Old Trail Foundation

Old Trail Foundation — legally registered as the Peter and Anne Eardley Foundation, EIN 46-1549186 — is a small, closed family foundation run entirely by three unpaid officers: Peter Eardley (President, Treasurer, Secretary), Anne Eardley (Vice President), and Scott Carano (Director). Its most recent IRS Form 990-PF explicitly checks the box stating the foundation 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications for funds.' There is no LOI stage, no full-proposal stage, and no site-visit pipeline to progress through — funding decisions are made privately by the three-person board based on personal relationships and interests, not competitive review. First-time applicants should treat cold outreach (email, mailed proposal, online form) as functionally closed, regardless of what any 'accepting applications' flag in a database might suggest.

The grantee history is the best signal of what this family actually funds: conservation and land/water stewardship in Northern Michigan's Leelanau/Benzie region (Leelanau Conservancy, $116,000 across 5 grants; Conservation Resource Alliance, $137,500 across 5 grants; Fishtown Preservation Society, $8,500 across 5 grants; Little Manistee Watershed Conservation Council), veteran-focused outdoor recreation and fly-fishing (Project Healing Waters, a single $100,000 grant; Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, $15,000 across 3 grants), pediatric health and disability services concentrated around Grand Rapids (Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, $81,000 across 5 grants; Downs Syndrome Association of West Michigan; St Jude, $200,000 across 4 grants), and general West Michigan community nonprofits (Kids Food Basket, Boys & Girls Clubs of Grand Rapids, Family Promise of Grand Rapids). Forty-four of the foundation's 59 tracked grants (roughly three-quarters) went to Michigan organizations, with the remainder scattered thinly across DC, FL, ME, TN, CA, IL, and NM — almost certainly reflecting personal or vacation-home ties (the Leelanau County cluster) rather than a stated geographic program.

For organizations that plausibly overlap these lanes, the realistic strategy is indirect: build visibility inside the existing grantee network (volunteer leadership, event sponsorship, board overlap) rather than submitting a proposal, and treat any future contact as relationship-building for a multi-year horizon, not a single-cycle application.

Old Trail Foundation's giving is small in absolute terms and volatile year to year, moving in step with how much the family contributes into the foundation rather than a smooth payout schedule. Total charitable disbursements: FY2020 $110,259-$116,115, FY2021 $93,200-$100,987, FY2022 $136,000-$141,610, FY2023 $253,500-$261,929, and FY2024 roughly $602,020 — a jump of well over 100% year-over-year that tracks a similar increase in contributions received (about $2.08M-$2.3M) and revenue (about $2.83M) rather than any announced new program. Total assets sat at $3.51M at the close of FY2024, essentially flat versus FY2023's $3.21M, meaning the foundation is largely a pass-through for the Eardley family's annual giving rather than a large permanent endowment compounding investment income.

Across the 59 tracked grants in our matched-grantee history (roughly $728,959 total, averaging $12,355 per grant), the size distribution is bimodal: a handful of large, concentrated commitments — St Jude ($200,000 across 4 grants, avg. $50,000), Conservation Resource Alliance ($137,500/5 grants, avg. $27,500), Leelanau Conservancy ($116,000/5 grants), and a single $100,000 grant to Project Healing Waters — sit alongside a long tail of small, symbolic gifts of $200 to $2,500 (Hw Living Ventures, Guardian Angel Basset, Friends of Lake Leelanau, Autism Support of Kent County). The foundation's own typical-grant-size figure for its most recent sampled cohort shows a median of $2,500, a mean of $7,767, and a range of $200-$25,000 on 12 grants — smaller than the multi-year average, suggesting the very largest gifts (St Jude, Project Healing Waters) are relatively infrequent, headline commitments rather than the norm.

By geography, Michigan dominates with 44 of 59 grants (about 75%), split between Grand Rapids-area human-services/health organizations and a distinct Leelanau/Benzie County conservation cluster; Tennessee (4, largely St Jude in Memphis), Maine (3), Florida (3, likely Bonefish & Tarpon Trust in the Keys), DC (2), and single grants to California, Illinois, and New Mexico round out the remainder. All 59 grants in the sample carry the purpose code 'GENERAL PROGRAM' — there is no evidence of restricted, capital, or multi-year program grants in the disclosed history.

Old Trail Foundation sits in a cluster of near-identically sized micro family foundations and trusts, all reporting total assets around $3.5M and all classified under the same 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE category. None of the five closest peers in our data publish a website, and none show any public evidence of an open application process — this is a structural pattern for foundations at this asset scale, not something specific to Old Trail.

With no filed website or program description available for the five peers, direct comparison of focus areas isn't possible beyond the shared NTEE code - but the near-identical assets (all within about $3,200 of $3.505M) suggest a cohort of similarly structured small family vehicles, each likely concentrated around causes tied to one family's personal interests, exactly as Old Trail's own grant history shows. Old Trail stands out mainly for the unusual transparency of its 990-PF grantee schedule, which lets outside researchers reconstruct its real priorities even though its board, like its peers', publishes nothing.

No news coverage, press releases, or announcements about Old Trail Foundation surfaced in web search for 2025-2026 - consistent with a foundation that has no communications function and three unpaid officers. The most concrete recent development is financial: fiscal year 2024 charitable disbursements rose to roughly $602,020, more than double FY2023's $253,500-$261,929, funded by a jump in contributions received (about $2.08M-$2.3M) and total revenue (about $2.83M). Total assets closed FY2024 at $3,505,850, up modestly from $3,210,764 at the end of FY2023.

Leadership has been stable across every filing referenced in our data and in third-party 990-PF trackers: Peter Eardley (President, Treasurer, Secretary), Anne Eardley (Vice President), and Scott Carano (Director), none of whom draw compensation. There is no indication of a leadership transition, new program launch, or strategic-plan announcement. The foundation was granted its tax-exempt ruling in March 2013, and its asset base has grown unevenly since - from $100,000 in 2012 and $36,909 in 2014 up to the current $3.5M range, with a step change around FY2019-2021 ($811,099 to $1,077,847) and another around FY2023 ($3,210,764). This pattern of lumpy, contribution-driven asset growth (rather than steady investment compounding) reinforces that Old Trail functions as an active annual giving vehicle for the Eardley family, topped up periodically, rather than a large endowed institution running a formal grant cycle. Given the absence of any public communications channel, grant seekers should not expect an annual report, newsletter, or social media presence to monitor for programmatic updates - the IRS Form 990-PF, filed annually and available via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, is the only reliable public window into the foundation's activity.

The single most important fact for any grant seeker: Old Trail Foundation's own IRS Form 990-PF states it 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications for funds.' There is no application form, no LOI portal, no published deadline, and no program officer to contact - sending a cold proposal is very unlikely to be read, let alone funded. Grant seekers should not spend time drafting a formal application package for this funder in the way they would for an open competitive program.

Because the foundation is entirely board-directed by three unpaid individuals (Peter Eardley, Anne Eardley, Scott Carano) rather than staffed with program officers, funding decisions almost certainly flow from personal relationships, board members' own philanthropic interests, and geographic ties (Grand Rapids, MI, plus a clear secondary tie to Michigan's Leelanau/Benzie County region, likely a vacation or second-home connection). Organizations that already sit in the foundation's giving pattern - Northern Michigan land and water conservation groups, veteran-focused fly-fishing and outdoor-recreation nonprofits, West Michigan pediatric health and disability services, and a small set of large national names like St Jude - are the closest analogues to what resonates with this family's giving philosophy.

The realistic path in is indirect and long-term: engage with organizations the foundation already funds (Leelanau Conservancy, Conservation Resource Alliance, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, Project Healing Waters, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust) as a partner, co-host, or fellow funder, since Eardley family members or Scott Carano may already sit on those boards or attend their events; build visibility within Grand Rapids' broader philanthropic community (e.g., Grand Rapids Community Foundation circles); and, if a genuine personal connection exists, keep any ask simple and unrestricted - every disclosed Old Trail grant in our data carries the general-purpose code 'GENERAL PROGRAM,' with no evidence the foundation funds capital campaigns, endowments, or multi-year restricted programs. A common mistake to avoid: treating the oldtrail.org domain as this foundation's official website and using its contact form - that domain belongs to an unrelated Ohio private school (Old Trail School) and any outreach sent there will not reach the Eardley family or Scott Carano.