Ressa Foundation

Ressa Foundation is a small, family-run private trust based in Mounds, Oklahoma, operating with just two named staff — Logan Phillips (Executive Director/Trustee) and Johnna Yoder (Assistant Director) — who together draw all officer compensation ($172,250 combined in FY2023). There is no program staff, no committee structure visible in public filings, and no formal RFP calendar. IRS filings state plainly: "NO STANDARD FORM. ALL APPLICATIONS SHOULD STATE IN DETAIL THE PARTICULARS OF THE APPLICATION AND THE APPLICANT." That single line should shape any approach: this is a trustee-directed foundation that reviews narrative letters on their merits rather than a scored, template-driven process. The grantee list reinforces this — every one of the 101 tracked grants is purpose-coded simply "GENERAL CONTRIBUTION," meaning the foundation funds organizations and general operations it believes in, not narrowly defined programs. First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; there is no evidence of site visits or multi-stage review in the data. Instead, expect a single narrative letter to be the entire review artifact. The grantee list shows a strong pattern of repeat, multi-year giving to the same organizations — Tulsa Global Alliance (3 gifts, $24,000 total), 4-H (3 gifts, $15,000), Global Gardens (3 gifts, $14,110), the YMCA (3 gifts, $13,000), and Sutton Avian Research Center (3 gifts, $10,541) all appear more than once — suggesting that once an organization is in the foundation's giving circle, it tends to stay there. That makes relationship durability, more than proposal polish, the deciding factor. Geographically, 81 of the 101 tracked grants (80%) went to Oklahoma organizations, with the remainder scattered as small, likely opportunistic gifts to national causes (Wikimedia Foundation, Internet Archive, Innocence Project, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation). Out-of-state applicants should treat this foundation as a long shot; Tulsa-area and Okmulgee County nonprofits are the clear priority.

The foundation's own reported typical grant size (39 grants sampled) runs from $510 to $7,000, with a median of $2,060 and an average of $2,363 — squarely a small-gift, general-support funder. A broader historical pull of 101 grants totaling $335,632 puts the average slightly higher, at $3,323, reflecting a mix of one-time small gifts and repeat multi-year relationships that compound into larger cumulative totals (Tulsa Global Alliance's $24,000 across three gifts is the largest cumulative relationship in the dataset). Total giving has moved in three distinct phases: a slow-growth era through the 2010s ($14,056 in 2013 up to $126,762 by 2019); a rapid-growth era from 2020 to 2022 ($184,149 to $309,843 to $378,359), driven by a $5.37 million contribution the foundation received in 2021 and $1.69 million in net investment income that same year; and a 2023 plateau at $363,503. Third-party 990 aggregation (Grantable.co) reports a sharp contraction in the most recent year to just 5 grants totaling roughly $30,000 — a 57% year-over-year drop that applicants should factor into expectations about current funding availability. Geographically, Oklahoma dominates by grant count (81 of 101, or 80%), with California a distant second (8 grants), and Washington DC, Colorado, Kansas, and New York each contributing 2 grants; Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia each show a single grant. There is no formal program-area breakdown in the filings (all grants are coded "GENERAL CONTRIBUTION"), but by grantee type the mix spans human services and homeless shelters (Okmulgee County Homeless Shelter, Family Empowerment Center), youth and agricultural education (4-H, Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation, Kansas Livestock Association, Foundation For Agriculture), wildlife and environment (Sutton Avian Research Center, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation), harm reduction and civil liberties (DanceSafe, Innocence Project), disaster and food relief (Red Cross, Operation USA, Community Food Bank), and open-knowledge causes (Wikimedia Foundation, Internet Archive). Assets have grown from $1.63 million (2020) to $9.35 million (2024), meaning the endowment is young relative to its current size and the payout ratio has room to expand if the 2024 contraction proves temporary.

All five peers sit within about $20,000 of Ressa's $9.35 million in assets and share the same broad "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification, indicating they are similarly sized, likely family-directed foundations without a defined program niche rather than institutional grantmakers with published strategies. Ressa stands out among this peer set as one of the only foundations with any public web presence at all (even if that presence is currently a placeholder page), and as the only one of the six with a documented, if informal, application pathway — most of these peer foundations appear to operate entirely by referral, with no discoverable public intake process.

Public reporting specific to Ressa Foundation is sparse — there are no dedicated press releases, news articles, or foundation announcements indexed as of July 2026. The most concrete recent signal is the foundation's website itself: ressafoundation.com currently displays a "Launching Soon" placeholder with only an email sign-up and contact form, no mission statement, program pages, or application instructions, suggesting the foundation is in the early stages of building a more formal public presence beyond its historical word-of-mouth model. Leadership has been stable across every available filing year (2019–2023): Logan Phillips as Executive Director/Trustee and Johnna Yoder as Assistant Director, with no turnover or new hires reported. The most notable financial event in the foundation's history was a $5.37 million contribution received in 2021, which nearly quintupled total assets from $1.63 million (2020) to $8.39 million (2021) and set up the subsequent growth to $9.35 million by 2024. On the grantmaking side, third-party 990 aggregation indicates a marked pullback in the most recent reported year — only 5 grants totaling about $30,000, down 57% from the prior year — with First Assembly of God Okmulgee (~$24,000) and Mainsprings (~$5,108) as the two largest recipients. No new program announcements, strategic plan, or public statement of priorities has surfaced to explain this contraction; applicants should treat it as a signal to inquire directly about current funding capacity before submitting a substantial request.

Because Ressa Foundation has no standard application form, portal, or published deadline, the entire review hinges on a single narrative letter — so front-load the specifics the IRS filing itself asks for: "the particulars of the application and the applicant." That means clearly stating who you are, what you do, exactly what you're requesting funds for, the dollar amount, and your organization's connection to the Mounds/Tulsa/Okmulgee County area the foundation overwhelmingly favors (80% of tracked grants by count). Given the typical award size of $510 to $7,000 (median $2,060), pitch a specific, modestly scoped need — a program cost, equipment purchase, or general operating gap — rather than a large capital campaign; this foundation behaves like a gap-filler, not an anchor funder. The grantee history shows heavy repeat giving to the same organizations over multiple years (Tulsa Global Alliance, 4-H, Global Gardens, the YMCA, and Sutton Avian Research Center each received 2-3 separate gifts), so if a first request is modest and successful, plan to send a brief annual update or re-request rather than treating it as a one-time transaction — that appears to be how the foundation's ongoing relationships are built. Since there is no email address or online form specific to grant inquiries, mail a letter to PO Box 759, Mounds, OK 74047-0759, addressed to Logan Phillips, and consider a polite follow-up call to (918) 284-0777 a few weeks later to confirm receipt — there is no dedicated grants staff to acknowledge submissions automatically. Given the foundation's small, two-person leadership team and its heavy tilt toward Oklahoma agricultural, youth, and community-service organizations (Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation, Kansas Livestock Association, 4-H), a warm referral through Tulsa-area or Oklahoma agricultural/civic networks is likely to carry more weight than a cold, unreferred mailing. A common mistake to avoid: treating this like a large institutional funder with a competitive RFP cycle — the data shows no evidence of a formal review calendar, so applicants should not wait for an announced window and should instead apply whenever the need arises. Finally, given the sharp reported drop in grant dollars in the most recent year, it's reasonable to briefly ask, in your cover letter or follow-up call, whether the foundation is currently accepting new funding relationships before investing significant time in a full proposal.