Mckelvey Family Foundation

The Mckelvey Family Foundation is a small, uncompensated family foundation run entirely by five members of the McKelvey family (Thomas R. as President, Lisa Coleman as Secretary/Treasurer, and daughters Allie Ruth, Kaylon Alyse, and Quincy Nicole as Directors), based at a residential address in Westlake, TX. IRS data marks it "preselected_only" — it funds organizations the family already knows rather than reviewing unsolicited applications, and every grant directory checked (Zeffy, Instrumentl, Cause IQ) independently confirms zero live, publicly posted funding opportunities. There is no formal LOI process, no board review calendar, and no grants staff; "application_instructions" in IRS-derived data is blank. This means the realistic path to funding is relationship-based, not proposal-based: a personal introduction to one of the five directors, a shared board or civic connection in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, or prior visibility through a national advocacy brand the family already trusts. The 19 unique recipients tracked across available filings split cleanly into two tiers: nationally recognized organizations (Trevor Project, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Feeding America, Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Sesame Workshop) that likely reached the family through major-donor or membership channels rather than a cold pitch, and small, hyper-local Texas nonprofits (Commit2Dallas, New Horizons of North Texas, Tackle Tomorrow) that suggest direct personal ties to the Dallas-Fort Worth community. First-time applicants without an existing connection should not expect a portal or deadline to target — instead, they should look for board, donor-event, or civic overlap with the McKelvey family's Westlake/Southlake network, or lean on an existing major-gifts relationship with a comparable national nonprofit already in the portfolio. Once inside the portfolio, the relationship appears durable: seven of the nineteen tracked recipients (Ark of the Rainbow, Feeding America, Trevor Project, Christmas Wish Project, St. Jude, National Network of Abortion Funds, Doctors Without Borders) received the identical grant amount three years running, indicating the foundation renews known partners rather than rotating its list.

Across the grants captured in available Form 990-PF filings, the foundation made 34 grants to 19 unique recipients totaling $536,000, for an average of $15,765 per grant — but that average is skewed hard by one outlier: a single $200,000 grant to Commit2Dallas, which alone accounts for 37% of all tracked dollars. Strip that grant out and the remaining 33 grants total $336,000, averaging closer to $10,182, with the bulk of individual checks landing between $1,500 and $10,000. The next-largest single gift was $100,000 to Magic Wand Foundation, followed by $75,000 spread across three $25,000 grants to Ark of the Rainbow and $27,500 to Projecthandup/Gatehouse Grapevine. At the small end, recurring three-year commitments to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the National Network of Abortion Funds ran about $2,167 per grant, and Doctors Without Borders received roughly $1,500 per grant across three years. Foundation-wide giving has been volatile: total giving was $211,833 in FY2022, jumped to $687,174 in FY2023 (+224%), then settled to roughly $431,446 in FY2024 per the most recent 990-PF — even as total assets climbed steadily from $5.45M (2022) to $8.19M (2023) to $9.79M (2024) on the back of large family contributions ($5.5M in 2022, $3.4M in 2023). This pattern points to a foundation still in its capitalization phase, adding endowment faster than it scales payout. Geographically, grants concentrated in Texas (11 of 34 tracked grants, 32%, reflecting the family's home base) and California (7, 21%), with smaller clusters in New York (4), Massachusetts (3), Illinois (3), Tennessee (3), Washington DC (2), and Georgia (1) — a national footprint built around a handful of brand-name advocacy and relief organizations rather than a defined geographic program.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all within roughly $10,000 of Mckelvey's $9.79M) and shared NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking), not on programmatic overlap — none has a public website or itemized grant list in the dataset, which is itself the norm for this class of foundation: small, family-run, no staff, no communications budget. Mckelvey stands out within this peer set for having an unusually well-documented, values-driven grantee list (LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive/maternal health, hunger relief, pediatric illness) rather than being a pure pass-through vehicle, which makes it comparatively easier to research and target despite having no open application process.

The most recent public record of activity is the FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed November 13, 2025 and reflecting the fiscal year ended December 2024: total assets of $9,788,629, total revenue of $2,315,246, and approximately $431,446 in grants paid. No news coverage, press releases, or announcements were found for 2025 or 2026 in web search — consistent with a foundation that has no communications presence and is not seeking public visibility. One notable and relevant finding for grant seekers: the foundation's listed website, mckelveyfamily.org, no longer represents the foundation at all — a direct fetch on 2026-07-22 showed the domain now hosts an unrelated third-party blog about PDF instruction manuals, meaning the domain has likely lapsed or been repurposed. Any directory or dataset citing mckelveyfamily.org as a live source of grant guidance is working from stale information. Beyond the 990 filing itself, the only meaningful year-over-year activity signal is financial: FY2023 was the foundation's peak giving year at $687,174, roughly 60% higher than the $431,446 disbursed in FY2024, while assets continued to grow across both years — suggesting the family is currently prioritizing capital growth in the foundation over increasing the payout rate.

There is no formal application to optimize because none exists: IRS-derived data marks the foundation "preselected_only," its application instructions field is blank, and three independent grant directories (Zeffy, Instrumentl, Cause IQ) confirm zero open, publicly posted funding opportunities. Do not attempt outreach through mckelveyfamily.org — that domain no longer belongs to the foundation and now hosts unrelated content. Given that, the highest-value approach is relationship cultivation, not proposal-writing: identify any board, civic, faith, or business connection to the Westlake/Southlake, TX area, or to Thomas R. and Lisa Coleman McKelvey specifically, since the smallest, most local grants in the record (Commit2Dallas at $200,000, New Horizons of North Texas, Tackle Tomorrow) almost certainly trace back to personal ties rather than any search or screening process. Organizations already engaged in major-donor cultivation with national brands the family already funds — Trevor Project, Human Rights Campaign Foundation, Feeding America, Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital — should treat this foundation as a potential major-gifts prospect within that existing donor pipeline rather than a grants-office target. Calibrate the ask to the demonstrated pattern: outside the one outsized $200,000 local gift, checks run $1,500–$27,500, so a first ask in the $2,500–$10,000 range is far more realistic than a six-figure proposal unless your organization has a comparable civic profile in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Lead any pitch with explicit alignment to the family's demonstrated causes — LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive and maternal health, hunger relief, pediatric illness and cancer support, homelessness and domestic services, international humanitarian relief, or Dallas-Fort Worth community development — since virtually every recipient in the record fits one of these buckets. Once a relationship is established, expect it to be multi-year rather than one-off: seven organizations received identical grant amounts across three consecutive tracked years, so the biggest mistake would be treating a first gift as a one-time transaction instead of the start of a renewable relationship. There is no evidence of site visits, a review committee, or a fixed grant cycle (funding_cycle is unset in IRS data) — decisions are made informally by a five-person, all-family, uncompensated board.