Night Owl Foundation

Night Owl Foundation is a small, closed family foundation (IRS exemption since July 2008, EIN 20-5905161) run entirely by the Khanuk family — L Khanuk (President) and T Khanuk (Vice President) — alongside E Achepohl (Treasurer) and T Siegel (Secretary), all serving without compensation and with no program staff. With $12,947,783 in assets (FY2024) and total giving historically in the $1.0M-$1.4M/year range, this is a lean, founder-directed operation typical of a first- or second-generation family private foundation, not an institution built for public applications.

According to Candid's foundation-directory description, its mission centers on two distinct pillars: (1) innovative medical research and development, with emphasis on pediatrics and cancer, and (2) assistance to Jewish refugees and immigrants from the former Soviet Union settling in the Chicago area and Israel. That combination, paired with the Buffalo Grove, IL address (a heavily Jewish North Shore suburb), strongly suggests founder ties to Chicago's Jewish community alongside a personal connection to pediatric or cancer causes.

Critically, this foundation is flagged as preselected-only in available classification data, and its 990-PF grantee schedule shows just 3 recorded grants totaling $3,469,441 (averaging $1,156,480 each, all to Illinois recipients), reported opaquely as "See Attached Schedule" rather than itemized line items. That pattern — a handful of very large checks rather than a broad giving program — is the signature of a foundation that renews funding to a small, stable set of known institutional partners (e.g., a children's hospital, a cancer research center, or a Jewish federation/resettlement agency) year after year, not one that solicits or reviews unsolicited proposals.

For first-time prospects: treat this as a relationship-first target, not an open RFP. There is no grants portal, no published deadline, and no application form on file — the IRS application_instructions field is blank. The realistic path in is a warm introduction through a shared board connection, a Chicago-area Jewish federation, or a medical institution the foundation already funds, rather than a cold letter of inquiry. Organizations whose mission sits squarely in pediatric/cancer medical research or Soviet-Jewish refugee resettlement services in Chicago or Israel have the best fit; general-purpose nonprofits outside those two lanes are unlikely to break in regardless of proposal quality.

Night Owl Foundation's giving has scaled roughly with its asset base. Total giving grew from $470,180 in FY2012 (assets $5,247,515) to $1,396,945 in FY2023 (assets $12,450,360) — nearly tripling over 11 years as assets grew about 2.4x. Grants paid, a stricter subset of total giving, tracked closely: $415,000 (2012) → $573,000 (2014) → $1,040,500 (2019) → $1,195,000 (2022) → $1,210,000 (2023). FY2024 total revenue jumped to $1,610,785, driven by a sharp rise in contributions received — reported at roughly $1,153,337, up from just $271,003 in 2023, a 326% increase — suggesting the family made a fresh capital infusion to the foundation that could expand near-term grantmaking capacity, though FY2024 grants-paid figures were not yet reflected in available filings.

On a per-grant basis, the picture is concentrated rather than diversified: the available grantee schedule captures 3 grants totaling $3,469,441, averaging $1,156,480 per grant, with 100% going to Illinois-based recipients. That average is far larger than a typical family foundation of this size writes — most private foundations with $12-13M in assets distribute grants in the $5,000-$50,000 range across dozens of grantees. Night Owl instead appears to make a small number of six- and seven-figure commitments to a concentrated set of institutional partners, consistent with multi-year pledges to major medical-research or refugee-services institutions rather than broad community grantmaking.

Net investment income has been volatile and material to the foundation's growth — from $205,299 (2012) to a peak of $4,491,563 (2021, coinciding with strong markets) — meaning total assets and future giving capacity can swing with investment performance as much as with new contributions. Officer compensation has been $0 in every reported year, reinforcing that this is an all-volunteer family operation with no staff to manage an open application process. Geographically, 100% of tracked giving has stayed within Illinois, with the mission statement extending international reach only for the refugee-resettlement side of the program (Israel).

These five peers were matched to Night Owl almost precisely by asset size ($12,935,807-$12,951,239) rather than by mission, and the dataset does not include their annual giving, grantee, or program detail — none besides Cascade Foundation maintain any discoverable public web presence, underscoring how common Night Owl's closed, no-portal, all-volunteer model is among family foundations in this asset tier. Applicants should not expect any of these six funders to run a competitive process; Cascade Foundation's active website is the only one of the group that merits a direct, independent look for a stated program area before ruling it out.

Public news coverage of Night Owl Foundation is essentially nonexistent — four targeted searches (grants awarded, application guidance, general news, and funding-priority coverage) turned up no press releases, news articles, or announcements specific to this organization. That is typical for a small, all-volunteer family foundation with no communications staff: its nominal website, nightowl.org, redirects to an inactive, self-signed-certificate page at ww1.nightowl.org rather than a functioning foundation site.

The most recent verifiable activity is procedural: the foundation's Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2024 was filed with the IRS on November 13, 2025, per ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. That filing shows total revenue rising to $1,610,785 (from $845,847 in FY2023), driven largely by a jump in contributions received — an estimated $1.15M in FY2024 versus $271,003 in FY2023, an increase of roughly 326% — indicating the Khanuk family added meaningfully to the foundation's corpus that year. Total assets have held steady in the $12.4M-$12.9M range across FY2022-FY2024, after peaking near $13.9M in FY2021 on the strength of unusually high net investment income ($4,491,563 that year).

Leadership has been stable throughout: L Khanuk (President), T Khanuk (Vice President), E Achepohl (Treasurer), and T Siegel (Secretary) have held the same uncompensated officer roles across every year reflected in the available data, with no reported turnover. Given the absence of a public grants program, applicants should not expect a news trail, RFP announcement, or annual report to signal a good moment to approach. The more useful signal is the FY2024 contribution increase, which may translate into modestly larger grantmaking once FY2025-2026 filings are published.

Night Owl Foundation runs no open competitive process, so generic grant-writing tips don't apply here — the real task is qualification and access, not proposal polish.

• Confirm mission fit before anything else. The foundation's two stated priorities — pediatric/cancer medical research and development, and assistance to Jewish refugees and immigrants from the former Soviet Union settling in Chicago or Israel — are narrow and specific. An organization outside both lanes has essentially no realistic path to funding here, regardless of proposal quality.
• Don't cold-submit a generic letter of inquiry. There is no grants_page_url, application_form_url, or application_instructions on file with the IRS. The foundation's preselected-only classification is the clearest signal available: this is a relationship-driven funder that renews commitments to known partners rather than reviewing new applicants.
• Build the relationship through Chicago's Jewish philanthropic ecosystem. Given the refugee-resettlement focus and the Buffalo Grove, IL address, organizations such as Chicago-area Jewish federations, HIAS-affiliated resettlement agencies, or JCFS-type family services groups are the most plausible existing partners — a warm introduction through one of those networks is far more promising than direct outreach.
• If pursuing the medical-research angle, target board- or physician-level connections at pediatric hospitals or cancer research centers. Family foundations of this size (no program staff, $0 officer compensation) typically vet R&D funding through the founders' personal or professional relationships, not open RFPs.
• Expect very large, infrequent grants, not small ones. The available data shows an average grant size of $1,156,480 across just 3 recorded grants — this foundation writes a handful of major, likely multi-year commitments rather than funding many small projects. A first ask should be substantial and tied to a flagship program, not a modest general-operating request.
• Time outreach around the FY2024 contribution spike. Contributions to the foundation jumped roughly 326% in FY2024 ($271,003 to an estimated $1.15M) — if that capacity flows into grants, an approach timed after the next Form 990-PF is filed (likely late 2026) may land better than approaching in a flat-asset year.
• As a fallback, reach out directly: phone (847) 883-9700, c/o Eric Achepohl (Treasurer), 485 Half Day Road, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 — the only verified contact on record. Frame any inquiry as a brief, specific question about fit rather than a full proposal submission.