Manning Foundation Inc.

Manning Foundation Inc. is a young (IRS ruling June 2019), family-run private foundation in Louisville, KY, controlled by the Clift, Lueken, Westhusing, and Manning families (E. Daniel Clift, President; Brice Westhusing, VP; Mary K. Clift, Treasurer; John S. Lueken, Secretary; Cynthia L. Manning, Director). Its IRS record marks it as preselected-only and lists application instructions as none — this is not a foundation that runs a public grant program. The single itemized recipient across its available 990 history is Schwab Charitable Fund, a commercial donor-advised-fund sponsor, which received all 7 recorded grants totaling $585,000. That pattern strongly suggests the family uses Manning Foundation Inc. as a feeder vehicle: assets flow in from family contributions ($3.0M received in the FY2022 filing alone), then flow out to a DAF where the family privately directs final gifts to operating charities — decisions invisible to public grant-seekers and outside any competitive review process. For a first-time applicant, the realistic path is not a written LOI or online portal; it is a personal relationship with a family officer, most plausibly through the foundation's administrative agent, Wetterer & Co. (listed as C/O on the filing, phone 502-491-5550, 9700 Ormsby Station Rd Ste 101, Louisville KY 40223). Organizations already known to E. Daniel Clift, Cynthia L. Manning, or the Westhusing/Lueken families — likely Louisville-area causes given the mailing address — stand the best chance. Cold nonprofit applicants without an existing connection to this family network should treat Manning Foundation Inc. as a low-probability target and deprioritize it relative to peer foundations of similar size that maintain open, published grant programs. If pursuing this funder anyway, the entry point is a brief, warm introduction (phone or letter to the Ormsby Station Rd office) rather than a formal proposal, positioning the ask as a relationship-building conversation, not a grant application.

Manning Foundation Inc. held $8,178,679 in net assets as of its most recent filing (fiscal year ending mid-2025), up from $4,634,879 two years earlier — asset growth driven primarily by family contributions ($3,023,704 received in the FY2022 990) rather than investment returns (net investment income has stayed modest, $42K-$70K/year). Charitable disbursements have been erratic rather than policy-driven: $8,829 (FY2020) → $28,248 (FY2021) → $189,319 (FY2022) → $361,843 (FY2023) → $464,214 (FY2024) → $100,413 (FY2025), with no clear payout formula visible from the outside. Cumulative disbursements since the foundation's 2019 founding total roughly $1.15 million against $8.2 million in assets — a payout ratio well below the 5% IRS minimum in most individual years, offset by occasional larger distributions. Of the disbursements that are itemized in available grantee data, all 7 recorded grants (average $83,571, total $585,000) went to a single recipient: Schwab Charitable Fund, tagged only as 'supporting mission of the foundation.' No breakdown by program area, geography, or cause is available because the foundation does not appear to make itemized grants directly to operating nonprofits in the public record — the Schwab DAF is the terminal recipient on paper, with actual charity selection happening downstream and unreported. Officer compensation has risen from $0 in FY2021 to $60,000/year in FY2024-2025 (six officers at $10,000 each), a larger and more consistent line item than most individual years' charitable output. There is no evidence of geographic restriction beyond the Louisville, KY home base, and no NTEE-coded program breakdown exists because the foundation's own classification (T20 — Private Grantmaking Foundations under Philanthropy & Grantmaking) reflects its structure, not its giving focus.

Manning Foundation Inc. sits in a tight asset cluster with several other small, family-run private foundations nationally, all coded to Philanthropy & Grantmaking (NTEE T-series) rather than a specific cause area — a strong signal that these are family giving vehicles, not program-driven grantmakers.

All five peers share Manning's near-identical $8.18M asset size and generic Philanthropy & Grantmaking classification, and none list a public website — a pattern consistent with a cohort of family foundations that exist primarily to warehouse and direct family charitable assets rather than to run competitive, publicly advertised grant programs. Grant seekers should expect all six of these entities, Manning included, to require a personal or professional connection to the controlling family rather than a cold written application.

The most recent available filing (fiscal year ending mid-2025) shows Manning Foundation Inc. with $8,178,679 in net assets and $100,413 in charitable disbursements — a steep pullback from the $464,214 given out the prior fiscal year (ending mid-2024) and the $361,843 given the year before that (ending mid-2023). Total revenue also declined year over year, from $1,158,289 (FY2024) to $781,248 (FY2025), while officer compensation held steady at $60,000 split evenly across six family officers (E. Daniel Clift, Brice Westhusing, Mary K. Clift, John S. Lueken, Erin Westhusing, and Stacie H. Lueken, each drawing roughly $10,000). No leadership changes, new program announcements, press coverage, or public statements from the foundation could be located — it does not maintain a discoverable independent website (manningfoundation.org belongs to an unrelated Canadian nonprofit), has no social media presence, and generates no press coverage in general web or news search. The foundation's last IRS enrichment/verification pass was recorded 2026-07-29 in Granted's own database, confirming it remains active and classified as accepting applications only from preselected organizations. Absent a public announcement channel, the most reliable way to track this foundation's activity going forward is its annual Form 990-PF filing via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (EIN 83-2967695) rather than news search.

Manning Foundation Inc. is functionally closed to unsolicited applications: its own IRS filing marks it 'preselected only' with application instructions listed as none, and its only itemized grant recipient is a donor-advised fund (Schwab Charitable Fund) rather than an operating charity — meaning the real funding decisions are made privately by the family, off the public record, likely through Schwab's DAF interface. Do not submit a cold LOI or proposal; there is no published portal, deadline, or review cycle to target. Instead, treat this as a relationship-first funder: (1) identify any existing connection to the controlling family — E. Daniel Clift (President), Cynthia L. Manning, Mary K. Clift, John S. Lueken, Brice Westhusing, or Erin/Stacie Westhusing/Lueken — through board service, professional networks, or Louisville civic/philanthropic circles; (2) if no connection exists, a respectful, brief introductory letter or call to the foundation's administrative address (C/O Wetterer & Co., 9700 Ormsby Station Rd Ste 101, Louisville, KY 40223, 502-491-5550) is more likely to get a response than a formal grant packet — ask whether the foundation is open to a conversation, not for money directly; (3) given the erratic payout pattern ($8.8K to $464K year over year), do not assume a stable annual budget exists to request against — frame any ask as opportunistic rather than tied to a fixed cycle; (4) because officer compensation ($60K/year) now regularly exceeds many individual years' charitable disbursements, be realistic that this foundation's primary function may currently be asset accumulation and family governance rather than active grantmaking, and calibrate expectations accordingly; (5) local Louisville, KY nonprofits are the most plausible fit given the foundation's mailing address and lack of any stated geographic or program restriction elsewhere. The single biggest mistake an applicant could make here is spending significant proposal-writing time on this funder before confirming, via a direct phone call to 502-491-5550, that the foundation is even willing to consider outside organizations this cycle.