Misty Meadows Foundation

Misty Meadows Foundation is a small, closely held family foundation based in Denver, Colorado, controlled entirely by the Kirkpatrick family — Timothy Kirkpatrick (President), Taylor Kirkpatrick (Treasurer), and David Kirkpatrick (Director), each contributing roughly one hour per week and drawing zero compensation, per Grantable's 990-derived profile. With $11.86 million in assets (FY2024) and 501(c)(3) status since April 2017, this is a lean, hands-on operation with no program staff, no published RFP, and no application portal — the foundation's own enrichment record flags it as "preselected_only," meaning grants go to organizations the board already knows rather than open applicants. Grantseekers should not expect a formal proposal cycle.

The grantee list is the clearest signal of fit. Of 19 unique organizations that received 48 grants totaling $2.19 million, a strong majority cluster around two geographies tied to the family's apparent personal networks: Denver and Steamboat Springs/Routt County, Colorado (Routt County Humane Society, Advocates of Routt County, Yampa Valley Breast Cancer Awareness, Soroco High School's agricultural program, Kaiser Elementary School) and Atlanta, Georgia (Redefined Atlanta, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Association, Christian City, The Carter Center, International Rescue Committee-Atlanta). This dual-hub pattern suggests the Kirkpatricks split ties between a Colorado mountain community and metro Atlanta, and organizations without a presence in one of those two areas face a materially harder path in.

Grant relationships also compound over time: the top five recipients (University of Denver, Routt County Humane Society, Greenlight Fund, Greenhouse Scholars, Advocates of Routt County) each received 2-3 separate grants, implying the foundation favors renewing support to trusted partners over funding new one-off projects. First-time contacts — if a channel exists at all — should treat an initial small grant as a foot in the door toward a multi-year relationship rather than expect a single large award. Given the closed structure, the highest-leverage approach is a warm introduction through an existing grantee, a Denver or Steamboat Springs civic network, or a board connection, rather than a cold letter or online application.

Misty Meadows' grantmaking is modest and steady rather than growing. Total giving peaked at $906,663 in FY2022, then declined to $839,525 in FY2023 (grants paid: $780,000 and $720,000 respectively) as net investment income fell from $1,239,743 to $483,526 year over year. FY2024's Form 990 shows $1,168,774 in total revenue, but grants_paid and total_giving figures for FY2024 were not yet available in this dataset. Further back, giving ramped from a near-dormant $57,747 in FY2019 — the year the foundation received a single $12,000,000 contribution that built its endowment — to $707,821 in FY2020, $787,530 in FY2021, and the FY2022 peak, a fairly typical five-year ramp-up curve for a newly endowed family foundation.

Across the full documented grantee history (48 grants to 19 organizations, $2,190,000 total), the median individual grant is $25,000 and the average is $45,625, closely matching the foundation's own reported typical-grant-size data: a recent range of $8,400 to $172,249 and average of $45,000 across 14 grants. The largest cumulative relationship is the University of Denver at $392,249 across 3 grants; the smallest documented award is $12,751 to the Museum of Contemporary Art (Atlanta).

By program purpose, education draws the largest share — roughly 40% of total dollars ($877,249) across the University of Denver, Greenhouse Scholars, Soroco High School's agricultural program, Kaiser Elementary School, and Redefined Atlanta. Community-benefit and civic organizations (Advocates of Routt County, Bearings Bike Works, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Association, Christian City, Tfalls Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art) take roughly 20% ($439,351). Societal-benefit/human-rights groups (Greenlight Fund, The Carter Center, El Refugio) and health/human-services organizations (Yampa Valley Breast Cancer Awareness, Children's Hospital Colorado, International Rescue Committee-Atlanta) together account for roughly 24% ($525,000). Animal welfare is a single large relationship — Routt County Humane Society at 14% ($300,000) — and environmental giving (The Nature Conservancy Georgia) is a minor 2% ($48,400). Geographically, grants split 21 to Colorado recipients, 25 to Georgia recipients, and 2 to Massachusetts, confirming the foundation's stated CO/GA geographic focus.

All five database-matched peers sit within roughly $1,500 of Misty Meadows' $11,861,711 in assets, indicating these are asset-bracket matches rather than mission or program comparators — none shares Misty Meadows' specific Colorado/Georgia education and community focus. Only one peer, the Steve Young Family Foundation, maintains a public website, underscoring how atypical public-facing infrastructure is at this asset tier; the other four, like Misty Meadows itself, appear to operate as closed, board-directed vehicles with no visible grant-seeking apparatus. For grantseekers, a foundation's public accessibility — not its asset size — is the better predictor of whether unsolicited outreach has any chance of success, and on that measure Misty Meadows sits with the majority of its size-peers as effectively closed to open applications.

No press releases or dedicated news coverage of Misty Meadows Foundation were found in web searches covering 2025-2026; this is consistent with a three-person unpaid family board that, per Grantable's profile, spends roughly one hour per week each on foundation business and has no communications function. The most recent verifiable activity is the FY2024 Form 990 data: $11,861,711 in total assets and $1,168,774 in total revenue, up sharply from $128,086 in FY2023 revenue, driven by a rebound in investment gains. Grant-level detail for FY2024 was not yet available at the time of this research.

The last fully reported grant year, FY2024 (per Grantable's 990-sourced grant list), shows 18 grants totaling $720,000, with the largest awards going to Greenlight Fund (~$125,000), Routt County Humane Society (~$120,000), and the University of Denver (~$105,000) — all repeat relationships consistent with the foundation's multi-year grantee history. No leadership changes were identified; Timothy, David, and Taylor Kirkpatrick have held the same officer/director roles across all available filing years back through 2017, and Trent Hardman continues as authorized signer.

One notable data-quality flag for grantseekers: the website on file for this foundation (mistymeadows.org) currently resolves to an unrelated business, a New Hampshire herbal products company, not a foundation site. No working public website for the Denver-based Misty Meadows Foundation could be located during this research, reinforcing that direct written outreach to the foundation's Denver office (730 17th St, Ste 220, Denver, CO 80202; (303) 744-2513) is likely the only viable contact channel.

Because Misty Meadows Foundation publishes no application form, no LOI process, no deadline, and no grants webpage — its own record leaves application_instructions blank and opportunities_url unset, and tags it "preselected_only" — the standard grant-writing playbook does not apply here. Treat this as a relationship-driven, invitation-based funder rather than an open RFP funder.

Concrete tactics: Lead with geography. Every documented dollar this foundation has given has gone to organizations in Colorado (mainly Denver and Routt County/Steamboat Springs), Georgia (mainly Atlanta), or Massachusetts. An organization outside those three states, or without a credible link to the Denver or Atlanta communities specifically, has no track record of funding here.

Find the warm connector. With an all-family, unpaid, three-person board (Timothy, Taylor, and David Kirkpatrick) spending roughly an hour a week on foundation business, cold outreach is unlikely to be read closely. The strongest path in is a personal or professional introduction — through a current grantee (Greenhouse Scholars, University of Denver, Routt County Humane Society, The Carter Center, and others are known relationships), a shared board connection, or a Denver/Atlanta philanthropic network contact.

Mirror their renewal pattern. The majority of the foundation's top documented grantees received 2-3 separate grants rather than one, meaning the real preference is a multi-year partnership. If contact is made, propose a modest first ask ($10,000-$50,000, near the $25,000 median grant) framed as the start of an ongoing relationship, not a single capital request.

Match program language to the foundation's actual filed purpose categories rather than generic mission language: "educational and public welfare," "community benefit," "sheltering and veterinary care," and "societal and healthcare benefit" are the exact IRS-filed purpose descriptions used for past grants.

Common mistake to avoid: submitting an unsolicited formal proposal or LOI to the Denver office assuming a review committee exists. There is no program staff, so unsolicited mail is unlikely to receive a structured evaluation — a brief, personal letter of introduction is more appropriate than a formal grant application for any first contact. Given the board's minimal weekly time commitment, allow several months for any response, and do not expect a fixed annual cycle since none is documented.