Lunacap Foundation Inc.

LunaCap Foundation Inc. is a founder-led, single-cause micro-foundation ($5.25M in assets, $110,541 in FY2024 revenue) built entirely around one program: $10,000 MBA scholarships for U.S. active-duty military members, veterans, and/or students of Mexican descent entering their first year at a top-tier MBA program. It was founded by Paul Capon, a Guadalajara-born adoptee and U.S. Air Force veteran, after a trip to Mexico searching for his birth parents convinced him that his own MBA had been the single greatest lever of opportunity in his life. That personal story is not incidental marketing — it is the lens through which every application is read, and grant seekers who understand it will write stronger essays than those who treat this as a generic merit scholarship. Critically, LunaCap is NOT a general nonprofit or program funder: it does not accept unsolicited proposals from organizations, has no LOI stage, and no site-visit process. Funds flow in only one direction — from the foundation directly to the financial aid office of one of roughly 19 named business schools (Columbia, Harvard, MIT Sloan, Wharton, Stanford GSB, Yale SOM, Berkeley Haas/UC, Michigan Ross, Cornell Johnson, Darden, Booth, Tuck, and others) on behalf of an individual admitted student. The relationship progression is entirely applicant-driven: online application plus essay during the Jan 2-Mar 31 window, rolling review February through May, possible interviews, June selection, and August-September disbursement paired with an alumni mentor match. There is no cultivation runway for institutions and no repeat/multi-year funding relationship at the organizational level — each award is a one-time, need-based grant to a named individual's tuition account. First-time applicants (individuals) should know that eligibility is a hard gate — active military/veteran status or Mexican descent (born anywhere), plus enrollment as an incoming 1st-year at an eligible school, including EMBA programs — and that selection explicitly prioritizes candor about hardship and a stated intent to 'give back,' over raw academic pedigree alone, per the foundation's own published criteria and Capon's founding narrative.

LunaCap's giving is small, concentrated, and has grown quickly as the founder's contributions have scaled. FY2023 (the most complete filing in this record): total giving $164,556 against total revenue of $106,792 and contributions received of $106,792 — meaning the foundation distributed more than it took in that year, drawing down modest reserves. Grants paid that year totaled $150,000 across 8 disbursements to business-school financial aid offices, averaging $18,750 per grant but ranging from $10,000 (UC, Michigan, Cornell, Stanford) up to $50,000 (Columbia) and two at $20,000 (Harvard, MIT Sloan, Wharton) — reflecting differing per-institution cohort sizes rather than a single flat award in that filing year. By contrast, the foundation's current, web-published model is a flat $10,000 per scholar, and the live Class of 2026 roster lists 15-16 named individual scholars, implying current-year disbursements in the $150,000-$160,000 range spread across a larger, more evenly distributed cohort than the FY2023 filing shows. Asset growth has been dramatic: total assets moved from just $119,411 in FY2019 to $5,245,225 by FY2024 — a roughly 44x increase — while net investment income was $0 in both years on record, meaning the foundation holds assets largely as cash/near-cash rather than an invested corpus, and its giving capacity is a function of ongoing contributions (likely from Capon and close supporters) rather than endowment payout. There is no evidence of program-area diversification: 100% of documented giving is MBA scholarship support (NTEE W99, Public Benefit), with no capital grants, no general-operating support to nonprofits, and no multi-year pledges. Geographically, the foundation is funder-of-record in New York but its scholar pool is national and binational — recent scholars are based in Texas, Florida, Idaho, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia/DC, New York, and California, plus several from Mexico City (CDMX) — though every dollar is routed through U.S. business-school financial aid offices, not community organizations abroad or domestically.

LunaCap sits squarely in the middle of this asset-size peer band ($4.86M-$5.46M) of small, single-family-style Public Benefit foundations, but it stands apart operationally: only Chaffee Family Foundation and LunaCap maintain a public website among these five peers, and LunaCap is the only one with a fully open, published, individual-applicant portal, a defined annual cycle, and named scholar cohorts posted publicly. That transparency is unusual at this asset scale — most peer foundations of this size operate as quiet, invitation-only family vehicles with no discoverable application process, so grant seekers who fit LunaCap's narrow eligibility criteria have a genuinely accessible path that peers of similar size do not offer.

The most concrete recent signal is the foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF, which posted publicly on 2026-02-12 and shows total assets of $5,245,225 (up from $5,242,329 the prior year) on $110,541 of revenue — a flat, steady-state year rather than a growth year, consistent with a foundation that pays out close to what it takes in annually. On the program side, the foundation's website shows a fully rostered 'Class of 2026' cohort of 15-16 named scholars now attending Stanford GSB, Harvard Business School, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Yale SOM, Tuck, Booth, and Darden — a materially larger named cohort than the 8 grants reported in the FY2023 filing, suggesting the program has scaled up its scholar count even as the per-scholar award has standardized at $10,000. Site copy referencing the next open cycle (Jan 2 for an upcoming class) appears in multiple places with some inconsistency in which class year it targets, which reads as ordinary small-nonprofit website upkeep lag rather than a substantive program change. No leadership changes were found — Paul Capon remains the sole named contact ('% Paul Capon') on the IRS BMF record and is the foundation's founder and public spokesperson in all available materials, including a scholar-welcome event hosted by corporate partner AmeriVet Securities in past years. No major new institutional partnerships, press coverage, or funding-priority announcements beyond the annual cohort cycle were found in available search results for 2025-2026; the foundation's public footprint is limited to its own site, standard nonprofit-database listings (CauseIQ, ProPublica-style aggregators), and school financial-aid program pages (e.g., Columbia Business School lists LunaCap as a named scholarship source).

Apply exactly at window-open: the portal runs January 2 through March 31 annually, and review is rolling (Feb-May) ahead of June selections — early, complete submissions get more review runway than late-window ones. Confirm hard eligibility before investing time: you must be entering your FIRST year (EMBA counts) at one of roughly 19 named top-tier programs, and you must be active-duty military, a veteran, or of Mexican descent (born anywhere) — there is no exception path and no 'close enough' school list. Write the essay around the foundation's actual thesis, not a generic scholarship pitch: founder Paul Capon built LunaCap after his own MBA became his biggest opportunity lever, following a trip to Mexico that exposed him to poverty near his birth family — essays that connect personal hardship or service to a genuine forward-looking commitment ('I will mentor the next cohort,' 'I will hire veterans/first-gen candidates') map directly onto the foundation's stated selection criterion that weighs 'desire to give back' over raw academic performance. Have financial-need documentation ready before you're asked — the foundation may request your school's Financial Aid Office Student Aid Report, so gather it during the application window rather than after a shortlist call. Do not approach this as an organizational or program funder: there is no path for nonprofits, veteran-services organizations, or Mexican-American community groups to pitch LunaCap directly for operating or program support — money moves only from LunaCap to an individual scholar's school account. The most common mistake based on the funder's own published cycle is late or incomplete essay submissions during the narrow Jan 2-Mar 31 window; because review starts immediately and interviews can follow as early as February, submitting in the first few weeks maximizes time for any follow-up requests. Post-award, engage with the alumni mentor pairing seriously — the foundation frames its 'Class of' cohorts and welcome events as an ongoing community, and visible participation (LinkedIn posts, welcome-event attendance) appears to be part of how the foundation sustains its founder-driven fundraising base for future cohorts.