Kevin M Jones Foundation Trust

Kevin M. Jones Foundation Trust is a young, trustee-run private foundation (IRS tax-exempt since February 2023) built around a single, personal mission: to "bless the lives of those with developmental and physical challenges." It is not a staffed institution — it is governed by two trustees, J. Raleigh Cutrer (a retired CPA) and Linda G. Shivers (a 40-year special-education veteran who founded the Children's Hospital School Program at Blair E. Batson Hospital in Mississippi), supported by two community advisors with deep disability-services and special-education backgrounds (Danita Munday, M.Ed. and attorney Charles 'Chip' Wilbanks, Jr.). That trustee composition is the single most important strategic signal available: this board is staffed by disability-services practitioners, not generalist philanthropy professionals, so proposals should speak fluently and specifically to developmental/physical disability service delivery rather than broad human-services language. The foundation is administered through Foundation Source in Wilmington, DE (a common private-foundation back-office provider), but its real center of gravity is Clinton, Mississippi, where the trustees and advisors are based — geographic focus data in our system confirms 'Clinton, Mississippi' and 'Delaware' as the two listed areas. Applicants headquartered in or serving central Mississippi should lead with that local connection. Because grants paid were $0 in FY2022 and FY2023 and only began in FY2024 ($63,458 total disbursed), this is functionally a first-time grantmaker still building a track record and a grantee pipeline — our data bundle has no grantee history to benchmark against, and typical_grant_size is not yet populated in public filings beyond what the foundation states directly (grants generally $2,500-$40,000 per web research). First-time applicants should expect a genuine relationship-building process: submit a one-page Letter of Inquiry first, expect trustee-level (not staff-level) review given the tiny two-person board, and be prepared for a personal, values-driven conversation about how your program serves individuals with developmental or physical disabilities specifically, rather than disability advocacy or systems-change work broadly.

Financial data is thin because this is a two-year-old grantmaker, but the trajectory is instructive. Total assets grew from $2,444,770 (FY2023, first reporting year, entirely from a $2,440,058 contribution with no giving) to $7,764,017 (FY2024), driven by $5,431,897 in FY2024 revenue (93.8% contributions, 2.1% dividends, 1.5% interest) — the Trust is still in an active funding/build-up phase, likely receiving ongoing contributions from its founder or founding family. FY2024 total expenses were $112,650, of which $63,458 (56.3%) went to charitable disbursements and $43,000 (38.2%) to trustee compensation ($24,000 to Linda Shivers, $19,000 to Raleigh Cutrer) — both trustees were uncompensated in FY2022-2023, meaning FY2024 marks the shift from dormant to operating. No grants-paid or grantee-level detail is available in our database (grantee stats show zero records), and the foundation's own site does not publish specific grant-size ranges, though third-party web research puts typical awards at $2,500-$40,000 per grant, with board decisions tied to quarterly-style meeting dates. With only ~$63,458 disbursed across an unknown number of grants in the one year giving has occurred, the total grantee pool is likely very small — plausibly single digits to low dozens of grants at the low end of that stated range. There is no program-area breakdown to report (100% of stated mission focus is developmental/physical disability support, NTEE code T90 — Philanthropy, Voluntarism & Grantmaking Foundations, general), and no geographic breakdown beyond the Clinton, MS / Delaware administrative split. Grantseekers should treat any total-giving projections cautiously: with one year of real disbursement history, FY2024's $63,458 is a baseline, not a stable annual budget, and next year's giving could scale up substantially given the asset base tripled year-over-year.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $2,000-$2,600 of Kevin M. Jones Foundation Trust's $7,764,017 in assets — a coincidence of database sampling by asset-band rather than mission similarity, since all are generically classified under "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" (NTEE T-codes) with no public giving totals in our system to compare against. What distinguishes Kevin M. Jones Foundation Trust from this peer set is that it is the only one with a clearly documented, narrow program mission (developmental/physical disability services) and a public-facing website with an actual LOI intake process; several peers (Favrot Fund, Griffith Family Foundation, Adler Foundation) show no listed website at all, suggesting they are closed or family-directed with no open application channel. Sarah M. Hughes Foundation and Debartolo Family Foundation do have public websites and are worth researching directly for cross-referrals if a program serves disability, family, or community-development needs, since a rejected or partially-funded proposal to Kevin M. Jones could reasonably be adapted for either.

The clearest recent-activity signal is the Trust's FY2024 Form 990-PF, which shows its first year of real charitable activity: $63,458 in disbursements against $5.43M in revenue, alongside the first-ever trustee compensation ($24,000 to Linda Shivers, $19,000 to Raleigh Cutrer). This confirms the foundation moved from a purely custodial, asset-holding entity (FY2022: no reported revenue or assets; FY2023: $2.44M received, $0 disbursed) into active grantmaking operations sometime in 2024. No independent press coverage, grant-announcement lists, or news stories about the Trust were found in web searches for 2025-2026 — this is consistent with a small, founder-driven private foundation that does not issue press releases or publicize individual grants. The foundation's public-facing leadership has not changed since inception: J. Raleigh Cutrer and Linda G. Shivers remain the two trustees, with Danita Munday and Charles 'Chip' Wilbanks, Jr. continuing as community advisors — all four bios emphasize long-tenured, hands-on Mississippi-based careers in accounting, special education, disability advocacy, and law rather than national philanthropy backgrounds. Given the asset base nearly tripled from FY2023 to FY2024 ($2.44M to $7.76M) on continued contributions, grantseekers should watch for FY2025 filings (typically available via ProPublica 12-18 months after fiscal year-end) to see whether disbursements scale proportionally — a foundation this early in its grantmaking lifecycle is the type most likely to meaningfully expand its giving budget year-over-year as trustees build confidence in their process and grantee pipeline.

Start with the one-page Letter of Inquiry the foundation explicitly requires — its own Get Started page specifies organization name, contact person and title, address, phone, email, a project description, and the specific funding amount requested, submitted via an online form with a PDF/Word upload capped at 8MB. Do not skip straight to a full proposal; the board reviews the LOI first and responds on whether to proceed, so a full unsolicited application is more likely to be set aside than reviewed by a two-person trustee board with no program staff to triage volume. Confirm your 501(c)(3) status is unambiguous and current in your LOI's first paragraph, since eligibility confirmation is the board's first screening step. Because both trustees come from hands-on disability-services careers (Shivers spent 40 years in special education and hospital-based child development programs; Cutrer brings financial/accounting rigor as a CPA), write for a reader who already understands developmental and physical disability service delivery — avoid generic nonprofit boilerplate and instead describe specific, individual-level impact (a named program model, a specific population served, concrete outcomes) the way Shivers' own career-long body of work is described. Third-party research indicates typical awards fall between $2,500 and $40,000, and that the foundation does not fund personnel costs or recurring operating expenses — request funding for a discrete project, equipment, or program expansion rather than general operating support or staff salaries. Given the foundation's roots and advisor network in Clinton, Mississippi (home to trustee Shivers, advisor Wilbanks who sits on Clinton's Board of Aldermen, and the foundation's physical address at 415 Clinton Boulevard), Mississippi-based or Mississippi-serving organizations working with individuals with developmental or physical disabilities should consider this a strong geographic and mission fit and lead with that alignment explicitly. Because grantmaking only began in earnest in FY2024, do not expect a large or well-worn portfolio of past grantees to reference — a warm introduction via the community advisors' professional networks (special education, disability advocacy, or legal/nonprofit governance circles in central Mississippi) may carry more weight than a cold LOI given how small and personal the review process is. Avoid assuming a fast turnaround; with only two trustees managing this alongside other commitments, build in extra lead time before a program start date.