Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation

The Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation is a deeply personal legacy fund established in 2008 by Janey Briscoe Marmion and her father, former Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe Jr., to honor their daughter and granddaughter, Janey Katherine "Kate" Marmion. This heritage shapes every dimension of how the foundation gives: it favors organizations with authentic, long-standing roots in the Uvalde County, San Antonio, and surrounding South Texas communities that Kate's family has championed across generations.

The foundation operates in two distinct modes simultaneously. At the community level, it distributes grants of $5,000 to $200,000 to local nonprofits working in children's programs, education, agriculture, cultural preservation, and healthcare. At the institutional level, it has stepped up with transformational gifts — $30 million to establish the Kate Marmion School of Public Health at UT San Antonio (December 2025), $7.2 million to the Briscoe-Garner Museum (December 2024), and $15 million to the Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation for a new school. First-time applicants should not expect gifts at this institutional scale; those go to organizations with multi-decade relationships to the Briscoe-Marmion family.

All six board members serve without compensation, reflecting a personal, family-led culture with no professional program staff. The president is Dolph Briscoe IV, and vice president is Barbara Woodman. The contact listed on IRS filings is Janey Briscoe Marmion, the foundation's founder and Kate's mother. Applications are received via email at grants@kbmfoundation.com, but given the volunteer governance structure, response timelines can vary. Do not interpret silence as rejection — follow up respectfully after 60–90 days.

The typical progression for a new applicant is: submit a concise, well-aligned LOI → receive an invitation (if the board is interested) to submit a detailed proposal → proposal may generate a site visit for larger requests. For organizations embedded in the Uvalde or San Antonio community, positioning the LOI around Kate's personal story — her love of South Texas, ranching culture, and her family's multigenerational commitment to education and public service — will resonate more powerfully than generic impact language. The foundation's guiding principle, attributed to Governor Briscoe: "What Matters with God is the difference you make in the world," is a useful touchstone for framing mission alignment.

Drawing on 35 tracked grants totaling $3.4 million in the foundation's grantee database, the community-level average grant is $97,180, with a median of approximately $91,400. The range spans from $5,000 (Humane Society of Uvalde, Uvalde Volunteer Fire Department) to $1,000,000 (Onestar Foundation, Uvalde Memorial Hospital Auxiliary). All 35 tracked grants went exclusively to Texas organizations, concentrated in Uvalde County and San Antonio.

By sector (tracked grants): - Education: St. Philips Episcopal School ($146,898 across 3 grants), Greater SA After-School All-Stars ($200,000 across 2), Uvalde CISD Education Foundation ($20,000 across 2), Uvalde County Jr. Livestock Show ($91,400 across 4 grants — participant scholarships) - Healthcare: Uvalde Memorial Hospital Auxiliary ($1,000,000 across 2 grants), Kate Marmion Rides to Radiation ($120,000 across 3 grants) - Community/social services: Onestar Foundation ($1,000,000 across 2 grants), Boys and Girls Club of Laredo ($40,000), Doyle School Community Center ($30,000), South Texas Food Bank ($15,000) - History/culture/religion: Briscoe Garner Museum ($124,000 in tracked grants; separately received $7.2M in December 2024), Alto Frio Baptist Camp ($480,000 across 2 grants) - Libraries: El Progreso Library ($50,000 across 2 grants), El Progresso ($25,000) - Agriculture: Uvalde Good Eggs Enterprises ($20,000 across 2 grants), Uvalde County Jr. Livestock Show (overlaps education/agriculture)

Asset growth has been extraordinary: from $2.4 million in 2019 to $323.6 million in FY2022 (reflecting $279.9 million in contributions received, likely from the Briscoe estate), with the current reported asset base of $662.9 million. Annual giving from tracked financials was $290,169 in 2019, $659,420 in 2020, $2.0 million in 2021, and $1.8 million in 2022. However, the 2024–2025 announcement of $52+ million in transformational gifts indicates the foundation is now actively deploying its enlarged endowment at institutional scale. Community-level grant seekers should calibrate initial asks at $10,000–$50,000 for a first request, with multi-year relationships enabling growth to $100,000–$200,000.

The Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation is compared below to four peer foundations matched by approximate asset size (~$660–666 million), all classified under NTEE T22 (Philanthropy & Grantmaking). Note that annual giving figures for peers are based on publicly available 990 data and may not capture the most recent fiscal year.

Despite similar asset bases, the Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation is meaningfully different in character from its asset-size peers. The Rees-Jones and Engelstad foundations deploy significantly more annual giving relative to assets, reflecting more aggressive distribution pacing. Kate Marmion's historically modest community giving rate — now supercharged by transformational institutional gifts — suggests the foundation is in an active transition toward higher-velocity deployment. The foundation's hyper-local geographic restriction to Uvalde and South Texas also sharply distinguishes it from the broader regional reach of its peers: grant seekers who demonstrate deep community roots in Uvalde County will find far less competition here than at similarly capitalized foundations with open, competitive national programs.

The foundation has entered a period of landmark giving after years of more measured community-level distributions, with four major announcements from late 2024 through early 2026.

December 16, 2025: UT San Antonio announced a $30 million gift from the Kate Marmion Charitable Foundation to establish the Kate Marmion School of Public Health. The UT System Board of Regents approved the naming in Kate's honor. The gift creates endowments for community outreach, new fellowships, and scholarships designed to build a public health workforce for South Texas — the largest single gift in the foundation's history.

February 2025: Southwest Texas College launched "Kate's Cowboy Promise," guaranteeing free tuition for graduates from Uvalde, Real, Frio, and Zavala Counties who enroll at SWTX within five years, reflecting the foundation's growing emphasis on removing financial barriers to higher education in rural South Texas.

December 16, 2024: The Briscoe-Garner Museum in Uvalde received a $7.2 million gift — a $7 million endowment (named the Janey Briscoe Marmion and Kate Marmion Endowment) plus $226,000 in bridge funding — to support exhibits, a full-time education coordinator, community outreach, and ongoing preservation of the historic museum.

2024: The foundation committed $15 million to the Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation — $10 million directly plus a $5 million matching grant for the "Hope Blooms in Uvalde" campaign — to fund the new school replacing Robb Elementary. No leadership changes were identified; the board remains family-led with Dolph Briscoe IV as president and Janey Briscoe Marmion as the founding force behind the foundation's direction.

Submit your LOI by email to grants@kbmfoundation.com — this is the only publicly confirmed digital entry point. The foundation also accepts mail at 153 Treeline Park Suite 120, San Antonio, TX 78209, but email is faster and allows for easier follow-up tracking. There is no published application deadline or grant cycle; the foundation accepts LOIs on a rolling basis. The most important timing consideration: December appears to be a high-activity decision month (major gifts were announced December 2024 and December 2025), so board attention may be stretched at year-end. Submit in spring or fall when the board is more likely to be in regular review mode.

The LOI must include all eight elements published on the foundation's website. Omitting any element signals weak organizational capacity to a board of family insiders who review closely: 1. Organization's purpose and history summary 2. Connection to the foundation's mission (be specific about Kate's story and values) 3. Detailed program/project description: problem addressed, desired outcomes, timeline, costs 4. Funding breakdown: your contribution, other secured sources, and the amount requested 5. Evaluation methods 6. Past funding sources 7. Personnel qualifications 8. Copy of IRS Determination Letter

Geography is the single most important filter. The foundation restricts grants to Uvalde, San Antonio, and surrounding South Texas. Organizations headquartered elsewhere but delivering direct programs in Uvalde County should lead with that local footprint.

Healthcare is now an implicit fifth priority. The two largest single-recipient grants in the database went to Uvalde Memorial Hospital Auxiliary ($1M), and the foundation's largest-ever gift ($30M) went to establish a public health school. Organizations in rural healthcare access, cancer support, or public health workforce development should explicitly connect to this expanded priority area.

Consider proposing a challenge/matching grant structure. The foundation used a $5 million match for Uvalde CISD's fundraising campaign. If your organization can activate third-party matching from other donors, propose that structure — it aligns with how the foundation has deployed some of its most visible gifts.

Do not bury overhead in program costs. Administrative costs, debt reduction, and fundraising expenses are explicitly excluded. The all-volunteer board is experienced at reading nonprofit financials and will catch disguised overhead.