Lennox Foundation

The Lennox Foundation (EIN 42-6053380) is a private family foundation administered through Foundation Source, a professional foundation management firm headquartered at 501 Silverside Road, Wilmington, Delaware. This operational structure — typical of families who want institutional back-office support without dedicated philanthropic staff — signals that grantmaking is driven by trustee relationships and proactive identification, not competitive review of incoming proposals.

Critical disambiguation for researchers: Web searches for "Lennox Foundation" predominantly surface two unrelated entities — the Martha, David and Bagby Lennox Foundation (Red River County, Texas, annual giving $500K-$1M) and the LII Lennox Foundation (the HVAC company's corporate philanthropy). The foundation profiled here (EIN 42-6053380, Wilmington, DE) is an entirely distinct private family foundation with larger assets ($42.9M), different geographic priorities, and a broader national and international grantee portfolio. The website www.lennox-foundation.org appears to belong to the Texas-focused entity, not this foundation.

With 563 documented grants totaling $12.2M, the giving philosophy centers on sustained multi-year relationships. Top recipients — Nature Conservancy of Texas (7 grants, $465,000), Animal Shelter of Wood River Valley, Idaho (10 grants, $440,000), Mano a Mano International Partners (4 grants, $400,000), and Montana Skatepark Association (4 grants, $400,000) — averaged 4-10 grants per organization across multiple cycles. First-time applicants should calibrate expectations: the median grant is $7,500 and multi-year deepening is the path to larger investments approaching $100,000.

The board includes 30+ trustees, all serving without compensation — a hallmark of extended family governance. Recurring surnames across 990-PF filings (Zink, Booth, Krahmer, Storey, Concannon, Norris) suggest multi-generational family involvement. Geographic grantee clustering around Steamboat Springs, CO; Wood River Valley/Sun Valley, ID; southern Maine; the Berkshire region of MA/CT; and San Francisco Bay Area provides a clear map of where trustees live, vacation, and maintain community ties.

Organizations most likely to enter the foundation's orbit are already embedded in these communities or in causes — conservation, winter sports access, animal welfare, reproductive health, international water and infrastructure — that trustees personally champion. The realistic first step for any new prospect is identifying which trustee has mission alignment with your work and seeking a warm introduction through mutual grantees, board peers, or sector colleagues. The foundation's use of Foundation Source makes direct cold outreach to the administrative office an unreliable path for new prospects.

The Lennox Foundation's documented grant history reveals a giving program of consistent scale with gradual long-term growth. Drawing from 563 grants totaling $12,211,791 across multiple award cycles:

• Median grant: $7,500
• Average grant: $21,691 (skewed upward by large multi-year awards)
• Minimum grant on record: $250 (small program supplements)
• Maximum single grant: $100,000 (the apparent ceiling, reached by multiple organizations including Moffett Field Historical Society, Missoula Curling Club, Charity Water, and Cape Elizabeth Land Trust)
• Annual giving (grants paid): $3.05M-$3.6M in FY2019-FY2023, rising to ~$4.33M disbursed in FY2024

Asset context: the foundation grew from $20.5M (2012) to $43.6M at peak (2021), settling at $42.9M in 2024 — a 108% increase over 12 years that drove proportional growth in annual giving from $1.7M (2013) to $3.5M+ in recent years. The payout rate runs roughly 8% of assets annually inclusive of investment expenses and administration.

Geographic distribution of 563 tracked grants by state: - California: 119 grants (21%) — Bay Area, Monterey County, Santa Barbara - Maine: 52 grants (9%) — Portland metro, Cape Elizabeth, Katahdin region - Colorado: 45 grants (8%) — Steamboat Springs dominant - Massachusetts: 43 grants (8%) — Berkshire region - New York: 43 grants (8%) — Rochester area - Wyoming: 35 grants (6%) — Cheyenne area - Connecticut: 23 grants (4%) — Farmington Valley - Minnesota: 21 grants (4%) - Arkansas: 21 grants (4%) - Texas: 18 grants (3%) - International and other states: ~17%

Programmatic distribution by estimated dollar value: 1. Conservation and environment (~25%): Nature Conservancy chapters, Rocky Mountain Institute, land trusts, Katahdin Woods and Waters, international forest and climate projects 2. Youth recreation and sports (~20%): YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, Montana Skatepark Association, Portland Community Squash 3. Health and medical services (~18%): Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Highland Hospital (Rochester), Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, Hospice of Southern Maine, pediatric programs 4. International development (~12%): Mano a Mano Bolivia water wells ($400,000 cumulative), Basecamp Foundation Kenya ($200,000), Charity Water Uganda ($100,000) 5. Social services and housing (~12%): Preble Street, Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together San Francisco, Arc of Farmington Valley 6. Education (~8%): Academy for Global Citizenship, Portland Education Foundation, First Book Charlotte 7. Other (~5%): Historical preservation (Moffett Field), economic equity, recreational programs

Capital grants appear routinely alongside programmatic support — chairlifts, pool construction, HVAC upgrades, vehicle purchases, and group home renovations all appear in the grant record.

The Lennox Foundation occupies a mid-sized niche among private family foundations: large enough for meaningful multi-year investments up to $100,000, small enough that relationships with a compact trustee family effectively determine all grantmaking. No formally identified peer set exists in philanthropy databases for this foundation, consistent with its preference for operating outside public grant markets. The table below compares approximate figures from public 990-PF filings for foundations with similar asset scale and thematic focus (all figures are approximate from most recently available public filings):

The Lennox Foundation's geographic breadth — five distinct U.S. regional hubs plus consistent international giving — is unusually wide for a foundation of this asset size. Peer foundations like Cedar Tree and Compton concentrate giving more tightly within one or two regions. This breadth reflects a distributed trustee family with multiple residential and community ties across the country. For grant seekers, this means geographic proximity to any one hub is an advantage but not an absolute requirement if programmatic alignment is strong and a trustee connection exists. Wilburforce, at roughly 1.6x Lennox's asset size, offers a useful benchmark for conservation-focused organizations navigating a by-invitation model at the next scale tier.

No press releases, public announcements, or news coverage specific to the Lennox Foundation (EIN 42-6053380) appeared in 2025 or 2026 searches. This silence is characteristic of private family foundations administered through Foundation Source, which functions as a back-office provider rather than a public-facing philanthropic brand. The foundation has no confirmed public website of its own — the site listed in charity databases (www.lennox-foundation.org) belongs to the Martha, David and Bagby Lennox Foundation, a separate Texas-focused entity.

From IRS 990-PF data and ProPublica tracking, recent financial activity shows: - FY2024: Total assets $42.9M, revenue $6.5M (asset sales $5.0M, dividends $1.3M, interest $109K), charitable disbursements $4.33M — the highest in the available record and a meaningful step up from the $3.0M-$3.4M range of FY2022-2023 - FY2023: Grants paid $3.05M, total giving $3.43M, assets $41.0M, net investment income $3.0M - FY2022: Grants paid $2.96M, total giving $3.38M, assets $41.2M, net investment income $934K (a down-market year) - FY2021: Peak giving of $3.6M driven by $6.3M in net investment income during strong equity markets - FY2019-2020: Giving stable at $3.5M annually on assets of $38-41M

Leadership appears stable across multiple consecutive 990-PF filings. Jeff Storey has served as Chair, John Zink as Treasurer, Megan Norris and Nick Booth as Co-Secretaries, and Katie Concannon as Vice Chair. No leadership transitions or new program announcements were identified in available data. The foundation's grantee mix has remained consistent across cycles, with no identified major pivots in geographic focus or programmatic priorities between FY2020 and FY2024.

The Lennox Foundation is a by-invitation private family foundation with no confirmed public application portal and no open RFP process. The following tips are grounded in the foundation's documented behavior across 563 grants and its administrative structure:

Confirm geographic alignment first. Over 60% of documented grants went to organizations in five states — California (21%), Maine (9%), Colorado (8%), Massachusetts (8%), and New York (8%). International giving to Bolivia, Kenya, and Uganda is trustee-championed rather than program-solicited. If your organization operates outside these geographies, candidly assess whether this is a realistic target before investing cultivation time.

Align with documented priorities, not aspirational ones. The foundation funds conservation, youth recreation and sports access, community health (including reproductive health), international water and livelihoods development, and housing-adjacent social services. Climate-specific work is fundable when framed within conservation. Racial equity appears in recent grants but is not a dominant theme. Do not frame proposals around topics absent from the grantee record — the foundation has not funded arts, higher education institutions, or faith-based work in the documented portfolio.

Map trustees before any outreach. The 30+ trustee roster includes individuals connected to Steamboat Springs' winter sports community, the Portland, Maine nonprofit ecosystem, the Sun Valley/Wood River Valley area, and California's Bay Area. Identify which trustees' personal geography and professional background align with your mission. A warm introduction from someone they trust carries more weight than any unsolicited letter.

Capital requests are fully fundable. Unlike many foundations that restrict grants to programs only, this funder has supported a ski lift ($100,000 to Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Foundation), pool facility campaigns, HVAC system upgrades, group home renovations, vehicle purchases, and medical equipment. If you have a capital need with geographic and mission fit, do not self-screen it out.

Leverage existing grantees as connectors. Multi-grant recipients — Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Maine, Rebuilding Together San Francisco, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Mano a Mano International Partners, YMCAs — have established trustee trust over many cycles. A peer introduction from one of these organizations is the most effective path to first-time consideration.

Do not contact Foundation Source directly. The Wilmington, DE address is Foundation Source's administrative office, not a program office with grant decision-making authority. Phone and email inquiries routed through Foundation Source will not reach the trustees who make all funding decisions.