Richard H Lewis Family Foundation

The Richard H Lewis Family Foundation is a small, unstaffed, family-directed private foundation run by three Lewis family directors (Richard H, Carol A, and Bradford H Lewis) out of Centennial, Colorado, none of whom draw compensation. Every public data source — Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io, Cause IQ — flags it as a preselected-only funder that does not review unsolicited requests, and the platform's own record confirms `preselected_only: true`. This is not a foundation to approach with a cold LOI or a discovered RFP; there is no grants portal, no published deadline, and the website on file (richardhlewis.com) turns out to belong to an unrelated New York architecture firm, underscoring that the foundation itself has essentially no public-facing presence. Grantmaking is a personal, relationship-driven exercise for the family rather than an institutional program.

The grantee roster tells the real story: of 252 recorded grants totaling $2,183,421, 181 (72%) went to Colorado organizations, with a strong and consistent tilt toward evangelical Christian ministries and faith-affiliated education and youth-services groups — Community Bible Study ($409,135 across 4 grants), Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church ($343,000), Young Life ($159,000), Colorado Christian University ($91,000), and Colorado Uplift ($80,250) anchor the top of the list. Many top recipients show exactly 4 grants each, suggesting the foundation renews the same relationships annually over a multi-year cycle rather than running a competitive open call.

For an organization realistically hoping to be considered, the strategy is indirect: build genuine ties to Denver-metro/Front Range Christian ministry, youth-development, or Christian higher-education networks where the Lewis family is already active (Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, Young Life, Colorado Christian University are useful anchor points), and seek a warm introduction through a board member, pastor, or existing grantee rather than submitting a formal application. First-time applicants should not expect a response to a mailed or emailed proposal; the far higher-odds path is being introduced into the family's existing philanthropic circle.

Per the foundation's own typical-grant-size data, awards range from $100 to $104,000 with a median of $3,500 and an average of $8,557 across 66 recorded grants — a wide spread that reflects both small annual stipends to longtime partners and a handful of five- and six-figure anchor gifts. The cumulative grantee database shows 252 total grants worth $2,183,421 (average $8,664 per grant), concentrated overwhelmingly in Colorado (181 grants) with smaller footprints in California (19), Texas (10), Virginia (8), Missouri (6), Arizona (5), Illinois (4), North Carolina (4), and Florida/DC (5 each) — almost certainly reflecting the geography of ministries and universities the family already supports rather than an open geographic mandate.

By purpose, religious and faith-affiliated giving dominates the top of the recipient list: Community Bible Study ($409,135), Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church ($343,000), Young Life ($159,000), Dillon Community Church, Denver Rescue Mission, A Precious Child, and Dare To Share round out six-figure-to-mid-five-figure faith and humanitarian gifts. Education is the second-largest bucket — Colorado Christian University ($91,000), Colorado University Foundation ($86,130), Mad Agriculture ($60,000, an agricultural/environmental education group), Ace Scholarships ($40,000), and several university and charter-school gifts in the $5,000-$20,000 range. Youth-serving organizations (Elevate Usa, $85,000; Action Youth, $87,000) and general humanitarian relief (Salvation Army, Summit Foundation) fill out the remainder, generally at $10,000-$40,000.

On the finance side, the foundation has held remarkably steady for over a decade: total assets have hovered between $7.07M (2012) and $9.1M (2021), currently $8,292,501 (FY2024). Annual giving has stayed in a $500K-$710K band every year since 2012 (FY2024: ~$708,348 disbursed against $1,205,070 in revenue; FY2023: ~$652K-$704K against $921,734 revenue), funded mostly by net investment income ($291K-$1.98M annually, swinging with market performance) plus family contributions received ($305K-$655K/year). There is no evidence of an endowment drawdown or a giving ramp-up — this is a steady, income-funded family vehicle, not a growing institutional funder.

The foundation sits in a cluster of similarly-sized, asset-matched Philanthropy & Grantmaking private foundations, all in the $8.29M-$8.30M asset range but spread across different states and giving philosophies:

All six foundations are classified under the same NTEE "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" category and are near-identical in asset size, which is typical of small, single-family foundations that were funded with a similar initial corpus and have grown modestly since. None of the peer foundations publish a website, application process, or grants list that surfaced in this research, reinforcing that this entire size tier of foundation typically operates as closed, relationship-based giving vehicles rather than open grant programs — the Richard H Lewis Family Foundation's preselected-only posture is the norm for this peer group, not an outlier.

The most recent Form 990-PF, covering fiscal year 2024, was filed on 2025-11-12 and shows total revenue of $1,205,070 (up from $921,734 in FY2023) and charitable disbursements of approximately $708,348 (up from roughly $652K-$704K in FY2023) — a meaningful year-over-year increase in both income and giving, driven primarily by stronger net investment returns. Net assets held essentially flat at $8,292,501, down slightly from $8,420,008 in FY2023. Instrumentl's aggregation of the same filing counts 58 grants awarded in 2024 totaling $694,690, consistent with the ProPublica-derived disbursement figure.

No news articles, press releases, leadership changes, or program announcements were identified for the foundation in 2025 or 2026 — searches returned only nonprofit-data aggregator profiles (ProPublica, Instrumentl, Cause IQ, Grantmakers.io, GuideStar, Charity Navigator) rebuilding the same 990-PF data, with no original reporting on the foundation itself. The three directors — Richard H, Carol A, and Bradford H Lewis — have held their positions without compensation across every filing year available, indicating a stable, closely-held family structure with no evident staff additions or governance changes. Given the foundation's consistently low public profile (it has no working website, no social media, and no dedicated grants page), the FY2024 revenue/giving increase is the only concrete recent signal available, and it should be read as a reflection of investment performance rather than a strategic shift in program focus.

This is not a foundation that can be approached through a standard proposal process — there is no grants portal, no published LOI process, no deadline, and multiple third-party aggregators (Instrumentl, Cause IQ, Grantmakers.io) independently confirm it funds preselected organizations only and does not review unsolicited requests. The platform's own data corroborates this (`preselected_only: true`). Sending a cold application or LOI to the Centennial, CO address or filing a generic inquiry is very unlikely to receive a response — treat that channel as effectively closed rather than merely slow.

The realistic path in is relational: the grantee history shows the family has sustained deep, multi-year relationships with a specific set of Colorado Front Range organizations — Community Bible Study, Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church, Young Life, Colorado Christian University, Colorado Uplift, Denver Rescue Mission, and Elevate Usa among them — several receiving grants in 4 consecutive recorded cycles. Organizations whose missions overlap with evangelical Christian ministry, faith-affiliated higher education, or Denver-metro youth/human-services work, and who can identify a genuine connection to this existing network (a shared board member, a shared church community, a mutual grantee partner), have a plausible entry point; everyone else effectively does not.

Common mistakes to avoid: treating this like an open competitive funder and investing significant proposal-writing time before any relationship exists; assuming the listed website (richardhlewis.com) is authoritative — it is not the foundation's site, it belongs to an unrelated architecture firm, and using it as a research source will produce wrong information; and assuming national or non-Colorado programs are competitive — 72% of grant dollars by count went to Colorado recipients, and the largest gifts all went to organizations with a direct Denver-metro or Christian-ministry identity. If a relationship does exist, framing a request in terms of the family's demonstrated priorities — Christian faith community, youth development, and Christian/values-aligned education — and being prepared for a modest ask (median grant $3,500, average $8,557) rather than a large one will match the foundation's actual giving pattern far better than a request pegged to its rare $100K+ outlier gifts.