Mochary Foundation Inc.

Mochary Foundation Inc. is a private operating foundation (NTEE T23), which is the single most important fact for any grant seeker to internalize: it runs its own direct-service program — subsidized CDL/truck-driving training for people with criminal records, concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area/California — rather than functioning as a pass-through grantmaker to outside 501(c)(3)s. Founded by Matt Mochary (President & CEO, also known for the "Mochary Method" management-coaching system) around 2007-2010, the foundation is headquartered in Montclair, NJ, but its actual programming has historically run through jails and driving schools in California. Across every fiscal year in its filing history where the data distinguishes "grants paid" from "total giving," the grants-paid line to outside organizations is $0 in most years, with only small exceptions ($45,667 in FY2022; $25,000-$30,798 in FY2011-2013). That means the roughly $850K-$1M the foundation reports as annual "total giving" is overwhelmingly program expense for its own CDL training pipeline (DMV fees, DOT medical exams, driving-school tuition, transportation), not subgrants a nonprofit could apply for. The foundation's own site confirms this: its "Take Action" page is an intake pathway for individuals with an adult criminal record and a CDL permit in California, not a proposal process for organizations, and the data bundle's own field for application_instructions is explicitly empty. For nonprofit grant seekers, the realistic paths in are: (1) direct programmatic partnership around reentry/workforce training — offering to host, refer, or co-run CDL cohorts — rather than requesting a check; (2) relationship-building with Matt Mochary or Treasurer Chad Shultz through warm introductions in the reentry, workforce-development, or Bay Area philanthropy communities; and (3) recognizing that the small historical instances of outside grants ($25K-$46K) suggest occasional support for closely aligned reentry/workforce organizations rather than a standing open-call program. First-time applicants expecting a traditional LOI-to-full-proposal cycle should recalibrate expectations accordingly — there is no evidence of one here.

Total giving (which in this operating foundation's filings functions mostly as program expense, not subgrants) has grown roughly 23x over the visible filing history: $37,865 (FY2011) → $63,125 (FY2012) → $61,296 (FY2013) → $2,788 (FY2014, an anomalously low year) → $389,426 (FY2018) → $562,583 (FY2019) → $888,490 (FY2020) → $769,763 (FY2021) → $1,030,763 (FY2022) → $866,688 (FY2023, the most recent year in the data). Assets tell a parallel growth story: $808,908 (FY2011) → $839,030 (FY2014) → $9,027,035 (FY2018) → $13,489,454 (FY2021, the peak) → $12,665,090 (FY2023). The FY2021 asset peak coincides with an outsized contribution year — $3,089,084 received against net investment income of $762,243 — after which contributions normalized sharply: $705,324 (FY2020), $545,614 (FY2019), down to just $169,190 in FY2023. The most recent filing (FYE August 2024, filed November 2024) shows revenue of $452,923 against expenses of $866,688 — a deficit year, meaning the foundation is currently drawing down its asset base to sustain program spending rather than growing it. Of the roughly $850K-$1M in annual giving, the "grants paid" line to outside organizations (as opposed to internal program costs) has been $0 in the majority of filed years, with the only exceptions being $45,667 (FY2022) and $25,000-$30,798 (FY2011-2013) — meaning well over 90% of total giving in most years funds the foundation's own CDL training operation rather than third-party grants. The data bundle contains no grantee list (top_50 grantees array is empty, stats show 0 total grants recorded), which is itself consistent with an operating model: there is effectively no public track record of check-writing to outside nonprofits to analyze for median grant size or program-area breakdown. Officer compensation has been $0 in every filed year — Mochary, Shultz, and prior officers (Tatiana Dorow, Lloyd Jay Fass) have served without pay.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all clustered within $10K of Mochary's $12.665M) and share the generic "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification typical of family foundations that primarily fund external grantees. The data bundle does not include verified giving totals, focus-area detail, or application posture for the peer set, so a like-for-like comparison of grant activity isn't possible from this data alone — but the contrast in kind is the important takeaway: Mochary is a hands-on operating foundation running a single direct-service program with a defined population (justice-involved individuals seeking CDL work) and near-zero outside grantmaking, whereas asset-matched peers with a standard "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" designation are more likely to be conventional family foundations that do write checks to external nonprofits. Grant seekers should treat Mochary as an outlier in this peer set rather than a comparable prospect for a typical grant request.

The most recent filing available is the Form 990-PF for the fiscal year ended August 2024, filed November 21, 2024, reporting total revenue of $452,923 against total expenses of $866,688 — a roughly $414K deficit year in which the foundation drew on its asset base ($12.67M, down slightly from $13.08M the prior year) to sustain program spending. Contributions received in that year were $169,190, a fraction of the $3.09M spike received in FY2021, suggesting the foundation is now operating on a smaller, steadier inflow rather than the large one-time gift that pushed assets to their FY2021 peak of $13.49M. Leadership has been consistent: Matt Mochary as President (in some filings President & CEO) and Chad Shultz as Treasurer appear as the current officer pair, with all serving without compensation; earlier-era filings additionally listed Tatiana Dorow (Secretary) and Lloyd Jay Fass (Director), roles that do not appear in the most recent officer listing in the data bundle. No 2025 or 2026 press releases, program announcements, or news coverage of the foundation surfaced in web search — the most substantive public narrative account remains a 2017 Jails to Jobs profile describing the program's origin at San Francisco County Jail, an all-in cost of roughly $2,250 per participant, and early placement results (8 people placed in $20-25/hr driving jobs from the first cohorts). Grant seekers should treat the foundation's public footprint as thin and largely static: its website (mochary.org) has not been updated with new program data captured in this research, and no organizational news, leadership transitions, or new funding initiatives were identifiable beyond the routine annual 990 filing.

There is no conventional grant application process here, and treating this like a standard funder will waste effort. The foundation's own "Take Action" page and its application_instructions field (blank in IRS/990 data) confirm there is no LOI, RFP, or proposal portal for nonprofits. If your organization works in reentry, workforce development, or CDL/trucking-adjacent training, the highest-value move is not to submit a written proposal but to seek a warm introduction to Matt Mochary or Treasurer Chad Shultz — the foundation is small enough (no paid staff, officers listed at $0 compensation) that funding decisions are almost certainly made informally and personally rather than through a review committee. Because outside grants have historically been rare and small ($25K-$46K in the handful of years they occurred), position any ask as a specific, low-overhead partnership (e.g., co-hosting a CDL cohort, sharing a jail-based recruitment pipeline, or referring program graduates) rather than a general operating-support request — the foundation's entire model is built around a tightly scoped, low-cost-per-participant intervention (roughly $2,250 all-in per person as of the last detailed program account), so proposals that mirror that lean, outcomes-focused structure will resonate more than broad capacity-building asks. Timing-wise, note the foundation's deficit spending in its most recent filed year (FY2024: revenue $452,923 vs. expenses $866,688) and the sharp drop in contributions since the FY2021 windfall — this is not a moment where the foundation appears to be actively seeking new giving obligations, so patience and relationship-building over multiple years is more realistic than expecting a quick yes. If your constituency is formerly incarcerated individuals in California specifically interested in CDL/truck-driving careers, the more direct and higher-probability path is to refer individuals straight to the foundation's own "Take Action" intake (an adult criminal record, a CDL permit, and California residency are the stated eligibility bar) rather than seeking institutional funding for your own organization to run a parallel program.