Mms Giving Foundation

MMS Giving Foundation is a small, founder-led family foundation out of Burien, WA, run by a single uncompensated officer, President Michael Sharp, with no paid staff visible in its filings. Its own materials describe founders who are lifelong Pacific Northwest residents and frame giving around the idea that "educational opportunities should be available based on one's individual abilities and aptitude regardless of financial means" — a philosophy that shows up in practice as broad, general-operating support rather than tightly restricted project grants. The overwhelming majority of its 138 tracked grants (129 of 138, or 93%) go to Washington-based organizations, and the purpose field on nearly every grant reads "GENERAL OPERATING," "GENERAL SUPPORT," or "IN FURTHERANCE OF 501(C)(3) CHARITABLE PURPOSE" — this is a funder writing operating checks to trusted local nonprofits, not commissioning defined projects. There is no LOI stage, no site-visit process, and no online portal documented anywhere in its public materials; the entire relationship runs through a single PDF application form emailed to info@mmsgiving.org by a September 30 deadline. First-time applicants should not expect a multi-stage courtship — the one-page form is effectively the whole ask, so clarity and specificity within it matter more than a polished multi-document packet. The grantee list also reveals a strong loyalty pattern: most top recipients (Earthcorps, Seattle Goodwill, Planned Parenthood, Marys Place Seattle, and many food banks) show grant_count of 2-4, meaning the foundation re-funds the same organizations across consecutive years rather than rotating through new grantees annually. The clearest example is Seattle Aquarium, which alone received $444,000 across 4 grants — by far the largest relationship in the portfolio and roughly 38% of all tracked giving. For a first-time applicant, the realistic strategic path is: get in as a small, general-operating grantee, deliver, and let the relationship compound over subsequent annual cycles rather than requesting a large first-time award.

Tracked giving totals $1,161,800 across 138 grants (average $8,419/grant), though that average is skewed upward by the Seattle Aquarium's $444,000 across 4 grants. The foundation's own typical_grant_size data (38 recent grants) is more representative of the ordinary applicant's experience: median $2,250, average $5,295, and a range of $200 to $110,000. Excluding the Seattle Aquarium outlier, most top-50 grantees receive cumulative annual totals of $2,500-$18,500 — West Seattle Food Bank ($28,500/4 grants), Moisture Festival ($27,000/4 grants), Planned Parenthood ($27,000/4 grants), and Seattle Goodwill Industries ($18,500/4 grants) anchor the upper-middle tier, while a long tail of food banks, health clinics, and small arts/music organizations receive $2,500-$10,000. Geographically, WA dominates with 129 of 138 grants; the handful of exceptions (DC: 2, MN: 3, NY: 1, UT: 3) appear tied to national program affiliates (e.g., UW-adjacent dental and education programs) rather than a genuine expansion beyond the Puget Sound region. On the financial side, five years of 990 data (FY2019-FY2023) show total giving climbing from $233,714 to $300,640 (+29%), with grants paid alone rising from $187,900 to $256,500 (+36%), despite volatile investment income — net investment income spiked to $2.1M in 2019 (a year with $2.02M in contributions received) before settling to $185,419 in 2023 with zero contributions received in the three most recent years shown. Total assets in that same financial series declined slightly, from $3.73M (2019) to $3.28M (2023) — notably lower than the $8,043,153 in assets shown in the foundation's current IRS Business Master File record, a discrepancy applicants should treat as a signal the foundation's balance sheet may have grown materially since its last available detailed 990. By program category, funding is not formally segmented into the four pillars in the grant-level data — nearly all purposes are logged simply as general operating or general support, meaning program-area breakdowns (Arts/Education/Health/Environment) can't be quantified precisely from the grantee data, but qualitatively the largest dollar recipient (Seattle Aquarium) sits squarely in the Environment pillar.

All six foundations cluster within $10,000 of each other in total assets (roughly $8.04M-$8.05M), indicating this peer set was matched by asset size rather than mission overlap — most are filed under the generic "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE category with no further program detail publicly available, and none besides MMS and Edward And Cynthia Maletis Foundation are based in Washington. MMS stands out within this group as the only foundation with a public, named funding philosophy, a documented application process, and a genuine giving history a prospective grantee can analyze — the peers appear to be closely-held family vehicles that likely fund by invitation or personal network rather than open application, which is common at this asset scale but makes MMS comparatively more accessible to an unsolicited applicant.

No 2025 or 2026 news coverage, press releases, or media mentions of MMS Giving Foundation turned up in web research — this is consistent with its profile as a lean, low-visibility family foundation with a single uncompensated officer (President Michael Sharp) and no communications or PR function. The most recent detailed financial filing available is for fiscal year 2023, showing $256,500 in grants paid, $300,640 in total giving, and $3,278,114 in total assets. That figure is notably smaller than the $8,043,153 in assets and $16,276,302 in income shown in the foundation's current IRS Business Master File record, which likely reflects a more recent filing not yet broken out in the year-by-year data reviewed here — applicants should treat this as an open question rather than a confirmed trend, but it is worth monitoring since a larger asset base could translate into a larger payout in upcoming cycles. There is no evidence of a leadership change, a new program area, or a notable large one-time grant beyond the already-established Seattle Aquarium relationship ($444,000 across 4 grants, the foundation's largest documented commitment). In the absence of new announcements, the most useful "recent activity" signal for applicants remains the foundation's demonstrated multi-year funding of the same core group of Puget Sound nonprofits — food banks, community health clinics, arts and music organizations, and environmental groups — which appears to have continued steadily through FY2023 without disruption.

The single hardest deadline to plan around is September 30 — mark it early, since the foundation gives no indication of a rolling or secondary cycle. Applications go through a downloadable PDF form (MMS-Giving-Foundation-Application-Form.pdf) that must be completed in Adobe Acrobat Reader and emailed directly to info@mmsgiving.org; there is no online portal, grants management system, or LOI stage, so treat the form itself as your entire pitch rather than a formality ahead of a longer process. Given the foundation's tiny, single-officer structure (no paid staff, no listed program officers), expect a personal, informal review rather than a committee process — clarity and completeness on the form likely matter more than polish or design. Eligibility is strict on geography and status: you must be a 501(c)(3) in good standing located in King County or the broader Puget Sound region — 129 of 138 tracked grants (93%) went to WA organizations, so applicants outside Washington should not expect competitive consideration despite the foundation's stated openness to "Pacific Northwest" framing. Fit your narrative explicitly into one of the four stated pillars using the foundation's own language: arts/music access and training, vocational/apprenticeship/mentoring or education for the disadvantaged, support for the developmentally disabled or underprivileged, or environmental remediation and stewardship — the application form itself asks for population served, numbers affected, geographic reach, org founding date, staff and volunteer counts, and current budget, so have those figures ready before starting. Because nearly all recorded grants are logged as general operating or general support rather than project-restricted, a general operating request is the funding pattern this foundation is comfortable with — a narrowly scoped project ask is not necessary and may not match how they've historically given. Set dollar expectations realistically: the median award is just $2,250, and the typical range is $200-$110,000, with awards above $50,000 (like Seattle Aquarium's) representing rare, multi-year exceptions rather than a starting point. Explicitly avoid any religious or political program framing, which the foundation states it will not fund. Finally, the grantee data shows this is a relationship-based funder — many organizations receive repeat grants across 2-4 consecutive years — so a modest first grant with a genuine follow-up report or thank-you is likely to matter more for future funding than the size of the initial ask.