Jefferson Foundation

The Jefferson Foundation is a health conversion foundation — born in January 2013 from the $153 million proceeds of the sale of Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Crystal City, Missouri. This origin story is not incidental context; it is the organizing logic of every grant decision the board makes. The Foundation exists to perpetuate the health mission of the hospital it replaced, and applicants who frame their work in those terms will resonate with reviewers who share that institutional memory.

The Foundation operates on an endowment model, distributing only anticipated annual investment earnings rather than drawing down principal. With assets now exceeding $196 million, this approach is generating $7–9 million per year for Jefferson County nonprofits — making it by far the largest dedicated private philanthropic resource in the county. That scale commands respect but also creates high accountability expectations: the board knows it is the primary private funder in the room for most grantees.

The Foundation funds exclusively within Jefferson County, Missouri. This hyper-local mandate is both a strength for qualifying applicants and an uncompromising filter. If your organization is headquartered outside Jefferson County, you must demonstrate clear, dedicated, quantifiable service delivery to Jefferson County residents — not just geographic proximity or occasional outreach.

Three grant categories exist: Program Support (ongoing operations and direct services), Capacity Building (organizational strengthening, systems, staffing infrastructure), and Capital Projects (equipment, vehicles, facility upgrades). Organizations may apply for more than one category in a single cycle, receiving up to three separate grants per year if all three applications are approved. This structure rewards well-prepared organizations that come with layered requests.

The application portal is not publicly accessible. Grant seekers must contact Executive Vice President Missy Endres at mendres@jfmo.org or 636-638-1400 to request access before any deadline. First-time applicants should treat this contact as an opportunity to build an early relationship, not just a transactional request for a password. With a lean four-person staff, the people answering the phone are the people who shape board discussions.

The Jefferson Foundation has distributed approximately $76.8 million across 2,096 grants since its first full grant year in 2014 — an average of roughly $36,700 per grant over the life of the program. Annual giving has ranged from $6.7 million (FY2021) to $10.9 million (FY2019), with recent years stabilizing between $7.6 million and $9.2 million. The FY2022 peak of $9.19 million in total giving likely reflected COVID-recovery catch-up funding, with FY2023 settling to $8.7 million as one-time relief grants expired.

In 2025 Round 1, the Foundation distributed $3,158,306 to 81 organizations, implying a cycle average of roughly $39,000 per organization. However, averages obscure a wide distribution: grants in this round ranged from approximately $2,500 (small community pantry support) to $175,000 (Jefferson County Health Department's annual safety-net services package). The practical median for operational program grants appears to cluster between $20,000 and $60,000, while multi-year relationships with marquee grantees regularly receive $100,000–$250,000.

The top 50 grantees in the IRS records account for approximately $22.4 million of total historical giving. The top five recipients — Chestnut Health Systems ($1.8M, mental health and substance abuse), Upward Smiles Inc. ($1.14M, mobile dentistry), Jefferson County Health Department ($1.06M, access-to-care services), Pony Bird Inc. ($786K, disability services), and St. Louis Area Foodbank ($605K, food distribution) — together represent 24% of the tracked grant pool. These relationships span 3–10 individual grants each, indicating multi-year renewals are the norm for high-performing grantees.

By program area, mental health and substance abuse treatment, disability independence services, food security, and safety-net primary care represent the heaviest concentrations of funding. Dental and oral health is a distinctive niche with consistent investment. Capital projects for vehicles, medical equipment, and facility upgrades appear regularly — a meaningful signal for applicants with infrastructure needs.

The Jefferson Foundation's asset peers in the $195–198 million range include foundations with very different missions and geographies. The comparison below highlights the Foundation's distinctive combination of hyper-local geography, open applications, and health conversion heritage.

The Jefferson Foundation stands apart from its asset-size peers in two critical ways: its geographic mandate is far narrower (a single Missouri county rather than a region or nation), and it operates an open application process rather than an invite-only model. This makes it accessible to local organizations that would have no pathway into any of the peer funders listed above. The trade-off is that the Foundation's total addressable grantee pool is small — only organizations serving Jefferson County residents need apply. For those organizations, however, this foundation represents the dominant source of unrestricted private philanthropic capital in the county, with no realistic peer.

The most significant development heading into 2026 is a leadership transition: the Jefferson Foundation Board of Directors selected Juan A. Figueroa as incoming President and CEO, succeeding Michael Ravenscraft who led the Foundation for multiple years. The timing of this transition is not publicly specified, but it represents the first CEO change since at least 2021 and likely signals a deliberate board decision about the Foundation's next chapter after more than a decade of operation.

In 2025, the Foundation completed both grant cycles. Round 1 distributed $3,158,306 to 81 organizations in June 2025, with the Jefferson County Health Department receiving the single largest award at $175,000, followed by CHADS Coalition for Mental Health at $110,000 and Disability Resource Association at $100,000. Round 2 results were announced with notifications on approximately November 3, 2025, and checks mailed December 1, 2025; recipients included Society of St. Vincent de Paul Festus District ($10,000) and a comparable slate of county organizations.

The Foundation's reported account balance as of the 2025 Round 2 announcement was $210,082,187 — a substantial jump from the $196.6 million shown in FY2024 IRS filings, reflecting continued investment gains. Since inception through the 2025 cycles, the Foundation has awarded 2,096 grants totaling approximately $76.8 million. The 2026 grant cycles are already posted: applications for the June cycle were due February 5, 2026, with the December cycle deadline set for July 16, 2026.

Establish access before the deadline. The Foundation's online application portal is not publicly open — you must contact Missy Endres at mendres@jfmo.org or 636-638-1400 to request access. Do this four to six weeks before your target deadline. Use the conversation to introduce your organization, ask a clarifying question about eligibility, and gauge fit — this is relationship-building, not just logistics.

Quantify Jefferson County impact explicitly. The board evaluates proposals against a Jefferson County lens, not a regional or state one. If your organization serves multiple counties, isolate your Jefferson County caseload, service hours, or client headcount. A proposal stating '23% of our clients are Jefferson County residents' is less compelling than one stating 'we served 412 Jefferson County residents last year and this grant will expand that to 550.'

Use the three-category structure strategically. Program Support, Capacity Building, and Capital Projects are separate buckets — an organization with legitimate needs in all three can apply for all three in the same cycle and receive three separate awards. Prepare each application as a standalone request with its own need statement, outcomes, and budget.

Address all four evaluation criteria directly. The board scores applications on: (1) eligibility compliance, (2) clearly defined health/well-being improvements with stated needs and outcomes, (3) community impact scope, and (4) efficient and effective fund use. Structure your narrative to answer each criterion explicitly — reviewers who see a clear map through those four points make faster, more favorable decisions.

Clear your reporting backlog first. All progress and final reports due on prior grants must be on file before a new grant is awarded. This is not a courtesy rule — it is a hard gate. Organizations with overdue reports should resolve them before submitting new applications.

Avoid ineligible uses in your budget narrative. The Foundation will not fund endowments, loans, deficit financing, travel, political activities, fundraising events, overhead, or ticketed events. If any budget line could be misconstrued as one of these, add a clarifying note. Vague line items invite questions and slow decisions.

Time your request to match the cycle. June cycle (April board meeting, February 5 application deadline) is ideal for programs launching in summer or fall. December cycle (October board meeting, July 16 deadline) suits calendar-year budget planning. Decisions are communicated within two weeks of the board meeting.