Peco Foundation

Peco Foundation (EIN 23-7031675) is a small, closely-held family foundation run entirely by two uncompensated officers — Peter Curran (President) and Constance Curran McPhee (Vice-President) — with no program staff, no published mission statement, and no public application process. Its own IRS record flags it as funding preselected organizations only and not accepting unsolicited requests for funds, which the absence of any application_deadline, application_form_url, or funding_cycle in its filings corroborates. This is not a foundation to approach cold with a Letter of Inquiry; it is a vehicle for the Curran family's personal philanthropic relationships. The 333 tracked grants (spanning two recent filing years, $3.6M total, $10,825 average per recipient) cluster tightly around four themes tied to where the family lives, studied, and vacations: New York City arts and civic institutions (Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park Conservancy, New York Historical Society), Sun Valley and Blaine County, Idaho recreation and environment (US Ski & Snowboard Association, Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Blaine County Recreation District — Peter and Quin Curran are also named supporters of the Sun Valley Museum of Art), Harbor Springs/Little Traverse Bay, Michigan conservation and local history (Little Traverse Conservancy, Harbor Springs Area Historical Society), and Middlebury College-linked education (Middlebury College itself, plus The Argus Annual Fund, Middlebury's student newspaper). First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline typical of larger institutional funders — there is no evidence of one. The realistic path in is relational: sit on the board of, or be closely tied to, an organization the family already funds, share a genuine footprint in one of the four geographic/thematic clusters above, or secure a personal introduction to Peter Curran or Constance Curran McPhee. Absent that, treat this as a low-probability, relationship-first prospect rather than a proposal-writing opportunity.

Per-grant figures from the foundation's own typical-grant-size data (166 grants sampled): median $5,000, average $9,340, range $300 to $264,500. At the recipient level (333 grants across two consecutive filing years, most recipients appearing twice), the average cumulative relationship is $10,825 and total tracked giving is $3,604,761. Overall annual charitable giving has grown from $1,079,214 in FY2012 to $1,263,653 (FY2014), $1,506,421 (FY2015), $1,482,142 (FY2019), then a plateau of $1,745,639-$1,980,832 across FY2021-FY2023, with FY2024 charitable disbursements of $1,704,107 (per ProPublica) against total revenue of $3,083,810. Total assets grew from $6,984,198 (2012) to $8,759,938 (2024), a 25% increase over twelve years, with a notable 14.7% jump in the most recent filing year driven by investment gains (net investment income has run $1.2M-$2.0M annually since 2012, well above what officer compensation would cost — both officers serve at $0). Every tracked grant purpose is coded 'GENERAL PURPOSE,' meaning 100% unrestricted operating support rather than project- or program-specific funding — there is no evidence this foundation has ever made a restricted grant. By dollar volume in the top-50 recipient list, the largest single cluster is Sun Valley/Blaine County, Idaho recreation and environmental organizations (roughly $620,000 across entries like US Ski & Snowboard Association at $259,400 and Blaine County Recreation District at $102,500), followed by New York City arts and cultural institutions (Metropolitan Museum of Art $101,500, plus a long tail of $20,000-$40,000 gifts to venues like Storm King Art Center, Symphony Space, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center), Michigan conservation and heritage groups (roughly $286,000, led by Little Traverse Conservancy at $147,000), international health/human-rights organizations (Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International at $60,000 each), and Middlebury College-linked education (roughly $211,000, including a direct $100,000 gift to the college).

Peco Foundation sits at the small end of this peer set by both assets and annual giving, roughly a quarter to a third the size of Achelis & Bodman's giving and under half Bikoff's — but it shares the defining structural trait of all active peers here: no public application process, invitation-only funding, and a mission shaped by founders' or trustees' personal interests rather than a published program strategy. Unlike Achelis & Bodman, which at least confirms it reviews inquiries on a rolling basis, Peco Foundation's filings show no evidence of any inbound inquiry channel at all, making it the most closed of the three active peers.

No news coverage, press release, or announcement specific to this foundation (EIN 23-7031675, Peter Curran and Constance Curran McPhee) surfaced in web research — this is itself informative for a foundation of this type: it operates with no communications presence, no website of its own beyond a shared mailing address (c/o One Penn Plaza, New York), and no listed contact email. Search results for 'Peco Foundation' instead surface two unrelated organizations: PECO Energy Company's Philadelphia-area corporate giving (its 2025 Powering the Arts grant program awarded $150,000 across $5,000 arts grants with winners announced September 15, 2025; its Green Region Open Space program opened a new funding cycle in October 2025 with grants up to $10,000; and its Customer Relief Fund, a bill-assistance program that reopened March 2, 2026 and closed again by April 14, 2026), and a same-named 'global' healthcare/education/technology nonprofit at pecofoundation.org. Neither should be confused with the Curran family foundation covered here. The only verifiable recent activity for this foundation is financial: its FY2024 Form 990-PF (most recent on file via ProPublica) shows total assets up 14.7% to $8,759,938 and charitable disbursements of $1,704,107, consistent with a decade-plus pattern of steady, unremarkable, low-visibility family philanthropy with no leadership turnover.

Do not submit an unsolicited Letter of Inquiry or proposal — the foundation's own filings mark it as funding preselected organizations only, and no portal, form, deadline, or contact email exists in any source reviewed, official or third-party (Candid, GrantStation, Grantable, CauseIQ all describe the same closed posture). The single highest-leverage move is finding a genuine, organic connection to one of the four clusters where the family already gives: New York City arts and civic institutions, Sun Valley/Blaine County Idaho recreation and environmental groups (where Peter and Quin Curran are personally named as museum supporters), Harbor Springs/Little Traverse Bay Michigan conservation and historical organizations, or Middlebury College and its affiliated programs. If your organization sits in one of these clusters, look for board or donor overlap with existing grantees such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park Conservancy, Little Traverse Conservancy, or Middlebury College — a warm introduction through a shared board member is far more likely to work than any written appeal to the foundation directly. When and if a conversation happens, come prepared to talk about general operating needs rather than a specific restricted project: every tracked grant carries a 'GENERAL PURPOSE' designation, so this funder is comfortable writing unrestricted checks to organizations it already trusts. Calibrate ask size to the relationship stage — the historical median grant is $5,000 and the average is $9,340; six-figure gifts like the $259,400 cumulative award to the US Ski & Snowboard Association appear reserved for long-standing, well-established relationships, not first asks. Do not expect a response to a cold letter sent to the c/o One Penn Plaza address or to the accountant of record (listed as % Jeffrey Feinman) — there is no evidence in any filing or third-party database that this channel has ever resulted in funding.