Nazareth Foundation Inc.

Nazareth Foundation Inc. is a closely-held family foundation run entirely by three uncompensated Barsumian family members — Bruce Barsumian (President/Director), Kennan Barsumian (Director), and Arlene Barsumian (Vice President/Secretary/Treasurer in earlier filings) — with no paid staff and no documented application form, portal, deadline, or funding cycle (IRS Form 990-PF lists application_instructions as none). This is a relationship-driven, invitation-style funder, not a competitive RFP operation. Its clearest signal of preference is loyalty: Collegeside Church of Christ, almost certainly the family's home congregation near Cookeville, TN, has received $576,990 across just 3 grants — 55% of the $1,039,990 in total giving captured in the foundation's tracked grant history (47 grants since 2019). Everyone else — 44 other grantees — split the remaining $463,000, averaging roughly $10,500 per grant. First-time applicants should understand there are effectively two tiers here: an anchor relationship built over years, and a wide, modest-dollar list of established national and regional charities (Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, St. Jude, Wounded Warrior Project, American Bible Society) receiving repeat $5,000-$20,000 gifts. There is no evidence of a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline or site-visit process; grants appear to flow from the board's personal and congregational networks. The best path in is a warm introduction — through Cookeville/Upper Cumberland TN nonprofit circles, Church of Christ congregational contacts, or an existing grantee who can vouch for the work — rather than a cold, generic proposal. Organizations whose mission touches faith outreach, homelessness relief, medical missions, children's welfare, or veterans' services align most closely with the funded purpose codes on file. Because the foundation's corpus was built from a single $7 million contribution in 2019 rather than ongoing fundraising, annual giving is funded largely by investment income, so requests should be modest and framed as a sustainable, multi-year partnership rather than a one-time capital ask.

Total tracked giving across the foundation's grant history is $1,039,990 over 47 grants, averaging $22,127 — but that average is skewed hard by one relationship. Collegeside Church of Christ alone accounts for $576,990 across 3 grants (averaging roughly $192,000 per grant, purpose listed as "FOR FELLOWSHIPS"), more than half of all tracked dollars. Strip that out and the remaining 44 grants total about $463,000, averaging $10,523, with most individual gifts falling between $5,000 and $20,000: La Ola Ministries/The Wave ($170,000 across 3 grants), Turning Point ($40,000/3), Salvation Army ($35,000/3), Cookeville Rescue Mission ($21,000/3), In Touch Ministries ($20,000/2), Mustard Seed Ranch ($20,000/1), Doctors Without Borders and American Bible Society ($16,000/3 each), John Hagee Ministries and Blood Water ($15,000/2 each), and a floor of $5,000 single gifts to groups like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Samaritan's Purse, and Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle TN. Annual giving by fiscal year (Form 990-PF): 2019 $456,056; 2020 $38,677 (a near-total pause, likely pandemic-driven, with $0 in grants paid that year); 2021 $328,001; 2022 $450,255; 2023 $397,958; and per the most recent filing captured via CauseIQ, 2024 disbursed $395,000 across 16 grants. Total assets have held remarkably steady between $6.99 million and $7.6 million since a one-time $7,000,000 contribution in 2019 built the corpus (contributions received have been $0-$266,000 in every year since); annual giving is funded mainly from net investment income, which ranged from $109,406 (2020) to $273,273 (2021). Geographically, giving is anchored in Tennessee (17 of 47 grants, 36%) with a long tail spread across Texas (7), Florida (4), California/Kentucky/New York/Pennsylvania (3 each), and Colorado/Georgia/Missouri (2 each) — a pattern consistent with a family-directed foundation that supports its home community heavily while also funding well-known national charities its board admires. By purpose, faith and gospel-outreach giving (fellowship grants, Bible societies, ministry broadcasts, evangelistic outreach) claims the largest dollar share, followed by human-needs relief, medical missions, homelessness services, children's welfare, and a single veterans line (Wounded Warrior Project).

All five listed peers sit within roughly $1,000-$3,000 of Nazareth's $6,995,246 in assets, making them a near-perfect size cohort of small, closely-held family foundations classified under the same Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category — none currently has public website or grantmaking-process data on file, which is itself a signal that this asset tier of foundation (sub-$10M, family-run) typically operates without formal public application infrastructure. Nazareth stands out within this peer set for having a well-documented, traceable grant history (47 grants, specific recipients and purposes) thanks to consistent IRS Form 990-PF filings, giving applicants unusually good visibility into what a similarly sized funder actually prioritizes even without a published RFP.

The most recent verified financial data comes from Nazareth Foundation Inc.'s FY2024 Form 990-PF (via CauseIQ), showing $450,677 in total revenue and $395,000 disbursed across 16 grants, including a $160,000 gift to Collegeside Church of Christ, $20,000 to Mustard Seed Ranch, and $20,000 to Wounded Warrior Project — a pattern fully consistent with the foundation's FY2019-2023 giving on file. No leadership changes were found: Bruce Barsumian remains President/Director and Kennan Barsumian remains Director, both uncompensated, per the foundation's most recent filings. No press releases, program launches, or public announcements were located for this specific Cookeville, TN entity (EIN 81-1135220) in 2025 or 2026, consistent with its no-staff, three-person-board structure. Two research findings are worth flagging directly to applicants: first, most web search results for "Nazareth Foundation Inc." surface an entirely unrelated and much larger funder, the Nazareth Family Foundation (EIN 23-0868160, Pittsburgh/Altoona, PA), which runs a published RFP process with a March 15 annual deadline, a CSFN sponsor-endorsement requirement, and Pennsylvania-focused family-strengthening priorities — none of that applies to this Tennessee foundation, and applicants should not follow that process expecting a response here. Second, the website URL on file for this foundation (nazarethfoundation.org) actually resolves to an unrelated Timorese social-enterprise nonprofit training people with disabilities, not to this family foundation — almost certainly a stale or mismatched website record, and not a usable contact channel.

There is no formal application to find: IRS filings list the application process as none, with no deadline, no form URL, and no published funding cycle. Given that, the most effective approach is direct, personal outreach rather than searching for a portal. Call (931) 526-4235 or write to 3416 Phillips Cemetery Rd Unit A, Cookeville, TN 38506, addressed to Bruce Barsumian (President) or Kennan Barsumian (Director) by name — this is a three-person family board, and a generic "To Whom It May Concern" letter is unlikely to get traction. Confirm your organization's 501(c)(3) status up front; every identifiable grantee is a recognized tax-exempt public charity. Given how heavily the giving history skews toward gospel outreach, fellowship, and faith-based ministry purposes (Collegeside Church of Christ, In Touch Ministries, American Bible Society, John Hagee Ministries, The John Ankerberg Show, WAY-FM), organizations with an explicit faith or ministry framing should lead with that alignment rather than a purely secular, data-driven pitch — it appears to resonate more with this board. Tennessee-based nonprofits, especially in the Cookeville/Upper Cumberland region, have a documented advantage: 17 of 47 tracked grants (36%) went to TN organizations. For a first, unconnected ask, calibrate expectations to $5,000-$20,000 — that's the range covering the large majority of the 44 non-anchor grants; a six-figure request from a new relationship has no precedent in the visible giving history and is unlikely to land. The clearest pattern in the data is repeat giving: nearly every top grantee (Turning Point, Salvation Army, Cookeville Rescue Mission, Doctors Without Borders, American Bible Society, and others) received 2-3 grants over multiple years rather than a single gift, so treat an initial small award as the start of a relationship to steward, not a one-off transaction — a short thank-you/impact update after receiving funds is a reasonable way to support renewal. The most common mistake to avoid is treating this like a large institutional funder with a competitive process: there's no evidence of a published RFP, scoring rubric, or staff-managed review, so a lengthy formal grant proposal aimed at that kind of funder will likely go unanswered without a warm introduction through Church of Christ networks, the Cookeville nonprofit community, or an existing grantee referral.