Nm Bodecker Creative Foundation

The NM Bodecker Creative Foundation (Portland, OR; EIN 82-1856717) is a small, operating family foundation — not a passive grantmaker writing checks to outside nonprofits. Founded in 2017 by Sandy Bodecker (former Nike VP) and artist Tanya Cerda in tribute to author-illustrator N.M. Bodecker, the foundation runs its own creative-youth programming out of its Portland headquarters at 2360 NW Quimby Street, and its 990 filings show it is IRS-classified as "operating" (is_operating: true in most years). That distinction matters: most of its ~$600K-$1M in annual spending goes to running its own workshops, residencies, and its recording studio (Halfling Studio), not to unsolicited grant applications from outside organizations. Direct "grants paid" to third parties have been strikingly small — $95,700 in FY2023, $6,478 in FY2022, under $10K in FY2021, FY2020, and FY2019 — while total_giving (which appears to include program-related and in-kind spending) has run $600K-$1.15M annually. Grant seekers should read this as: the foundation partners rather than funds. Its top external grantee, Art Center College of Design, received $62,500 for Arts Education — by far the largest single line item, dwarfing everything else. Below that, the pattern is almost entirely small individual awards: $2,500 scholarships to eight named students, sub-$1,000 artist/youth stipends, and $34-$800 "Student Participation Awards." First-time applicants — especially organizations, not individuals — should not expect a traditional LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit cycle. Instead, the realistic paths in are: (1) apply as an individual Oregon high school senior to the Studio Bound Scholarship, (2) partner as an artist/musician for an Artist-in-Residence slot, (3) partner as a school or community organization to co-host a workshop (as Many Nations Academy, Franklin High School, McDaniel High School, and Kenton High School have done), or (4) request event/meeting space use, which the foundation explicitly offers to "like-minded arts and non-profit organizations." Executive Director Abigail Guyer and Trustee/Program Director Tanya Cerda (compensation ranged $110,700-$233,700 across recent years, reflecting the foundation's lean 2-person operating leadership) are the key relationship points; the reported 2026 addition of staff suggests slightly more capacity for outside inquiries than in prior years.

The foundation's own database of 47 recorded grants totals just $116,649 (avg $2,482, median far lower given the long tail of small awards). The distribution is heavily bimodal: one outlier gift of $62,500 to Art Center College of Design for Arts Education, one $5,000 award to Third Angle New Music, and then 45 awards clustered between $34 and $3,500 — mostly $2,500 Educational Scholarships (8 named recipients) and sub-$1,000 Student Participation Awards tied to workshop completion. Geographically, giving is almost entirely Oregon-bound: 43 of 47 recorded grants (91%) went to OR-based recipients, with single outliers in CA, LA, NY, and WA. By purpose, arts education and youth creative programming dominate — racial justice programming, COVID artist relief, and music/audio education appear as secondary threads. On the balance-sheet side, total assets have held steady around $9.9M-$10.6M since 2020 (down slightly from $10.64M in 2021 to $9.87M in 2024), while total revenue has been volatile: $7.98M in 2021 (driven by a $7.66M contribution spike, likely a major founder gift), $4.38M in 2019, but a more typical $400K-$940K in 2022-2024. Net investment income has grown from $20K (2019-2020) to $99K-$208K (2021-2023), suggesting the endowment is increasingly self-sustaining. Officer compensation has been remarkably stable at $210K-$262K/year even as grants-paid fluctuated wildly — a strong signal that program delivery (staff-run workshops) rather than third-party grantmaking is where the money actually goes. The foundation's own "typical_grant_size" data (max $2,500, min $45, median $495, average $724, count 13) confirms that any outside organization sizing an ask should anchor expectations at the $500-$2,500 range unless proposing a flagship institutional partnership on the scale of the Art Center College of Design gift.

| Foundation | Assets | Annual Giving | Primary Focus | Application |\n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| NM Bodecker Creative Foundation | $9.87M | ~$117K recorded direct grants (total_giving up to $1.15M incl. programs) | Youth Arts/Creative Education (OR) | Mostly closed — scholarship/workshop cycles only |\n| Ogden Family Foundation (LA) | $9.89M | Not disclosed in data | Education | Unknown — verify via website |\n| Calvin A King And Jean C King Charitable Foundation (FL) | $9.84M | Not disclosed in data | Education | No website listed — likely invite-only |\n| Raymond B Preston Family Foundation (KY) | $9.81M | Not disclosed in data | Education | No website listed — likely invite-only |\n| Qi Family Foundation Corp (FL) | $9.81M | Not disclosed in data | Education | No website listed — likely invite-only |\n| Garlyn & Lajuan Shelton Christian Foundation (TX) | $9.80M | Not disclosed in data | Education | No website listed — likely invite-only |\n\nBodecker sits squarely in a peer cluster of roughly $9.8M-$9.9M-asset education-focused family foundations, but it stands apart in two ways: it is the only peer with an actual public-facing website and named, structured programs (scholarship, workshops, residencies), and it is an operating foundation that delivers its own programming rather than purely re-granting. Most listed peers show no website at all, implying they are closely held, invitation-only vehicles with little public application infrastructure — Bodecker's relative transparency and its Studio Bound Scholarship's open Google Form application make it meaningfully more accessible to first-time applicants than this peer set, even though its per-grant dollar amounts are small.

The most concrete recent signal is the foundation's website transition: its operating presence has consolidated at www.bodeckerfoundation.org (the historic nmbodeckercreativefoundation.com domain now shows placeholder "Launching Soon" content), and that live site currently promotes the Studio Bound Scholarship — a $5,000 award to one Oregon high school senior pursuing studio-based fine arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics), with the 2026 application window opening May 15, 2026 and closing June 15, 2026, notification in July 2026. This is a meaningful increase over the $2,500 scholarship amounts recorded in the foundation's historical grant data, suggesting the program has been redesigned and its award size roughly doubled. Organizational tracking also shows two new staff hires identified as of February 1, 2026, the first headcount growth signal in the available data, alongside a large $362,010 contribution from PayPal Giving Fund received January 4, 2025 — a donor-advised inflow well above the foundation's typical annual contributions outside its 2021 founder-gift spike. Programmatically, workshop volume has nearly doubled from 21 events in 2023 to 43 in 2024, continuing in-classroom partnerships at Many Nations Academy, Franklin High School, McDaniel High School, and Kenton High School. No leadership changes were identified beyond Executive Director Abigail Guyer's continued role (she also appears in filings as "Former ED" in one record, which may reflect a title transition worth confirming directly with the foundation) and Tanya Cerda's ongoing Trustee/Program Director role. No specific 2025-2026 grant announcements to outside nonprofits were found in web search results beyond the scholarship program — a gap that itself is informative for applicants (see application tips).

Apply as an individual, not an organization, if possible: the only clearly open, dated application on the foundation's current website is the Studio Bound Scholarship (Oregon high school seniors, studio-based fine arts, application window May 15-June 15, 2026, via Google Form, decisions in July). Prepare up to five original artworks and a concise statement on creative approach and professional goals well before the window opens — late assembly of a five-piece portfolio is the most common bottleneck for scholarship applicants. Strictly avoid AI-generated pieces, digital-only work, reproductions of master works, or fan art; the foundation explicitly disqualifies these, a stricter originality bar than most youth arts scholarships. If applying as a school or youth-serving organization for a workshop partnership, note that the foundation's existing in-classroom relationships (Many Nations Academy, Franklin, McDaniel, Kenton High Schools) all developed through direct relationship-building with Portland-area/Title I-adjacent schools rather than a public RFP — the practical path is a warm introduction or direct outreach via the site's contact form referencing specific alignment with underrecognized/BIPOC, immigrant/refugee, queer/trans, or disabled youth populations, which the foundation names explicitly in its equity language. If applying as an artist or musician for an Artist-in-Residence slot (past residents include Grammy/Pulitzer-adjacent names like Caroline Shaw), be prepared to reciprocate with a youth workshop, panel, or community salon — residencies are explicitly structured as an exchange, not a stipend-only grant. Common mistake: treating this as a general operating support funder for an unrelated nonprofit — the data shows the foundation almost never makes unsolicited general grants; 43 of its last 47 recorded grants went to Oregon-based youth/arts recipients directly connected to its own program delivery. Given historical ambiguity in the foundation's own application_deadline field (previously listed as "to be determined"), always verify current-cycle dates directly on bodeckerfoundation.org rather than relying on prior-year timing, and monitor for possible expanded grantmaking capacity given the 2026 staff additions and the 2025 PayPal Giving Fund inflow.