Richard R Reed Foundation

The Richard R Reed Foundation is a small, hands-on family foundation ($10.5M in assets) run by founder Richard Reed's daughter Tamara Reed (listed in IRS filings as Tamara Valdez, President) alongside Grant Manager Jan Skogen, a close friend of the founder, and Vice President Ana Valdez. With no paid program staff and officer compensation totaling just $5,000 a year across the whole board, this is a lean, values-driven operation rather than a bureaucratic institution — proposals are read and decided on by people personally invested in the founder's original vision of stronger, more self-sufficient communities.

The foundation explicitly favors 'smaller, forward-thinking' 501(c)(3) organizations with annual revenue under $5 million, an existing track record, and programs already in motion — this is not seed funding for unproven ideas or startups. Its practical footprint (confirmed by grantee data: 65 grants to Colorado organizations, 46 to California) is narrower than the 'Mountain Region' language in its IRS record, effectively meaning Colorado and Northern California applicants have the strongest odds, with occasional grants reaching Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Nebraska, Maine, and Kentucky.

The relationship model is single-stage but disciplined: a Letter of Inquiry plus a current Form 990, submitted by email during one of two fixed annual windows, followed by a decision roughly one month after the window closes. There is no formal site-visit or multi-round due-diligence process described, which suggests the foundation makes fast, relationship-informed decisions rather than running a heavy institutional review. First-time applicants should know that fit matters more than polish: the foundation repeatedly funds the same causes (equine therapy, animal rescue, adaptive sports, at-risk youth and family support) and the same small set of organizations across multiple years — Achieve Tahoe, There With Care, and Home Fur Good each received three separate grants totaling $55,000–$70,300. Demonstrating genuine mission alignment and durability, not scale, is the surest path to a first award and to becoming part of that repeat-grantee core.

Across the 129 tracked grants in the dataset, the foundation has distributed $1,656,719, averaging $12,843 per grant, while its own reported 'typical grant size' metric (26 sampled awards) shows a median of $15,000, an average of $22,182, and a range of $5,000 to $110,606 — notably wider than the $5,000–$10,000 figure commonly cited in third-party grant directories. The largest identified awards center on repeat, multi-grant relationships rather than single mega-gifts: Achieve Tahoe ($70,300 across 3 grants for adaptive sports and equestrian programming), There With Care ($70,000 across 3 grants for families of critically ill children), Home Fur Good ($65,000 across 3 grants for shelter-animal veterinary care), Las Animas Dog Rescue ($62,091 combined), and 4 Paws 4 Life and Humane Society of the South Platte Valley (each $55,000 across 3 grants).

Geographically, funding is concentrated almost entirely in two states: Colorado (65 of 129 grants) and California (46 of 129), with small numbers reaching Arizona (5), Nevada (3), Oregon (3), and single grants to Kentucky, Maine, and Nebraska — evidence that despite IRS paperwork describing a 'Mountain Region' focus, the real footprint is Colorado-and-Northern-California-first.

By cause, animal welfare and equine therapy dominate the grantee list by count — horse rescues, therapeutic riding centers (Halleck Creek Ranch, Xenophon, Pegasus, Crossing Bridges, Robin's Nest, Central Kentucky Riding for Hope), wildlife sanctuaries, and spay/neuter or TNR programs appear repeatedly — followed by adaptive sports/disability services (Achieve Tahoe, Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center, Tahoe Ability Program, Miracle League chapters) and at-risk youth/family/homelessness support (Sun Valley Youth Center, Boys and Girls Club of the Redwoods, Father Woody's Haven of Hope, Housed Working and Healthy).

Financially, total giving grew steadily from $120,200 in the 2015 founding year (funded by a one-time $3,003,147 contribution) to $748,705 in FY2023, tracking investment income rather than new donor contributions — assets have ranged $5.8M–$10M since 2019 and currently stand at $10.5M, with a 2026 filing showing $938,113 in revenue against $746,921 in expenses, indicating the foundation is not shrinking its giving capacity.

All five identified peers sit within roughly $4,000 of Richard R Reed's $10,544,616 in assets — they appear to be asset-matched administrative comparables from the same NTEE 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' bucket rather than mission-aligned peers, and none publish granular giving, focus-area, or application-process data in the available dataset. What differentiates Richard R Reed Foundation from this peer set is transparency and accessibility: it is one of the few in this tier with a public website, published grant cycles, explicit eligibility/exclusion criteria, and a searchable grantee history — traits more typical of larger institutional funders than of small, similarly-sized family foundations, which more often operate by private invitation only.

The most significant recent development is structural: as of 2026 the foundation replaced its historically 'continual basis' inquiry policy with two hard-dated annual cycles — Cycle I (January 15–March 15, 2026, decisions by April 15) and Cycle II (June 15–August 15, 2026, decisions by September 15). Cycle I has closed; Cycle II is open now, meaning applicants have until August 15, 2026 to submit before the next opportunity in early 2027. Some third-party directories still list the older 'inquiries accepted on a continual basis' language, so applicants should treat the foundation's own website as authoritative over aggregator listings.

On the financial side, the foundation's most recent Form 990 (filed May 14, 2026) reports $938,113 in revenue against $746,921 in expenses, continuing an upward trend from FY2023's $552,141 revenue and $748,705 in total giving — investment income, not new donor contributions, remains the funding engine, consistent with the pattern since the 2015 founding gift of just over $3 million.

Leadership has remained stable: Tamara Reed (Richard Reed's daughter, listed in filings as Tamara Valdez, President) and Jan Skogen (Grant Manager, a close friend of the founder) continue to run the foundation together, with Ana Valdez as Vice President. No leadership changes, new named initiatives, or major press announcements were identified beyond routine grantee acknowledgments — for example, Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center publicly thanked the foundation for adaptive-sports funding in a July 2024 blog post, reflecting the foundation's low public-relations profile and its preference for quiet, relationship-based giving over publicized campaigns.

Time your inquiry to the window, not the calendar: the foundation now enforces two fixed cycles per year (Jun 15–Aug 15 currently open for 2026; expect a similar Jan–Mar window to reopen in 2027) and states plainly that LOIs sent outside these dates 'will not be considered' — there is no rolling review despite what some third-party grant databases still say.

Lead with fit, not need alone: because a five-person, largely unpaid board reviews applications personally, generic proposals are easy to screen out. Explicitly connect your program to one of the three stated pillars — human support (mental/physical health, community welfare), animal support (shelters, equine therapy, wildlife, spay/neuter), or environmental support (climate education/action) — using the foundation's own language about 'ideas followed through with action.'

Pre-screen against the exclusion list before writing anything: no startups, religious or political organizations, international programs, endowments, medical research, hospitals, charter/private schools, immigration-focused nonprofits, or fiscally sponsored projects. Also confirm your organization's annual revenue is under $5 million and that your programming is based in Colorado or Northern California — the two states that account for 111 of the 129 tracked grants (86%).

Keep the ask modest and specific: typical awards cluster at $5,000–$22,000 (average $22,182, median $15,000), and the foundation funds both general operating support and program-specific requests, including matching-gift asks — Truckee Roundhouse and Halleck Creek Ranch both received grants explicitly tied to matching-gift or Giving Tuesday campaigns. Extremely large single-year asks are atypical; multi-year, incremental relationships (like the three separate awards each to Achieve Tahoe, There With Care, and Home Fur Good) are the norm.

Submit only a Letter of Inquiry and your latest Form 990 by email to info@richardreedfoundation.org — there is no online application portal. If you lack a 990, proactively raise alternative documentation in your outreach rather than waiting to be asked. Previous grantees should expect to provide additional documentation on reapplication, and organizations should limit themselves to one application per calendar year absent a specific exception.