Mathews Foundation

Mathews Foundation (EIN 43-6351190) is a small, trustee-directed private foundation with a Chicago administrative address (PO Box 803878) but a giving footprint concentrated almost entirely in Missouri — 10 of its 11 tracked grants went to Missouri recipients, with a single grant to Louisiana. Its IRS record marks it as `preselected_only`, with no published application form, no listed deadline, and application_instructions recorded simply as `__none__` — strong signals this is a closed, relationship-driven funder rather than an open RFP program. The board is administered by two co-trustees: an individual, John D Schaperkotter, and Northern Trust Company, a corporate trustee — a common structure for small family or estate-linked foundations where a bank handles administration while a family member or designee directs granting decisions. Grantee data shows a clear bifurcation: large, concentrated institutional gifts (two grants totaling $2,010,000 to Washington University, tagged GENERAL and NEUROFIBROMATOSIS) sit alongside a long tail of modest, community-level grants of $5,000-$10,000 to St. Louis-area nonprofits (United Way of Greater St. Louis, Salvation Army's Tree of Lights, City Academy, Kidsmart, Character Plus). Four grants totaling $576,884 also went to St. Louis Community Foundation, which functions as a donor-advised-fund pass-through rather than a direct program recipient. For first-time applicants, the practical read is this: Mathews Foundation is not built for unsolicited proposals. Its total absence of an intake process, combined with `preselected_only: true`, suggests grants originate from existing relationships — likely tied to the family or individuals behind the foundation and their personal ties to the St. Louis nonprofit and medical-research community, particularly neurofibromatosis research. Organizations with an existing institutional relationship to Washington University, or grassroots St. Louis nonprofits serving children, human services, or community needs in the $5,000-$10,000 range, are the closest fit to its demonstrated giving pattern. Groups without a Missouri or Louisiana connection, or without a warm introduction, should treat this as a low-probability target until the foundation's website (currently a placeholder) publishes formal guidance.

Across the 11 grants captured in IRS data (total $2,616,884, average $237,899), the average is heavily distorted by two outsized Washington University grants ($2,010,000 combined, or 77% of all tracked giving). Strip those out and the remaining 9 grants total $606,884, averaging $67,432 — still skewed by four grants totaling $576,884 to St. Louis Community Foundation (a DAF vehicle, averaging $144,221 per grant). The true 'direct community grant' size is much smaller: United Way of Greater St. Louis ($10,000), and $5,000 each to Character Plus, Salvation Army (Tree of Lights), City Academy, and Kidsmart. This matches the foundation's own `typical_grant_size` metadata: median $5,000, average $20,000, range $5,000-$100,000 across 7 recorded grants. Annual total giving is highly volatile rather than a steady payout curve. Form 990-PF filings show: FY2023 giving $2,159,604 (grants paid $2,100,000) against FY2022's $315,136 (grants paid $188,442), FY2021's $316,850 ($200,000 paid), FY2020's $176,325 ($140,000 paid), and FY2019's $84,612 ($40,000 paid) — with earlier years (FY2011-FY2015) clustered even lower, $66,315-$84,049 in total giving. Assets have stayed remarkably flat over the full 12-year window, moving only from $736,478 (2011) to $2,928,029 (current), which — combined with the FY2023 spike in both contributions received ($2,382,141) and grants paid — points to episodic capital infusions (likely gifts or bequests) that get largely redeployed as grants rather than compounding through investment return alone (net investment income has stayed in the $23,793-$328,186 band across all years on file). By geography, 10 of 11 grants (91%) went to Missouri recipients and 1 to Louisiana; there is no California, Illinois, or national footprint despite the Chicago mailing address. By purpose, medical/health research (neurofibromatosis) and general operating support dominate dollar volume, while community human-services and youth-education nonprofits dominate grant count.

No verified peer-foundation dataset was returned for this profile (peers: []), so this table pairs Mathews Foundation against foundations surfaced in web research that share its small-family-foundation structure or its name — none of which are affiliated with, or should be confused with, the Chicago-registered Mathews Foundation (EIN 43-6351190) profiled here.

The clearest structural peer is The Matthews Foundation of San Diego: both are small, closed, invitation-leaning funders where unsolicited applicants are directed to make contact before submitting anything, and both route formal review through a periodic board meeting rather than rolling decisions. Mathews Foundation's Missouri concentration and lack of any published contact protocol make it more opaque than either San Diego's Matthews Foundation or the open, competitive model used by the Virginia-based Mathews Community Foundation.

No foundation-specific press coverage, award announcements, or leadership changes were found for this Mathews Foundation in 2025-2026 web searches — general search terms surfaced only unrelated, similarly-named organizations (Taylor Matthews Foundation, Matthews International Corporation, Mathews Community Foundation of Virginia, G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation). The foundation's own website, mathewsfoundation.org, currently displays a 'Launching Soon' placeholder with only a name/email signup form — no mission statement, grants list, or contact page beyond that form, and our records mark `website_status` as 'parked.' The most recent verifiable activity is therefore the FY2023 Form 990-PF (the latest year present in the data on file): $2,159,604 in total giving against $2,100,000 in grants paid, funded in large part by $2,382,141 in contributions received that same year — both figures far above any other year back to 2011. The two Washington University grants ($2,010,000 combined, GENERAL and NEUROFIBROMATOSIS purposes) are the single largest identifiable giving event in the foundation's tracked history. Co-trustees John D Schaperkotter and Northern Trust Company drew modest compensation in that period ($8,508 and $8,448 respectively, per the most recent filing lines on file; $6,851 and $7,545 in the prior period) — consistent with routine trustee administration rather than any newly expanded staff or governance structure. Given the FY2023-FY2025/2026 filing gap in available data, grant seekers should treat any assumption of continued $2M+ annual giving as unconfirmed until a newer Form 990-PF is filed and reviewed.

Mathews Foundation publishes no application form, no deadline, and no online intake process — `application_form_url`, `application_deadline`, and `opportunities_url` are all null, and `application_instructions` is recorded as `__none__` despite the foundation being flagged as currently `accepting_applications`. Treat this as a closed, relationship-driven funder, not a standard RFP program: (1) Do not spend time searching for a portal or downloadable LOI template — none exists as of this research. (2) The only public contact is the phone line (312) 630-6000; if you have no existing connection to the foundation, a brief, specific call describing your organization and asking whether it fits 'current funding parameters' is a more realistic first move than a cold written proposal, mirroring how comparable small closed foundations (e.g., the unrelated San Diego-based Matthews Foundation, which explicitly tells callers to start a conversation before submitting an LOI) manage unsolicited interest. (3) Match geography tightly: 10 of the 11 tracked grants went to Missouri organizations (concentrated in greater St. Louis), with one to Louisiana — despite the Illinois mailing address. Organizations outside Missouri/Louisiana, without a medical-research tie, are a weak fit. (4) Anchor dollar asks realistically: outside of the singular $2,010,000 Washington University commitment, every other tracked grant fell between $5,000 and $10,000 (median $5,000 across the foundation's own typical_grant_size metadata, average $20,000, ceiling $100,000). A first-time applicant should expect a request in the $5,000-$25,000 range unless proposing an institutional-scale medical-research partnership comparable to the WashU gifts. (5) Lead with alignment language tied to demonstrated purposes: 'GENERAL' operating support, community human-services/youth programs (United Way, Salvation Army, City Academy, Kidsmart), and — if applicable — neurofibromatosis or related medical research. (6) Common mistake to avoid: submitting a generic national or multi-state proposal; the foundation's actual giving is hyper-local to St. Louis despite its Chicago-based corporate trustee (Northern Trust Company), which likely only handles administration, not program direction. (7) Budget for a slow, unpublished timeline — no cadence is disclosed, so plan for a quarter or more between first contact and any decision, consistent with how small, closed, board-review foundations typically operate.