Pattillo Family Foundation

Pattillo Family Foundation is a small, family-run Atlanta private foundation (EIN 58-1774097, founded 1989) governed by two uncompensated family officers — David A. Pattillo (President) and Daniel B. Pattillo Jr. (Secretary/Treasurer) — with no program staff on record. Every grant in the top-50 grantee history is coded UNRESTRICTED, meaning the foundation's clear preference is general operating support rather than project-restricted funding. There is no formal Letter of Inquiry, application form, or online portal documented anywhere (the foundation's own database record lists application_instructions as none and application_form_url as empty), and Instrumentl explicitly notes zero live grant opportunities. This is a classic closed, relationship-driven family foundation: 53 tracked grants worth $961,000 went overwhelmingly to organizations the family already knows — Clemson University Foundation ($244,000 across 4 gifts, likely an alma mater tie), Peachtree Presbyterian Church (~$111,000 combined), Young Harris College ($80,000), and Georgia-based health and human-service charities like Good Samaritan Health Center ($115,000) and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta ($50,000). Most top recipients received 3-4 separate grants over multiple years, not a single gift — meaning the realistic path in is a long-term, renewed relationship rather than a one-time competitive award. First-time applicants should not expect to win funding through a cold online submission; the foundation's entire footprint (no press presence, no compensated staff, a currently broken website) points to giving decided personally by the two Pattillo officers based on existing ties to Georgia/Upstate South Carolina institutions, Presbyterian and other faith-based organizations, and a small set of Atlanta human-services nonprofits. Organizations without an existing board, alumni, or congregational connection to the family should treat this as a long-shot prospect and focus effort on securing a personal introduction before investing in a formal proposal.

Grants paid have grown steadily but modestly: $234,500 (2012) to $265,000 (2023) to $287,500 across 19 grants (2024) to $272,000 across 21 grants (2025) — a 21-grant, $272,000 year that spreads dollars slightly thinner per award than 2024. Total giving (which includes minor non-grant program costs) tracked close behind grants paid, running $304,028 in 2012 up to $319,105 in 2023. The foundation's own typical-grant-size data puts the median award at $12,500 and the average at $18,833, with a documented range of $5,000 to $60,000 (web sources cite a slightly wider $1,000-$62,000 band across all years). Across the 53-grant, $961,000 cumulative history in the grantee database, Georgia recipients account for 36 of 53 grants (68%) but South Carolina — just 5 grants — carries outsized dollar weight because Clemson University Foundation and Clemson's Master of Real Estate Development program together absorbed $254,000, or roughly 26% of all tracked dollars. By purpose, education-linked giving (Clemson, Young Harris College, Washington and Lee University, KA Educational Foundation, The Schenck School, Colorado Christian Academy, Christian Friendship School, Eduhouse Communities) totals approximately $408,000, or about 42% of the tracked total — the largest single category. Health and human services (Good Samaritan Health Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, SGHS Foundation) add roughly $167,000 (17%), and faith-based giving (Peachtree Presbyterian Church, Jim Wood Ministries, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church) contributes about $151,000 (16%). Assets have been volatile but trending up: from $4.39M (2012) through a low near $4.46M (2018) to $5.05M (2023) and $6.33M in the most recent 2025 filing, funded almost entirely by investment returns and asset sales rather than new contributions — the foundation reported $0 in contributions received in every year on file. Net investment income swung from $105,872 (2012) to $500,657 (2022), showing giving levels are somewhat insulated from market swings given the foundation draws down a fairly stable ~5-6% of assets annually regardless of investment performance.

Pattillo sits at the small end of Atlanta's family-foundation landscape. It is roughly six times the asset size of micro family foundations like A & A Family Foundation and the Garrett Family Foundation, but two orders of magnitude smaller than well-known invitation-only Atlanta peers such as Fraser-Parker and Sara Giles Moore, both of which share Pattillo's unrestricted, relationship-based giving model but operate at vastly larger scale.

What unites all five is the near-total absence of a public application channel — every one of these Atlanta family foundations gives almost exclusively to organizations already known to their trustees. Pattillo's per-grant sizing (median $12,500) is far below Fraser-Parker's ($100,000 median) or Sara Giles Moore's (~$107,000 average), meaning it is a realistic target for smaller asks even without an insider connection, but its total pool ($272,000/year) is also far smaller, so competition for the handful of new-relationship slots each year is real.

The foundation's most recent available filing (fiscal 2025) shows $272,000 disbursed across 21 grants, total revenue of $440,339 (driven by $326,672 in asset sales and $112,087 in dividends), and net assets of $6,329,186 — up from $5,053,339 in the 2023 filing on record in the underlying database. That continues a multi-year climb in grant count (16 in 2023, 19 in 2024, 21 in 2025) even as total dollars given held roughly flat, suggesting the foundation is spreading its giving across more relationships rather than growing individual award sizes. No leadership changes surfaced in any source checked — David A. Pattillo (President) and Daniel B. Pattillo Jr. (Secretary/Treasurer) appear to be the same two uncompensated officers across the full filing history back to 2012. No press releases, news articles, or public announcements were found for 2025 or 2026; the foundation maintains essentially no media footprint. Most notably for prospective applicants, the foundation's own website (pattillo.org) was returning raw PHP/WordPress plugin error messages on every page checked (home, /grants/, /about/) as of August 21, 2026 — meaning even the limited public-facing information that may once have existed is not currently retrievable online, and outreach likely has to go through the phone number or mailing address on file rather than a web form.

There is no published Letter of Inquiry, online application, or grants portal for this foundation in any source checked, and its own record lists application instructions as none — treat any listing that says otherwise with skepticism. Because every one of its top 50 tracked grants is coded UNRESTRICTED, frame any outreach around general operating support rather than a restricted program or capital ask; this foundation has not shown a pattern of funding specific projects. Right-size the request: the median tracked award is $12,500 and the largest single-year gift on record to any one organization is well under $100,000 (the $244,000 Clemson figure is a cumulative total across 4 separate grants, not one award) — an ask above roughly $25,000-$30,000 is out of scale with typical giving. Given the foundation's entire footprint (two unpaid family officers, no compensated staff, no media presence, a currently non-functional website), the highest-probability path is a warm personal introduction to David A. Pattillo or Daniel B. Pattillo Jr. rather than a cold submission — look for board, alumni, or congregational overlap first (Clemson University, Young Harris College, Washington and Lee University, and Peachtree Presbyterian Church all appear repeatedly, suggesting personal ties matter more than a stated program area). Do not expect a fast reply to unsolicited mail or calls; with no program staff, response cycles for outside inquiries are likely to be slow or silent, so plan outreach well ahead of any funding need rather than around a specific deadline (none is published). Because most top grantees show 3-4 separate awards over time rather than a single gift, position any successful first grant as the start of an ongoing relationship — a strong first report-back and stewardship after an initial award is likely more important to future funding than the strength of the initial pitch. Given the site outage, use the phone number on file, (404) 314-9089, or mail to the foundation's address of record (10 Old Vermont Pl, Atlanta, GA 30328-4760, with filings referencing a registered address at One Decatur Townecenter) rather than relying on a web contact form that may not currently exist.