Morrison Family Foundation Trust

Morrison Family Foundation Trust is a small, entirely volunteer-run family trust — three uncompensated Morrison family officers (James C. Morrison, President; Katherine Morrison, Secretary; Thomas P. Morrison, VP Finance) govern roughly $1.63M in assets with no paid staff and no office beyond a New Providence, NJ, PO Box. There is no LOI-to-full-proposal funnel, no site visits, and no online portal: this is a single-stage, paper-based application reviewed twice a year at trustee meetings (April 30 deadline for the June meeting, October 31 for December). First-time applicants should understand they are pitching directly to the family, not to a program officer, so fit with the trustees' personal priorities — education, health care, cultural activities, and 'the needs of the less fortunate' — matters more than polish.

The grantee history bears this out. Of 55 tracked grants totaling $580,600, 78% by count went to New Jersey organizations, and several of the largest recurring grants went to institutions with likely personal/alumni ties to the trustees (Saint Peters College, Fairfield University, Gettysburg College — all outside NJ but recipients of $15K-$90K in cumulative support). This is a strong signal that warm connections and local credibility outperform cold applications. The foundation favors established, operating nonprofits with a clear direct-service mission (food banks, homelessness services, scholarship funds, disability and health nonprofits) over new or unproven organizations, and explicitly will not fund individuals, religious purposes, endowments, galas/ticketed events, or lobbying.

Because the typical award (median $5,000, average $9,605) is modest, first-time applicants should request an amount proportionate to a $1,000-$50,000 range rather than treating this as a lead funder for a major initiative — it reads more as reliable annual-fund support that can anchor a broader NJ-focused funding strategy. Given the foundation is now drawing down principal to sustain giving (FY2025 expenses of $208,874 against only $83,915 in revenue), a modest, clearly-justified ask is more likely to succeed than an aspirational one, and repeat funding to the same handful of grantees suggests the trustees prize continuity over portfolio expansion.

Across the 55 grants in the tracked history ($580,600 total, $10,556 average per grant), giving splits into four clear cause areas. Hunger and homelessness relief is the single largest, at roughly $249,000 (42.9%) — driven by repeat six-figure-cumulative support to Community Food Bank of NJ ($150,000 across three filings), Family Promise ($60,000), United Methodist Church of Red Bank's feeding programs ($30,000), and Bridges Outreach ($9,000). Education and scholarships are next at roughly $202,100 (34.8%), concentrated in a small set of colleges and scholarship funds: Saint Peters College ($90,000 cumulative), Fairfield University ($40,000), Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children ($40,000), Gettysburg College ($22,500), and Trinity Hall ($7,500, girls' scholarships). Health and disability causes account for about $97,500 (16.8%) — Kaleidoscope of Hope/ovarian cancer ($30,000), Our House Foundation for the developmentally disabled ($15,000), Summit Speech School ($15,000), The Seeing Eye ($15,000), Make-A-Wish ($15,000), and Cooley's Anemia Foundation ($7,500). The remainder (~5.5%) is hyper-local civic giving to New Providence and Chatham, NJ organizations (Community Association of New Providence, Chatham Performing Arts Boosters, Chatham Emergency Squad) and public media (Thirteen/WNET, $15,000).

The foundation's own stated typical grant size (min $500, max $50,000, median $5,000, average $9,605, n=20) confirms most individual checks are small — the $50,000-$60,000 figures above are cumulative totals to a single recipient across multiple fiscal years, not single-grant amounts. Annual total giving has held in a narrow band: $142,100 (FY2019), $192,100 (FY2020), $182,100 (FY2021), $187,100 (FY2022), $198,000-$203,728 (FY2023), $195,500 (FY2024), and $208,500 disbursed in the most recent available filing (FY2025 per ProPublica). Total assets have slid from $1,844,866 (FY2021) to $1,634,703 (most recent), and FY2025 investment income of $83,915 covered only about 40% of that year's $208,874 in expenses — the trust is spending down principal, not just income, a trajectory that cannot continue indefinitely at current giving levels without either new contributions or reduced payout.

All five peer foundations sit within a $2,000 asset band of Morrison ($1,634,463-$1,635,044) and share the same NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking, T-code), suggesting they were selected as close financial analogs rather than mission peers — none have a public website on record either. This is a common footprint for micro family trusts: sub-$2M in assets, no staff, no disclosed application process beyond what the Form 990-PF states. Morrison stands out among this peer set only in that its 990-PF explicitly documents an accepting, if paper-only, application process with concrete deadlines — most similarly-sized trusts disclose no process at all, making Morrison comparatively more approachable for a cold applicant despite its small size.

No press coverage, news announcements, or public statements were found for Morrison Family Foundation Trust in 2025 or 2026 — consistent with an all-volunteer, three-person family trust with no communications function. Leadership has been stable across all available filings: James C. Morrison (President), Katherine Morrison/Holland (Secretary), and Thomas P. Morrison (VP Finance) appear consistently with no compensation and no officer changes detected.

The most current financial signal comes from ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, reflecting a filing more recent than the foundation's own database record: FY2025 revenue of $83,915 (largely dividends of $52,803 plus $31,112 from asset sales) against $208,874 in total expenses, of which $208,500 went directly to charitable disbursements. That produced a net loss of roughly $124,959 for the year and left net assets at $1,634,703 — down from $1,727,497 the prior year in the foundation's own records. The foundation receives no new contributions (contributions_received has been $0 in every year on record back to 2012), meaning all future grantmaking capacity depends entirely on investment returns and the rate at which the trustees choose to draw down principal. Absent a capital infusion, this trajectory points toward a smaller annual giving budget in coming years rather than growth.

Apply on paper, not online — there is no application form URL, grants page, or portal on file, and the foundation's own website does not resolve. Send materials to PO Box 490, New Providence, NJ 07974-0490, attention Mary G. Morrison, well ahead of the two annual deadlines: April 30 for the June trustee meeting, and October 31 for the December meeting. There is no rolling review — missing a deadline means waiting roughly six months for the next cycle.

The required package is specific and the foundation is explicit about format: a one-page letter covering (1) organizational summary and history, (2) goals, (3) management structure, (4) the specific dollar amount requested, and (5) how the request fits the foundation's mission — plus a copy of your 501(c)(3) determination letter and a written statement that your tax-exempt status has not been rescinded. Submit six physical copies, bound securely but not in a three-ring binder or bulky packaging — the instructions call this out directly, suggesting past submissions that ignored it were a friction point for a small, all-volunteer review process.

Anchor the ask to the median grant size of $5,000 (range $500-$50,000) rather than requesting a transformative gift; the foundation's grant history shows a strong preference for modest, recurring support over large one-time awards. Lead with alignment to one of the four demonstrated priorities — hunger/homelessness relief (43% of tracked giving), education/scholarships (35%), health and disability services (17%), or hyper-local New Providence/Chatham, NJ civic causes — since virtually all funding falls into these buckets. Do not request funding for individuals, religious purposes, endowments or discretionary pools, tickets to dinners/galas, or anything touching lobbying or political activity — these are explicit, named exclusions. Because 78% of grants by count go to New Jersey organizations, out-of-state applicants without a clear personal or institutional tie to the trustees (as seen with the small cluster of named colleges) face a materially harder path. With no staff to build a relationship with in advance, the letter itself has to carry the case for personal or mission fit — there is no pre-application call or informal inquiry channel on record.