Mark Torrance Foundation

Mark Torrance Foundation is a lean, founder-led family foundation based in Seattle, chaired by President/Director Mark Torrance alongside directors Michael Mathieu, Paul Okner, Dana Bass Solomon, and Chris Birkeland — all of whom serve without compensation. Day-to-day administration runs through Karin Cirillo (Officer/Secretary, ~$28,600-$28,700/year) and Treasurer Richard Burkhardt (~$6,900-$8,400/year), operating out of Toba Group, a private family office at 712 N 34th St, Seattle. This staffing pattern signals a hands-on, relationship-driven operation rather than a bureaucratic institution with program officers.

Despite maintaining a public email intake (mtfinfo@tobagroup.com) and marking itself as accepting applications, the foundation's own data flags it as funding "preselected" charitable organizations rather than running an open RFP process. The grantee record backs this up: of $3.57M in cumulative documented giving across 48 grants to roughly 47 organizations, just four anchor grantees — University of Washington Foundation ($1,825,400 across 5 grants), Bellevue Schools Foundation ($522,800/3 grants), Seattle Children's Foundation ($300,000/3 grants), and DonorsChoose ($250,000/1 grant) — account for about 81% of all dollars granted. The remaining ~19% is spread thinly across 43 smaller, often single-year gifts of $1,000-$50,000.

First-time applicants should read this pattern correctly: MTF is not primarily a first-money funder for unfamiliar organizations. It behaves as a loyal, long-horizon backer of a small set of core institutional relationships, while reserving a modest discretionary pool for smaller gifts to aligned nonprofits it discovers through its network — cycling infrastructure, suicide prevention, youth nutrition/gardening programs, and social services more broadly.

Newcomers improve their odds by being Washington-based (89% of recipients are WA organizations), framing their work around creative, cross-sector collaboration (matching the foundation's stated mission, "Investing in Organizations Using Creative Solutions"), and — most importantly — securing a warm introduction through an existing grantee, board member, or the UW/Seattle civic network rather than cold-emailing. A brief, direct email describing the project remains the correct first step, but should be treated as a long-shot absent a relational anchor.

Total assets grew modestly from $9.88M (2011) to $11.13M (2023) — about 13% over 12 years — while annual grants paid nearly doubled, from $380,900 (2011) to a peak of $798,500 (2022) before settling at $689,950 (2023). Total giving (which includes grants plus other charitable disbursements) followed the same arc: $451,062 in 2011 to $946,375 in 2022 and $856,179 in 2023. This growth was funded almost entirely by net investment income, which swung from $220K to as high as $1.58M year to year, rather than by new contributions — the foundation received $0 in contributions in every filed year shown.

The 2023 payout ratio (total giving/assets) was 7.7%, comfortably above the IRS 5% minimum distribution requirement, marking MTF as an actively distributing foundation rather than an asset-accumulator.

Grant sizing shows a clear barbell pattern. The foundation's own most recent typical-grant-size data lists a median of $15,000, average of $92,333, and range of $1,000-$510,000 (n=7). Across the fuller 48-grant/$3.57M cumulative dataset, the blended average is $74,438 — but that figure is skewed hard by the University of Washington Foundation's $1,825,400 across 5 grants (averaging $365,080/grant). Strip out the top four anchor grantees (UW Foundation, Bellevue Schools Foundation, Seattle Children's Foundation, DonorsChoose — 81% of total dollars) and the remaining 43 grants average roughly $16,700, much closer to the $15,000 median — confirming that most organizations receive modest four- or low-five-figure gifts while a handful of institutional partners receive six-figure, multi-year support.

Geographically, 42 of 47 grantee records (89%) are Washington-based, with New York (2), and one each in California, Colorado, and Hawaii — consistent with the foundation's Pacific Northwest orientation, though its own geographic_focus field also names NY and HI, and web copy references British Columbia, suggesting some openness beyond WA for the right project. By program purpose, the dataset codes nearly all top grants as "PROGRAM SUPPORT - SOCIAL SERVICES," while web research surfaces more granular sub-themes in practice: youth nutrition/gardening, suicide prevention, sustainable transportation (Seattle bike-counter infrastructure), and K-12/higher-ed institutional support.

All five asset-matched peers sit within about $16,000 of MTF's $11.23M in total assets, forming a tight national cohort of small, single-family private foundations. None of them maintain a public website, disclosed focus area, or documented application process in the data available — in contrast to Mark Torrance Foundation, which publishes a mission statement, a named contact (Karin Cirillo), and an email intake channel. That transparency gap makes MTF meaningfully more approachable than its true asset-matched peer group, even though it still functions largely as a preselected, relationship-driven funder. MTF's $690K-$799K annual grants payout (roughly 6-7% of assets) should be read as at or above the baseline 5% distribution rate that similarly sized foundations are required to meet, suggesting MTF is a comparatively active grantmaker within this peer set.

Public reporting on Mark Torrance Foundation's 2025-2026 activity is thin. The most recent Form 990-PF on file was filed September 18, 2025, and Candid's grantmaker directory profile shows grant data last refreshed December 11, 2025 — but the latest disclosed grants-paid figure remains FY2023's $689,950, with no 2024 or 2025 grant list yet public. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or named large grants for 2025-2026 turned up in web search or on the foundation's site.

The foundation's own homepage carries forward-looking language stating it is entering "a new and exciting period of growth" in both geographic reach and issue areas, which may hint at an expanding mandate, though it does not specify a new region, program, or dollar commitment. Historically, the foundation's most visible public initiative was a 2017 gift funding the University of Washington Clean Energy Institute's Torrance Foundation Tech Due Diligence Program, which placed UW students on cleantech investment-diligence teams for Element 8, a Seattle-area cleantech angel group — illustrative of the foundation's interest in creative, cross-sector, education-linked initiatives, even though it long predates the current reporting window.

Given the gap in current public detail, the safest working assumption for applicants is that MTF's core funding pattern — steady, six-figure renewal support to UW Foundation, Bellevue Schools Foundation, and Seattle Children's Foundation, plus a smaller discretionary pool for new organizations — has continued into 2025-2026 without major disruption, pending confirmation once the FY2024/2025 990 becomes public.

Treat MTF as a preselected, relationship-first funder, not an open RFP program — its own record designates funding as going to preselected charitable organizations, and there is no grants portal, published deadline, or downloadable guidelines beyond an email intake.

• Correct first step: Send a brief email (a few paragraphs, no attachments) describing the project and organization directly to Karin Cirillo at mtfinfo@tobagroup.com. A formal grant request form is issued only if the project appears aligned with the mission — do not lead with a full proposal or budget.
• Timing: The Board of Directors meets twice annually to make funding decisions. There is no published rolling deadline, so plan on a multi-month lag between inquiry and decision, and ask directly what the current review cycle timeline looks like when you reach out.
• Alignment language: The foundation's stated mission is "Investing in Organizations Using Creative Solutions." Proposals that foreground creative problem-solving, cross-sector collaboration, and partnership — rather than standard service-delivery framing — echo the funder's own language most closely.
• What they fund in practice: Washington-based organizations (89% of known grantees), with recurring themes of youth nutrition/health and gardening programs, suicide prevention, sustainable/cycling transportation infrastructure, and K-12/higher-education institutional support (Bellevue Schools Foundation, UW/WSU Foundations).
• Realistic ask size: The median documented grant is $15,000, and 43 of 48 grants (excluding the four anchor relationships) average roughly $16,700. First-time applicants should anchor requests in the $5,000-$25,000 range rather than assume access to the six-figure tier reserved for long-standing partners like UW Foundation ($1,825,400 cumulative) or Bellevue Schools Foundation ($522,800 cumulative).
• Common mistake: Approaching MTF like a large institutional funder with a competitive LOI process. With no paid program staff and a preselected-giving posture, a generic, mass-distributed LOI is unlikely to gain traction.
• Relationship-building: Because the board serves without compensation and is closely held around founder Mark Torrance, the highest-leverage path in is a warm introduction through University of Washington, Seattle civic/cycling-advocacy circles, or an existing MTF grantee or board member — Michael Mathieu, Paul Okner, Dana Bass Solomon, or Chris Birkeland.