Jonas Family Foundation Trust

Jonas Family Foundation Trust is a small, family-run private foundation (EIN 94-6749856, ruled tax-exempt in 2001) administered from Thornton, CO but funded and directed through what appears to be a Central Oregon-based trustee family (the Dunderdales), with an actual giving footprint concentrated in Marin and Sonoma Counties, California and the Bend, OR area. IRS filings explicitly restrict eligibility to 'charitable organizations in Marin and Sonoma Counties' even though roughly 40% of recorded grants (29 of 73 in the grantee dataset) went to Oregon nonprofits — a sign the written restriction lags the Trust's actual, broader practice. Most importantly, the foundation is flagged in filing data as funding a preselected roster of organizations: it nominally 'accepts applications' but its own application_instructions read simply 'request a form from the Foundation Trust office,' with no portal, published RFP, or deadline. Treat this as a relationship-first funder, not a responsive grants program. First-time applicants should not expect a cold submission to succeed; the realistic path in is a warm introduction — through a currently funded grantee, a shared board connection, or a regional intermediary such as Community Foundation Sonoma County or Marin Community Foundation, both of which appear in the Trust's orbit in web records. Once an organization is in the portfolio, the data shows strong loyalty: most top grantees (Healing Reins, North Marin Community Services, Catholic Charities, Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Sonoma, Cots, Support Our Students, and others) received the identical grant 3 years running, each logged simply as 'General purposes.' That is the single clearest signal in the dataset — this Trust funds unrestricted general operating support to organizations it already trusts, and renews rather than re-competes. With only three compensated trustees (President, Secretary, Treasurer, each drawing $30,000/year) and total annual grantmaking capacity of roughly $500,000-$610,000 spread across 21-25 organizations, administrative bandwidth is thin — expect slow, informal, non-digital communication (phone and mail, not email) and budget 12-18 months of relationship-building before a first ask is realistic. This is not a foundation to pursue for a one-time project grant; it is a foundation to cultivate for a multi-year unrestricted relationship.

Jonas Family Foundation Trust reports a typical grant size of $5,000 to $30,000, with a median of $25,000 and an average of $21,717 across 23 recorded awards in its own self-reported figures; an independent 990 analysis (Instrumentl) puts the observed range slightly wider, at $5,000 to $43,500, with 21 awards totaling $502,593 in the most recent cycle it captured. Looking at the full grantee-level dataset (73 grants, $1,723,500 total, $23,610 average), giving splits 44 grants to California recipients versus 29 to Oregon recipients — no grants recorded in Colorado, the Trust's nominal mailing state. The single largest cumulative recipient is Healing Reins (equine-assisted therapy), at $107,500 across 3 grants, followed by a cluster of organizations each receiving $90,000 across 3 grants: North Marin Community Services, Catholic Charities, Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Sonoma, Cots, Vivo Valley Vibes, Support Our Students, and The Living Room Center. By theme, the portfolio skews toward human services and safety-net organizations (food pantries, homelessness services, family relief nurseries), youth and education programs (Boys and Girls Clubs, school foundations, tutoring/mentoring), and a smaller but consistent allocation to health/therapeutic and animal-welfare organizations (Healing Reins, Xenophon Riding, Destination Rehab, Humane Society of Central Oregon). Virtually every logged grant purpose reads as 'General purposes' or 'GENERAL PURPOSES' — there is essentially no restricted or project-specific funding in the record. On a trend basis, grants paid grew from $368,000 in FY2011 to a peak $712,287 in total giving in FY2022 (grants_paid $612,000), before contracting to $677,599 total giving in FY2023 (grants_paid $549,000) and an estimated $502,593 in the most recent post-2023 cycle — an 18%-plus pullback in both dollars and grant count over the last two observed cycles. Assets have held steady in the $8.1M-$9.5M range for over a decade (currently ~$8.55M-$8.66M), with the payout ratio (roughly 6.4% of assets in FY2023) running modestly above the 5% IRS minimum distribution requirement for private foundations, leaving little room for a dramatic increase in grantmaking capacity without a market-driven asset gain.

Granted's peer set matches Jonas Family Foundation Trust to four other small private foundations of nearly identical asset size (all clustered within $8.48M-$8.49M) under the same broad 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE category. None of these peers disclose a public website, itemized annual giving figure, or documented application process in available records — a common pattern for small, closely held family trusts that file a 990-PF but do not otherwise engage publicly. Because IRS rules require private foundations to distribute roughly 5% of assets annually, a rough giving estimate of $420,000-$525,000 per year is reasonable for each peer at this asset level, putting Jonas's own $502,593-$677,599 range toward the higher end of what a foundation this size typically pays out.

Jonas stands out from this peer group mainly for being unusually well-documented at the grantee level — most of its true peers leave almost no public trail of who they fund or how to reach them, which itself confirms that these are all closely held family vehicles rather than institutional grantmakers with public-facing programs.

No dedicated news coverage, press releases, or public announcements were located for Jonas Family Foundation Trust in 2025 or 2026 — searches across general news and philanthropy-sector sources returned only nonprofit-database listing pages (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, GuideStar, Candid, Zeffy, Charity Navigator) that repackage the Trust's IRS Form 990-PF filings rather than original reporting. The Trust's own domain, jonasfamily.org, currently resolves to an unconfigured Hostinger hosting placeholder page rather than a live website, confirming this funder does not maintain an active public communications presence. The most recent verifiable activity is financial: FY2023 grants paid of $549,000 (total giving $677,599, including $120,000 in officer compensation, up from a flat $90,000/year for over a decade) against $8,552,295 in total assets, followed by an Instrumentl-sourced FY2024 snapshot showing $502,593 distributed across 21 awards. There is a possible, unconfirmed leadership change worth flagging: Granted's own record lists Nicole Dunderdale as President, but the more recent Instrumentl pull of the same EIN lists Todd Dunderdale as President instead, with Beverly Dunderdale (Treasurer) and Barbara A. Doolittle (Secretary) unchanged in both. This may reflect a genuine handover within the Dunderdale family trusteeship, or simply reflect different 990 tax years captured by each source — it should be verified directly with the Trust office (541-598-2753) before being relied upon in outreach. Beyond these filing-level data points, there is no evidence of new program announcements, strategic-priority shifts, major single-year grants, or public statements from this Trust in the past two years.

This is not a funder that responds to cold, unsolicited proposals — its own filing data flags it as funding a preselected roster of organizations, and its 'application process' consists of calling the Trust office at (541) 598-2753 and requesting a paper form; there is no online portal, downloadable application, published RFP, or listed deadline. The single highest-leverage move for a first-time applicant is securing a warm introduction rather than submitting cold: look for a current or former grantee (Healing Reins, North Marin Community Services, Catholic Charities, Cots, Support Our Students, and the Boys and Girls Clubs affiliates are all multi-year repeat recipients) who can make an introduction, or approach through a regional intermediary such as Community Foundation Sonoma County or Marin Community Foundation, both of which surface in the Trust's local network. Geographic fit is non-negotiable and narrower than the Trust's own paperwork suggests: officially restricted to 'charitable organizations in Marin and Sonoma Counties,' but the actual grantee data shows nearly 40% of dollars going to Central Oregon (Bend/Deschutes County) organizations — so Bend-area nonprofits with a credible link to the trustee family should not be deterred by the written restriction, while organizations outside both regions should not apply at all. Frame every request as general operating support: virtually 100% of logged grant purposes read simply 'General purposes' — there is no evidence this Trust funds capital campaigns, capacity-building consultancies, or tightly restricted program budgets, so a proposal built around a specific line-item project is working against the grain of how this funder actually gives. Right-size the ask to $5,000-$30,000 for a first approach (the Trust's own reported median is $25,000; the observed outer range tops out near $43,500 for established multi-year grantees) — an opening request above $30,000 is likely to read as out of step with typical practice. Because the review team is just three compensated trustees with no listed program staff, expect informal, slow-moving, and non-digital communication; do not expect email responsiveness or a fixed review calendar, and plan for a multi-month (or multi-year) cultivation timeline. Once funded, the data strongly suggests renewal is the norm rather than the exception — the real strategic goal is not winning a single grant but earning a spot in a small, stable, multi-year portfolio.