Kurr Foundation

The Kurr Foundation is a closed, relationship-driven family foundation with no meaningful entry point for cold applicants. Established in 1992 by Sara Margaret Kurr Zock, widow of investment banker Joseph A. Zock, it is still governed by a small, stable trustee board (Robert J. Gaughran, Catherine F. Donohue, Joseph Zock, Kevin K. Murphy, and Norma R. Pane), each drawing roughly $45,000-$46,250 in annual compensation. There is no staff, no public program officer, and — despite a website URL listed in IRS records (kurr.org) — no actual foundation web presence; that domain now belongs to an unrelated artist. Inside Philanthropy and every major grants database confirm the foundation does not accept unsolicited applications or LOIs, funding only pre-selected organizations.

The grantee list bears this out: of 43 tracked grants, several recipients (Calvary Hospital, Parker Family Health Center, Sisters Academy Mercy Center, Young People's Chorus, Family and Children's Services) received two separate awards, indicating durable, multi-year relationships rather than a competitive cycle. The single largest gift — $100,000 to Bethel Tulpehocken Public Library in Pennsylvania — stands out against a typical grant size of $1,000-$15,000 (median $2,000), strongly suggesting a personal or family tie to that specific Berks County, PA community rather than a programmatic funding priority.

For organizations without an existing relationship, the realistic path is a warm introduction: through a current grantee, a trustee's civic, religious, or medical-institution network in Monmouth County, NJ (where the foundation is based) or the Tulpehocken area of PA, or a shared board member. There is a visible pattern of support for Catholic girls' schools (Sisters Academy Mercy Center, Trinity Hall, Academy of Mt St Ursula), suggesting diocesan or alumnae connections matter. First-time applicants should not expect a proposal review process at all — success here looks like relationship-building over 1-2 years, not submitting a strong LOI.

Across the 43 grants captured in available data, the foundation distributed $375,000 total, averaging $8,721 per grant, but the median is far lower: the foundation's own typical-grant-size data (n=34) shows a median of $2,000, an average of $4,147, and a range of $1,000-$15,000 — meaning most gifts are modest, loyalty-style contributions, pulled upward by a handful of large outliers.

By purpose, education dominates: roughly $206,500 (about 55% of tracked giving) went to education-tagged recipients, led by the $100,000 Bethel Tulpehocken Public Library grant, $34,000 to Sisters Academy Mercy Center (2 grants), $25,000 to Trinity Hall, $20,000 to Tulpehocken Parent Music Association, and $15,000 to Young People's Chorus. Community assistance is the second-largest bucket at roughly $108,500 (29%), spread across 17 smaller grants such as The Source ($20,000), Salvation Army Hamburg ($15,000), and Family and Children's Services ($13,000 over 2 grants). Medical/health giving totals about $60,000 (16%), including Calvary Hospital ($22,500 over 2 grants), Parker Family Health Center ($20,000 over 2 grants), and Doctors Without Borders ($15,000 over 2 grants).

Geographically, tracked grants split almost evenly between New Jersey (18 grants) and New York (18 grants), with Pennsylvania (5 grants, but the single largest dollar amount) and Florida (2 grants) rounding out the footprint — consistent with the foundation's stated NY/NJ/PA geographic focus.

On the balance sheet, total assets have held in an $8.1M-$9.4M band for over a decade (most recently $9.09M in FY2023), while total giving has been considerably more volatile: $1.26M (FY2011), $727K-$800K (2012-2015), no public data 2016-2018, then $533K-$584K (2019-2020), a dip to $437K-$499K (2021-2022), and a rebound to $553,631 (FY2023, per Form 990) and $535,089 in grants paid (FY2024, per the most recent filing). Officer/trustee compensation ($180,000 total across the board in FY2023) has at times run over 70% of that year's grants-paid figure, a useful data point on overhead but not unusual for a small family foundation with five active trustees.

Kurr sits at the small, opaque end of this peer set: it is closest in asset size to Fred C. Rummel Foundation, but even more closed, lacking Rummel's named executive director or any public contact beyond a phone line. Hyde and Watson, despite being roughly ten times larger by assets, is actually the most accessible funder of the four, with published application windows (Dec 15-Feb 1 and Jun 15-Aug 1) — a useful redirect for grant seekers who strike out with Kurr. Poses Family Foundation shares Kurr's closed-door posture and overlapping NY/NJ geography but operates at a much larger giving scale.

The most recent public data point is the FY2024 Form 990-PF (filed May 12, 2025), showing $535,089 in grants paid against $650,949 in total revenue — the highest grants-paid figure since at least FY2015. This continues a two-year rebound from FY2022's $437,167 in total giving. No news coverage, press releases, leadership changes, or new program announcements were found for the Kurr Foundation in 2025 or 2026; it has no communications presence and generates no media footprint, consistent with its closed operating model.

The trustee roster has been stable across the filings reviewed: Robert J. Gaughran, Catherine F. Donohue, Joseph Zock, and Kevin K. Murphy appear consistently, joined in some years by Norma R. Pane, each compensated in the $30,000-$46,250 range depending on the year. There is no indication of a founder-generation transition beyond the original 1992 establishment by Sara Margaret Kurr Zock — the current trustees appear to be family and associates carrying forward her giving pattern rather than a professionalized board undergoing strategic change.

The most notable single event in the available grant history remains the $100,000 award to Bethel Tulpehocken Public Library in Pennsylvania — more than a quarter of all tracked giving in one gift — which stands out enough from the foundation's typical $1,000-$15,000 range to suggest a specific, personal motivating relationship rather than a shift in programmatic priorities.

There is no formal application process to optimize for — the foundation does not accept unsolicited LOIs or proposals, has no grants portal, no published guidelines, and (despite the URL in IRS records) no functioning website. Calling (732) 219-9200 will reach the trustee office, but treat it as a fact-check line, not a submission channel; there is no evidence any cold caller has been added to the pipeline.

The realistic strategy is relationship-first: identify whether your organization already has a board member, donor, or alumni tie to one of the five trustees (Gaughran, Donohue, Zock, Murphy, Pane), or to the foundation's core geographies — Monmouth County, NJ (Middletown is the seat), the New York metro area, and specifically the Tulpehocken/Berks County area of Pennsylvania, which produced the single largest grant on record. A warm introduction through an existing grantee — Calvary Hospital, Parker Family Health Center, Sisters Academy Mercy Center, and Family and Children's Services have all received repeat funding and clearly have standing relationships — is far more likely to work than any written proposal.

Messaging should mirror the founder's documented personal interests: cancer and heart-health causes (echoing Sara Kurr Zock's support for American Cancer Society and American Heart Association chapters), Catholic girls' education (Sisters Academy Mercy Center, Trinity Hall, and Academy of Mt St Ursula are all Catholic girls' schools), Protestant/Lutheran congregations, libraries, and youth music or camp programs. Organizations outside these thematic and geographic lines have essentially no tracked history of receiving support.

Size expectations should be modest: budget for a $1,000-$15,000 ask unless your organization has the kind of longstanding, personal tie that produced the $100,000 outlier gift. Do not expect acknowledgment of an unsolicited inquiry, and do not build a funding timeline around Kurr — treat it as an opportunistic, multi-year relationship-building target rather than a near-term application prospect.