Loeb Foundation

The Loeb Foundation is not a conventional program-driven grantmaker — it is a small, bank-administered charitable trust (assets $4.42M as of FY2024) run out of LCNB National Bank's Trust Department in Lebanon, OH, with no dedicated staff, website, or communications function. Everything about its posture signals a narrow, geographically fixed mandate rather than an evolving strategy: the IRS record and its own application instructions state a 'strong preference for all awards to Warren County, OH,' funding exactly three categories — police protection, fire protection, and 'Stay-at-Home' assistance for elderly, indigent residents who wish to remain in their homes. There is no competitive RFP, no board of program officers, and no history of funding outside these three buckets going back at least to 2012. First-time applicants should understand this is functionally a local public-safety and elder-support trust, not a general nonprofit funder: the two trustees (Bernard Wright Jr and Michael Foley, each compensated $33,600 annually) oversee distributions rather than solicit proposals or build multi-year grantee relationships. The favored 'organization type' is township government or a fire/police department budget line — not a 501(c)(3) service nonprofit — with the sole exception of the Stay-at-Home program, which appears to route through direct assistance to individuals or their caseworkers. There is no LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline and no site-visit tradition evident in the public record; the entire relationship progression is a single letter to the bank trust office. Because the applicant pool is small and geographically fixed (18 grants recorded in DB history, all in Ohio, averaging $115,103), repeat funding to the same three recipient lines (Loeb Fire Protection, Loeb Police Protection, Loeb Stay-At-Home Grant) is the dominant pattern rather than a rotating grantee roster. Organizations outside Warren County, or outside public safety and elder in-home support, should not apply — there is no evidence this funder has ever made an exception. For eligible Warren County police/fire agencies, the practical strategy is simple: identify the specific equipment, staffing, or operational need, quantify it, and submit before August 30; for elder Stay-at-Home requests, a reason-and-amount letter can go in any time of year.

Total giving has declined gradually over the past decade, from $625,997 in 2012 to a range of $267,611-$527,765 in more recent completed fiscal years (FY2023: $382,444 total giving on $267,611 grants paid; FY2022: $445,017 on $305,518 paid; FY2021: $527,765 on $381,059 paid; FY2020: $457,085 on $317,639 paid; FY2019: $453,340 on $320,975 paid). Web-sourced 2025 filing data shows $349K distributed across exactly three grants: Stay-at-Home ($58,558), Police Protection ($161,960), and Fire Protection ($128,298) — consistent with the three-program structure the DB confirms historically. The DB's typical_grant_size figures (median $68,143; average $127,020; range $67,003-$245,913 across a 3-grant sample) and the cumulative grantee-history totals (Loeb Fire Protection $1,243,189 across 6 recorded distributions, avg ~$207K; Loeb Police Protection $358,929 across 6, avg ~$60K; Loeb Stay-At-Home Grant $469,734 across 6, avg ~$78K) both point to Fire Protection as the largest single line by dollar volume, though 2025's actual split (Police $161,960 > Fire $128,298) shows year-to-year swings between the two safety categories rather than a fixed ratio. All 18 grants in the DB's grantee history are in Ohio (100% Warren County by the funder's own stated preference), with a foundation-wide average grant of $115,103. Total assets have fallen steadily — $5,260,341 (2014) to $5,138,044 (2018) to $4,415,878 (2024) — a roughly 16% decline over ten years, driven by contributions received being effectively zero every year on record ($0-$100) while grants paid consistently exceed net new capital. Net investment income is volatile (from $105,672 in 2019 to $712,273 in 2013), and officer/trustee compensation (combining $33,600 x2 trustee fees plus other officer costs ranging $69,049-$119,301 across years) represents a meaningful share of total giving in leaner years — in FY2023, compensation ($69,049) equaled roughly 18% of total giving ($382,444). This is a fixed-corpus trust in slow drawdown, not a growing philanthropy — grant seekers should expect flat-to-declining nominal award levels going forward absent new contributions.

Loeb sits at the small end of this set by both assets and giving, and unlike every peer listed it has no open, competitive process — it is a closed, single-county trust with a fixed three-program mandate. Its closest structural cousin is its own hometown neighbor, Warren County Foundation, which shares geography but operates a conventional, much larger competitive grants program; organizations that don't fit Loeb's police/fire/elder-care niche should look there instead, while public-safety-focused nonprofits and departments outside Warren County are far better served by Firehouse Subs or Motorola Solutions, both of which fund nationally at 25-30x Loeb's scale.

No leadership changes, new program announcements, or press coverage were identifiable for the Loeb Foundation in 2025-2026 — it maintains no website, annual report, or media presence, and web search returns only third-party 990 aggregators (ProPublica, Instrumentl, CauseIQ, Grantable, GrantStation, Impala) restating IRS filing data. The most current concrete activity is the 2025 filing year distribution: $349K split across Stay-at-Home ($58,558), Police Protection ($161,960), and Fire Protection ($128,298), matching the funder's decades-long three-program structure with no sign of a new focus area or discontinued line. The two named trustees, Bernard Wright Jr and Michael Foley, appear consistently across the DB's multi-year people records at the same $33,600 annual compensation, suggesting stable, long-tenured governance rather than recent turnover. FY2024 total assets stood at $4,415,878, continuing a slow decline from $4,568,655 (FY2023) and $4,367,881 two years prior fluctuating with markets, with FY2025 total revenue reported at $312,131 (down from $579,718 in FY2024, per CauseIQ's trend analysis, largely on lower realized investment gains rather than any operational change). In short: this is a quiet, administratively stable trust with no news cycle of its own — the most useful 'recent activity' signal for applicants is simply the confirmed continuation of its August 30 annual deadline and its three fixed funding categories into the current cycle.

Send a letter, not a full grant application packet — the foundation's own instructions call for exactly that: 'letter describing reason and amount' for Stay-at-Home requests, and comparable brevity is the norm for Police/Fire Protection requests given there is no listed application form or online portal. Address correspondence to LCNB National Bank Trust Department, PO Box 59, Lebanon, OH 45036, and confirm receipt by phone at (513) 932-1414 — this is a bank trust office, not a foundation program staff, so expect administrative rather than programmatic responses, and do not expect a relationship-building cultivation process (no site visits, no officer calls, no multi-year renewal cycle documented). Timing is critical for the two structured categories: Police Protection and Fire Protection requests must be in by August 30 annually; missing that date means waiting a full year, since there's no evidence of a second review cycle. The Stay-at-Home category is the one flexible pathway — it has no deadline and can be submitted whenever an eligible elderly, indigent Warren County resident's need arises. The single biggest and most common mistake would be applying from outside Warren County, OH, or applying as a category the fund doesn't support (general operating support for an unrelated nonprofit, capital campaigns, program grants outside police/fire/elder care) — the DB and web sources show zero exceptions to the Warren County / three-category restriction across all available filing years. Use plain, direct language mirroring the foundation's own framing: state the specific police or fire protection need (equipment, staffing gap, operational shortfall) and the exact dollar amount requested, rather than a broad mission narrative — this funder's grant sizes (median $68,143, up to $245,913 in the DB sample; 2025 awards of $58,558-$161,960) suggest itemized, need-specific requests fare better than open-ended asks. Because assets and giving have both trended down over the past decade, applicants should also request conservatively and not assume year-over-year award consistency — 2023's $267,611 in grants paid was roughly half of 2012's $485,580.