damien House, Solidarity Bridge, Austin Smiles, Concern America) received 2-4 separate grants over time, so a strong first small grant with good follow-up reporting (photos or video of the funded work, as several grantees have provided) is the clearest path to renewed support. The most commonly cited applicant frustration is slow, inconsistent communication and unclear funding rationale from the volunteer board — follow up politely but do not expect rapid turnaround, and do not treat silence after one cycle as a final rejection.