Pennies From Heaven Foundation Inc.

Pennies From Heaven Foundation Inc. is a small, closed, family-directed private foundation run entirely by unpaid McClain and Pyke family members: Randolph McClain (Chairman), Carol McClain (Treasurer), Charles B. Pyke Jr. (Secretary), and directors Matthew S. McClain and Christina McClain Miller. There is no executive director, no program staff, no grants page URL, no application form URL, and the foundation's own record marks application_instructions as none while flagging grants as preselected only. In plain terms: this is not a foundation that reviews unsolicited proposals through a portal or LOI process — it funds organizations already known to the board.

The grantee history reinforces this. Across 28 grants totaling $964,000, every single dollar went to Georgia organizations, and 12 of the 14 distinct recipients received exactly two grants apiece for identical purposes (almost all marked "GENERAL OPERATIONS"), indicating standing, multi-year relationships rather than one-off competitive awards. Recipients cluster around metro Atlanta and the Fayette/Coweta County corridor near the foundation's Brooks, GA address — churches (Southwest Christian Church/Care, Northland Church), addiction-recovery and human-services groups (Sobriety Resource Inc, Coweta Force, M46 Dads, Team Blue Line), homelessness/community-support nonprofits (Restoration Atlanta, Beloved Atlanta, Atlanta Mission), and Christian-affiliated schools (The Bedford School, The Joseph Sams School, Point University).

For a first-time applicant, the realistic strategy is not a cold application but a warm introduction: identify a board or advisor connection through Georgia faith networks, addiction-recovery coalitions, or the Fayette/Coweta nonprofit community, and lead with a request for unrestricted general operating support rather than a restricted program budget — that is what every top grantee actually received. Expect no formal proposal review cycle, no site visit process documented, and no public acknowledgment of new grantees; relationship-building through shared community ties, not paperwork, is what appears to drive funding decisions here.

The foundation's own typical_grant_size record shows a median grant of $25,000 (range $10,000-$125,000, average $43,818 across 11 recent line items). Looking at the full lifetime grantee list, 28 grants totaled $964,000 at an average of $34,429 each, with per-recipient cumulative totals ranging from $20,000 (Northland Church, Team Blue Line, Atlanta Mission, Point University) up to $200,000 (Restoration Atlanta and Southwest Christian Church, each via two $100,000 grants).

Breaking the $964,000 down by apparent purpose: faith/church-affiliated organizations received about $310,000 (32%) — Southwest Christian Church $200,000, Southwest Christian Care $50,000, Comfort Care Ministries $40,000, Northland Church $20,000. Homelessness and broader community support took about $280,000 (29%) — Restoration Atlanta $200,000, Beloved Atlanta $60,000, Atlanta Mission $20,000. Addiction-recovery and human/social services took about $274,000 (28%) — Sobriety Resource Inc $130,000, Coweta Force $100,000, M46 Dads $24,000, Team Blue Line $20,000. Education took the remaining roughly $100,000 (10%) — The Joseph Sams School $40,000, The Bedford School $40,000, Point University $20,000.

On the balance sheet, total assets grew from $2.6M in 2011 to $9.27M as of the FY2025 filing (filed 2026-05-12) — more than 3.5x over 14 years — driven almost entirely by net investment income rather than new contributions (e.g., $3.34M net investment income in 2021 versus $375,539 in contributions that year; $0 in contributions received in both FY2022 and FY2023 per the DB financials). Annual grants paid have ranged from a low of $195,000 (2011) to a high of $567,300 (2021), most recently $403,000 (2023) and $455,000 (FY2025 per ProPublica) — a steady, modestly growing payout that has not kept pace proportionally with asset growth, consistent with a foundation distributing close to the IRS-required 5% minimum rather than aggressively scaling giving.

All five peer foundations sit in the same roughly $9.27M asset tier and share the identical broad NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking), and like Pennies From Heaven, none have a public website on file — a strong signal that this asset bracket is dominated by small, closely held family foundations that give primarily to organizations the founding family already knows, rather than through open competitive processes. Grantseekers should treat outreach to any of these peers the same way as this foundation: through personal or community introduction, not a cold application, since none publish grant guidelines, deadlines, or portals.

The most recent activity on record is the foundation's Form 990-PF for fiscal year 2025, filed May 12, 2026, showing $966,832 in revenue (driven by asset sales at 52.4% and dividends at 21.3%), $459,497 in expenses, $455,000 in charitable disbursements (99% of expenses), and net assets of $9,272,985 — up from $8,121,294 at the end of FY2023, a roughly 14% increase over two fiscal years. Board composition has not changed across any filing found: Randolph McClain (Chairman), Carol McClain (Treasurer), Charles B. Pyke Jr. (Secretary), Matthew S. McClain (Director), and Christina McClain Miller (Director) all appear consistently, with zero officer compensation in every year of data available.

No news articles, press releases, grant announcements, or social media activity were found for this foundation in any of the four targeted searches conducted (recent grants, application guidance, news, funding priorities) — its footprint online is limited entirely to nonprofit-data aggregators (ProPublica, CauseIQ, GuideStar, Zeffy, GrantExec, Grantable) republishing IRS filing data, plus a bare LinkedIn company page. This low public profile is itself informative: it confirms the foundation operates as a quiet, relationship-driven family vehicle rather than one that publicizes calls for proposals, new grantee cohorts, or program launches. One disambiguation note for grantseekers: a same-named but entirely separate 'Pennies From Heaven Foundation' operates publicly out of Ludington, Michigan (pfhf.org, Mason County focus, executive director Monica Jewell) — that organization's public grant portal and news are unrelated to this Georgia funder.

There is no formal application channel for this foundation — no grants page, no LOI form, no listed funding_cycle, and its own record explicitly marks application_instructions as none while noting grants are preselected only. Treat any advice about "portals" or "deadlines" for this specific foundation with skepticism; none could be found, and the DB record confirms none exist. The realistic path in is relational: identify a connection to the McClain or Pyke family, or to one of their known grantee organizations (Southwest Christian Church, Restoration Atlanta, Sobriety Resource Inc, Coweta Force, Point University, and others clustered around Fayette/Coweta County and metro Atlanta), and seek a warm introduction rather than submitting a cold proposal.

Mirror what the foundation actually funds when you do get in front of the board: 12 of 14 top grantees received general operating support, not restricted program funding, so lead your ask with unrestricted dollars framed around organizational sustainability rather than a narrow new initiative. Faith-based ministry, addiction recovery/sobriety programs, homelessness relief, and Christian K-12/collegiate education are the observed themes — align your mission language accordingly if it genuinely fits your work; do not force a fit that isn't there, since 100% of documented giving has gone to causes matching these categories.

Size your ask realistically: the median grant is $25,000 and the average is $34,429-$43,818 depending on the data window, with a documented range of $10,000 to $200,000 (cumulative, via two $100,000 installments) for the largest relationships. A first ask in the $10,000-$40,000 range is far more realistic than a six-figure request from an organization with no prior relationship, given total annual disbursements of only $403,000-$567,000 spread across roughly 14 organizations a year.

The single most important tip: do not confuse this foundation with the unrelated, publicly accessible 'Pennies From Heaven Foundation' at pfhf.org in Ludington, Michigan. That organization has a real grant application form, an executive director (Monica Jewell), and a Mason County/Michigan geographic focus — submitting there will never reach the Brooks, Georgia board that actually controls this foundation's $9.27M in assets. If direct contact is attempted, use the address on file: 1373 Highway 85 Connector, Brooks, GA 30205-2230, phone (770) 507-2500, attention Randolph S. McClain.