Merrick Foundation

The Merrick Foundation (EIN 73-6111622, Oklahoma City) is a third-generation family foundation founded in 1948 by Ward S. Merrick Sr., governed by roughly 16 trustees spanning the Merrick, Coe, Buchanan, Fitzgerald, Moen, Nance, Cawley, and Gaines families, with day-to-day administration handled by Foundation Management, Inc. (FMI) rather than in-house program staff — officer compensation runs about $38,000/year total, consistent with a lean, outsourced operation. Grantmaking runs on two tracks. The first is programmatic: FMI's public description of the fund centers on increasing access to mental health treatment and substance-abuse prevention in South-Central Oklahoma, particularly Ardmore and Carter County, with Oklahoma City as a secondary hub. The second track is trustee-directed discretionary giving — Form 990 grant purposes are literally labeled 'DISCRETIONARY GRANT - [Trustee Name]' for more than a dozen individual trustees, each steering roughly $7,000-$16,000 a year to causes of personal interest (churches, alma mater foundations, personal charities), including the small share of dollars (17% of grants by count) that land outside Oklahoma. First-time applicants without a trustee connection should target the programmatic track, not hope for a discretionary allocation, which functions as a closed relationship channel. As of 2025 the foundation shifted to an invitation-only application process, so a cold LOI is unlikely to succeed on its own; the realistic path in is a warm introduction — through FMI (which manages multiple Ardmore-area family funds and can flag promising organizations), through an existing grantee's board, or through a personal trustee relationship. The typical relationship arc visible in the grantee data is: a modest first grant ($5,000-$15,000) for general operating or a defined program, three to four consecutive years of renewed support at a similar level (seen with Family Shelter of Southern Oklahoma, Arbuckle Life Solutions, A Chance to Change, Mental Health Association Oklahoma), and — for a small number of deeply trusted institutions — graduation to a large, multi-year capital gift ($50,000-$300,000, as with the Charles B. Goddard Center and Community Youth Services). Favor established, place-based South-Central Oklahoma nonprofits over national or out-of-state organizations.

Total giving has stayed in a narrow band for over a decade even as assets grew: $579,549 (2012), $526,716 (2013), $578,441 (2014), $568,987 (2015), $558,358 (2019), $543,565 (2020), $591,651 (2021), $666,708 (2022), and $568,127 (2023) — no clear upward or downward trend, just year-to-year noise tied mostly to investment performance. Total assets rose from $10.2M (2012) to $12.3M (2024), a roughly 20% gain driven largely by net investment income, which swung from $306,265 (2014) to $956,937 (2023) versus a relatively stable payout. Cash grants paid ranged from $361,150 (2013) to $505,400 (2022). At the individual-grant level, the matched grants dataset shows a median of $4,000, an average of $7,474, and a range of $500 to $100,000 across 58 tracked awards — a funder of modest, workaday grants rather than large single checks. The cumulative top-50 grantee list (which aggregates multiple years per recipient) tells a different story at the top: Charles B. Goddard Center for the Visual and Performing Arts received $300,000 across 3 capital-campaign grants, Community Youth Services $162,000 across 3 grants, and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation $158,200 across 4 discretionary grants — these are the exceptions, not the norm. Geographically, 184 of 221 tracked grants (83%) went to Oklahoma recipients; the remainder scattered across Illinois (8), Virginia (6), Texas (5), Arizona (4), Louisiana (4), Tennessee (4), Pennsylvania (3), Missouri (2), and Florida (1) — almost certainly trustee-directed discretionary gifts rather than open-competition awards. By program, mental health and substance-abuse treatment/prevention organizations dominate the recurring-grantee list (A Chance to Change, Lighthouse Behavioral Wellness, Norman Alcohol Information Center, Mental Health Association Oklahoma, Arbuckle Life Solutions, Sunbeam Family Services, Teen Recovery Solutions), while capital/facility grants (roofing, irrigation, arena repair) account for the largest single-recipient totals.

Merrick is by far the smallest of these Oklahoma family funders — roughly one-eighth Kirkpatrick's asset base and one-tenth Sarkeys' — and its total giving is correspondingly modest and geographically concentrated in and around Ardmore rather than spread statewide. Where Kirkpatrick and Sarkeys run open, competitive application processes designed to surface new grantees, Merrick's 2025 move to invitation-only makes it the most closed of the group, consistent with a foundation still run hands-on by three generations of the founding family rather than an arms-length professional program office.

The single most important recent development for grantseekers is procedural: starting in 2025, the Merrick Foundation stopped accepting unsolicited applications and letters of intent, moving to a fully invitation-only model, per Foundation Management, Inc.'s own client page. No leadership transitions or new program announcements surfaced in press or web searches — the FY2023 Form 990 shows a stable, multi-generational trustee roster (Ross M. Coe as President, Frank W. Merrick as Vice President, Valda M. Buchanan as Secretary, plus 13 additional trustees), consistent with continuity rather than change. Financially, the foundation had a strong 2023: net investment income of $956,937 against total giving of $568,127, and assets climbed from $10.8M (2019) to $12.3M (2024), suggesting stable or slightly growing future capacity to give even without a change in strategy. One notable data-quality finding from this research: the domain merrickfoundation.org, sometimes associated with this foundation in aggregator listings, actually belongs to an unrelated community foundation serving Merrick County, Nebraska (est. 1960s, based in Central City, NE) — its news, scholarship programs, and mission language are entirely separate from this Oklahoma family foundation and should not be cited when researching or contacting this funder. Beyond the invitation-only shift, no other 2025-2026 announcements, executive changes, or new initiatives were identifiable in available coverage, which is typical for a foundation of this size that relies on a third-party administrator rather than in-house communications staff.

Confirm current status before writing anything: since the 2025 shift to invitation-only, unsolicited applications are not the entry point — call Foundation Management Inc. at (405) 755-5571 or email cboone@fmiokc.com to ask directly whether your organization could be considered. Do not rely on merrickfoundation.org for contact information or program details; that domain belongs to an unrelated Nebraska community foundation and following it will waste time and send materials to the wrong organization. When you do get an opening, mirror the funder's own language — FMI's description centers on increasing access to and improving the quality of mental illness treatment services and substance-abuse prevention in the Ardmore/South-Central Oklahoma service area — and frame your ask in those terms even if your program is broader (youth services, homelessness, family shelter). Keep first-time asks modest and realistic: the matched-grant data shows a median award of $4,000 and an average of $7,474 across a $500-$100,000 range, so a $50,000+ request should be reserved for a defined capital project with a hard budget and other funding already committed, not a general first approach. Relationship building matters more here than at larger funders: nearly every top grantee in the data shows 3-4 consecutive years of renewed grants (Family Shelter of Southern Oklahoma, Arbuckle Life Solutions, A Chance to Change, Mental Health Association Oklahoma), which points to a funder that renews known partners rather than rotating in new ones. If you have any existing tie to a Merrick, Coe, Buchanan, Fitzgerald, Moen, Nance, Cawley, or Gaines family member, or to a current grantee's board, use it — a meaningful share of this foundation's dollars flow through named trustee-discretionary grants rather than a competitive process, and those relationships open doors. The most common mistake to avoid is applying with a generic human-services pitch outside mental health, substance abuse, education, or a defined South-Central Oklahoma capital project — the funder's public focus statement is narrow, and grants outside that lane or outside Oklahoma are almost entirely personal trustee gifts, not open opportunities. Finally, expect a lean, low-bureaucracy process — there is no large in-house program staff, multi-stage review committee, or site-visit pipeline described anywhere in available research, so keep any invited inquiry concise and direct rather than over-engineered.