Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Inc.

The Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Inc. (EIN 61-1023914) is a small private *operating* foundation — IRS foundation code 04, ruled tax-exempt in July 1983 — whose entire charitable purpose is the upkeep, programming, and remembrance work at a single physical asset: the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Frankfort. It is not a grantmaker that runs an open competitive cycle. The Fund's 2023 990-PF shows $3,540,917 in total assets, $62,946 in total revenue (essentially all dividend income from a $3.08M corporate-stock portfolio), $77,276 in total functional expenses, and only $19,000 booked as contributions paid in the books-of-account column — most of that spending flowing back into memorial maintenance, ceremonies, and educational programming rather than outside grants. The right way to engage this foundation is therefore *not* a grant proposal. Aligned veterans-service, history-education, and Frankfort-area civic organizations should approach the Fund through three concrete doors that the Fund itself promotes on kyvietnammemorial.net: (1) book a Group Visit or Field Trip via the scheduling form to bring AP History classes, ROTC, scout, civic, or veteran groups onsite for a guided tour led by Vietnam veterans like Col. (ret) Larry Arnett — these visits are the foundation's most active programmatic output; (2) submit photos, video, and biographical detail for any of the 1,109 fallen Kentucky Vietnam veterans through the "Submit Info" / Wall of Faces intake form to help complete the digital memorial; and (3) propose a co-hosted ceremony or remembrance event tied to a meaningful date (Veterans Day, Armistice Day notch ceremony, anniversary of a unit's deployment, or a specific veteran's date-of-death tribute when the sundial shadow touches that name). Funding asks should be reframed as in-kind partnership offers (transportation for student visits, audio/video equipment for ceremonies, granite or landscaping services, biographical research labor) rather than cash requests. The foundation's small 4-figure annual contribution budget and its operating-foundation IRS status make it a poor target for traditional proposal writing, but a strong partner for programmatic collaboration with the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs, JROTC programs, the Patriot Riders chapter that already conducts remembrance rides on-site, the Kentucky Historical Society next door at the state capitol, and Vietnam Veterans of America Kentucky chapters.

On a 2021–2023 three-year averaged basis the Fund's 990-PF Part XIII columns show qualifying distributions of $73,446 (2023), $42,261 (2022), and $12,585 (2021) — a $128,292 three-year total, or roughly $42,800/year — against a 5% minimum investment return requirement of $153,531 for 2023 alone. The Fund is therefore *underdistributing* relative to a normal private non-operating foundation's 5% payout floor, which is permissible because as a private operating foundation it is held to the 4940/4942 operating-foundation tests (qualifying assets and endowment/support tests) rather than the 5% payout rule that applies to non-operating PFs. Concretely, the Fund's qualifying-assets column shows $10,449,615 of program-related "qualifying assets" valued cumulatively over 2021–2023 — well above the $73,446 of 2023 qualifying distributions actually spent on the memorial program. Revenue is almost entirely passive: $62,936 of dividend income in 2023 vs. $0 interest, $0 gross rents, $0 capital gains, and only $10 of gross contributions/gifts received from outside donors. The portfolio is concentrated in corporate stock ($3,077,181 of $3,296,556 end-of-year assets) and the Fund pays a small ($875) section 4940 net-investment-income excise tax. Compensation to officers, directors, and trustees is reported as $0 — this is an all-volunteer board. The "contributions paid" line (contrpdpbks) ran $19,000 in 2023, $11,000 in 2022, and small in prior years, indicating any outside grants are modest, episodic, and almost certainly directed to mission-aligned partners (e.g., another veterans remembrance entity or a service provider doing memorial work) rather than open competitive applicants. Trajectory: end-of-year total assets rose from $2,987,190 (2022) to $3,296,556 (2023) per 990-PF and $3,540,917 in the most recent IRS BMF snapshot — the corpus is appreciating with the equity market, not from new fundraising.

Most ProPublica-indexed private operating foundations dedicated to a single veterans memorial fall into one of two size buckets: tiny local memorials with five-figure endowments and statewide flagships like the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund with a low-seven-figure corpus. The peer set below is drawn from foundations on grantedai.com whose names and IRS foundation codes indicate a comparable veterans-memorial-maintenance mission, plus the closest in-state Kentucky operating foundations of similar asset size.

Key takeaway from the peer scan: the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is in roughly the 95th percentile by asset size among single-memorial veterans-remembrance operating foundations nationally. It is the only Vietnam-specific *statewide* memorial fund in the U.S. with a multi-million-dollar endowment — the Schuylkill County PA fund is the closest county-level analog. Its income mix (97% dividends, 0% earned/gov-grant revenue, ~$10/year in outside contributions received) is typical of trust-style endowed operating foundations and unlike grassroots public charities such as Schuylkill County's that actively fundraise from the public.

Public news activity on the foundation's website, captured via the Internet Archive Wayback snapshot of kyvietnammemorial.net/news/ on May 13 2026, shows steady but low-volume programmatic activity rather than grantmaking cycles. The most recent dated posts are: an Upkeep of the Memorial video published December 6 2023 describing ongoing maintenance work; a Veterans Day 2023 (November 11 2023) entry that walks readers through the sundial passing through the Armistice Day notch at 11:00 — a signature design feature of the memorial; a Western Hills High School AP History class visit in September 2023 led by Col. (ret) Larry Arnett, a Vietnam veteran and Huey pilot, who delivered the briefing; a Patriot Riders remembrance ceremony on September 18 2023 organized by "Hoss Cartwright's group"; and an obituary notice for Jim Halvatgis, USMA Class of 1954, who passed away April 20 2023 — Halvatgis appears to have been a longtime supporter or honoree. The 990-PF tax return for the period ending December 2023 was filed and accepted (IRS object ID 202541289349101329) and is the latest filing of record per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (updated April 15 2026). No 990-PF for FY 2024 has been posted yet — typical for small operating foundations on extension. The mailing address remains 657 South Hurstbourne Parkway, Suite 225, Louisville, KY 40222 with a primary office phone of (502) 894-8165; the memorial itself is at 365 Vernon Cooper Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601. No public board roster was retrievable from the foundation's live website (kyvietnammemorial.net returned HTTP 429 rate-limit responses to all crawler user-agents on May 13 2026) or from the Wayback Machine's snapshot of the /board-of-directors/ subpage (not archived), so board composition is not verifiable from open sources today. Visitors are encouraged via the home page to support the Fund through the Submit Info form (Wall of Faces contributions) and direct donations toward memorial upkeep — there is no posted "apply for a grant" affordance anywhere on the site.

Practical engagement guidance, written for nonprofits, schools, and veteran-service organizations considering outreach: (1) Do not file a written grant proposal — the IRS 990-PF clearly answers "N" to "Did the foundation make any contributions to organizations other than charitable etc. organizations" and the contrpdpbks line is small and discretionary; treat this Fund as a programmatic partner, not a grantor. (2) Lead with a specific, scheduled, named-Kentucky-veteran ask. The memorial's sundial shadow touches each fallen veteran's engraved name on the anniversary of their death, so a request structured around a date-specific tribute ceremony for an identified veteran from your community is far more likely to land than a generic request. (3) The Group Visits form on kyvietnammemorial.net is the front door for school, civic, ROTC, scout, and veteran-group engagement — Col. (ret) Larry Arnett, USMA-trained Vietnam-veteran Huey pilot, has personally guided documented student visits and is the most effective onsite educator. Book 6–8 weeks ahead; the memorial is open daily with no reservations required for individuals, but groups should schedule. (4) The Wall of Faces / Submit Info form is the single highest-leverage volunteer contribution: many of the 1,109 fallen Kentucky veterans still lack photographs or full biographical entries, and any nonprofit, archive, library, school history class, or genealogy society can systematically research and submit packets — this directly advances the foundation's mission with zero cash transfer. (5) For in-kind partnerships, useful offers include: granite restoration / engraving services, professional video production for the ongoing Upkeep video series, transportation grants enabling Title-I schools to visit Frankfort, A/V or PA equipment for Veterans Day and Armistice Day notch ceremonies, and Spanish/Hmong/Vietnamese-language interpretation for the families of veterans. (6) Contact the office directly: (502) 894-8165 or via the Contact Us form on kyvietnammemorial.net; written mail to 657 South Hurstbourne Parkway, Suite 225, Louisville, KY 40222. The foundation publishes no email address, so phone or web-form contact is the channel. (7) Coordinate with adjacent organizations the Fund already works with — the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs (which administers state veteran cemeteries and the Frankfort capitol grounds), Vietnam Veterans of America's Kentucky chapters, the Patriot Riders Kentucky chapter, the Kentucky Historical Society, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in Washington D.C. (which operates the national Virtual Wall the Kentucky memorial links to). (8) Timing: spring (March–May) for fall-semester school-visit planning, late summer for Veterans Day programming, and February for May Memorial Day ceremony coordination are the natural communication windows.