Mayo Family Foundation

Mayo Family Foundation is a small, founder-directed private foundation out of Scottsdale, AZ — founded in 2019 by Simer and Vicki Mayo, with Simerdeep Mayo listed as the sole (unpaid) officer across every available filing. There is no program staff, so applicants are effectively pitching the family directly rather than a professional grants team. That shapes the whole approach: fit and personal resonance with the Mayos' stated causes (food insecurity, at-risk youth, foster care, women's equality, refugee resettlement, healthcare access) will carry more weight than institutional polish. IRS data shows 44 grants totaling $754,990 across the available filing years, spread across nine states but overwhelmingly concentrated in Arizona (32 of 44 grants, 73%). First-time applicants should assume they are competing in the AZ human-services lane — foster care, food banks, children's health, domestic violence shelters — rather than the foundation's own flagship international programs (Afghan Girls Next Chapter, the Douglas, AZ Border Revitalization Initiative), which read as founder-originated rather than open to unsolicited proposals. The relationship arc appears informal: the foundation's website opened a general online application portal on September 15, 2024, with no evidence of a multi-stage LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, site visits, or board interviews described publicly. Grant sizes are bimodal — a large cluster of awards under $10,000 (18 of the 34 named grantees in the top-50 list received $5,500 or less) alongside a small number of anchor gifts in the $20,000-$210,621 range to repeat or flagship partners (Az Friends & Foster Care Foundation received three grants totaling $70,000; AZ Langar On Wheels received two totaling $50,000). First-time applicants should expect to enter at the lower end and build toward repeat, larger support only after the foundation has visibility into results — several top grantees (Phoenix Children Hospital, Valleywish Health Foundation, Umom Homeless Shelter, Cure Epilepsy) appear as two-time recipients, suggesting the Mayos favor renewing relationships with organizations that have already delivered.

Total grants paid across available IRS filings: $248,370 (FY2023), $225,000 (FY2022), and $281,620 (FY2021) — a fairly stable $225K-$282K annual payout despite total assets holding flat around $5.0-5.02M, implying the foundation is distributing close to or above its investment income each year rather than building an endowment. Total giving (including grants plus related program costs) was $265,394 (FY2023), $260,087 (FY2022), and $285,145 (FY2021). The foundation reported zero grants paid in FY2019-FY2020 (assets of just $5,000-$30,000), confirming 2021 as the true launch year of active grantmaking, funded by a $5.26M contribution that year against just $225K-$315K in typical annual contributions in surrounding years — almost certainly the capital that also financed the 2021 Afghan evacuation effort. Across the 44 grants captured in the top-50 grantee list, total disbursed is $754,990 at an average of $17,159 per grant; the DB's own typical-grant-size field (based on the five largest gifts) shows a median of $24,999 and a wide range of $1,000 to $210,621 — while third-party trackers (Instrumentl) put the true median first-year grant closer to $1,500, underscoring how skewed the distribution is toward a few large gifts. By program area, human services and health care dominate: foster care/child welfare (Az Friends & Foster Care Foundation, Child Crisis Arizona, Christian Family Care Agency, SOS Children's Villages — roughly $182,000 combined), health care (Phoenix Children Hospital, Valleywish Health Foundation, Phoenix Children's Foundation, American Heart Association, Cure Epilepsy, National Multiple Sclerosis Society — roughly $128,000 combined), and food security (AZ Langar On Wheels, Phoenix Rescue Mission — roughly $60,000 combined). Geographically, 73% of grants (32 of 44) go to Arizona organizations, with small numbers reaching California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — several of the out-of-state grants (Minneapolis Foundation, Uyghur American Association) likely trace to the family's personal or advocacy networks rather than a formal multi-state program.

Mayo Family Foundation sits in an asset tier ($5.0-5.02M) essentially identical to all five listed peers, which is a common band for single-family, first-generation foundations recently funded from a liquidity event. What distinguishes Mayo is that it is the only one of the six with a public website, a stated open application process, and a visible communications program (newsroom, annual report, named initiatives) — none of the peers listed have a discoverable web presence, meaning they are very likely closed, invitation-only, or dormant vehicles. For grant seekers, this makes Mayo Family Foundation meaningfully more accessible than its true peer set, but also means applicants should not expect the transparency (published guidelines, staff, multi-year strategic plan) associated with larger, professionally staffed foundations of this same asset size.

The most concrete, dated recent activity is a run of newsroom posts from April 2026 under the Afghan Girls Next Chapter program: "An Educated Woman Changes the World" (April 20, 2026), "More Than the Headlines: Afghanistan Through the Eyes of Women Travelers" (April 13, 2026), and "When Learning Stops: The Unraveling of Dreams for Afghan Girls" (April 6, 2026) — indicating the foundation is actively sustaining its signature refugee/education program with regular content rather than treating the 2021 rescue as a one-time event. On the domestic side, the Border Revitalization Initiative is the newest programmatic expansion, centered on a new Boys and Girls Club in Douglas, AZ serving an estimated 3,000 school-age children who cross the border daily, in partnership with the Cochise County Care Team for mental-health referrals tied to local law enforcement. The foundation also flagged an in-progress expansion of its relationship with AZ Langar On Wheels (already a $50,000, two-grant recipient) to add a teen advisory board. No leadership changes were found — Simerdeep Mayo remains the sole listed officer in every filing reviewed, and no additional staff, board members, or program officers appear in IRS records or on the website. The application portal's most recent stated opening date is September 15, 2024, and the site gives no indication that cycle has closed or been superseded by a new one, so applicants should treat it as the current live cycle absent contrary confirmation from the foundation directly.

Apply through the "APPLY NOW" online form linked from the foundation's homepage and contact page — there is no visible email address, phone-based intake, or downloadable PDF application, so the web portal is the only documented entry point (the foundation's listed phone is (480) 663-6320 for the Scottsdale office, but no public evidence shows it used for grant intake). Because the application window was announced as opening September 15, 2024 with no published close date or renewal cadence, applicants should not assume a fixed annual deadline the way they would with a larger foundation — treat it as rolling until told otherwise, and confirm current status before investing significant time. Given the founder-run structure (Simerdeep Mayo as sole officer, zero staff compensation reported), proposals should speak in plain, mission-driven language that mirrors the foundation's own framing — "food insecurity," "at-risk youth," "women's equality," "lasting impact" — rather than institutional grant jargon; this is a family that funds causes it is personally moved by (the Afghan evacuation and the Douglas, AZ border work both read as founder-initiated, not RFP-driven). The strongest fit is a hyper-local Phoenix-metro human-services organization working in foster care/child welfare, food banks, children's health, or domestic-violence services — this is where 73% of grant dollars and the largest repeat relationships (Az Friends & Foster Care Foundation, three grants/$70,000; multiple two-time health and shelter grantees) are concentrated. A common mistake would be pitching a large, multi-year capacity-building ask cold — the grant-size data shows most awards are modest (under $10,000, with a reported first-year median near $1,500 per Instrumentl), so first-time applicants should propose a specific, modestly scoped program or project rather than general operating support, and treat any initial grant as the opening move in a relationship that can grow (as it clearly has with several of the foundation's repeat AZ partners) rather than a one-time transaction. Because there is no program staff, personal outreach — a warm introduction, a board connection, or visibility within Scottsdale/Phoenix philanthropic circles — is likely to move an application further than cold digital submission alone.