Robert And Judith Sturgis Family Foundation

The Sturgis Family Foundation is a small, hands-on family philanthropy run out of Simsbury, Connecticut by four trustees — Chair Robert W. Sturgis, Guy R. Sturgis (investments), Tamitha L. Gordon (accounting & taxes), and James P. Lilliendahl (grant administration) — three of whom joined the board in 2020 to professionalize what had been a modest annual-giving operation. Since founding in 2002, the Foundation gave roughly $173,000 to about 30 charities over its first 18 years; assets and giving expanded dramatically after Judith Sturgis's death from pancreatic cancer in 2021 triggered a large estate contribution (contributions received hit $5,092,452 that year, net investment income $605,734), pushing total assets from $489,924 (FY2020) to $7,140,195 (FY2023) and roughly $8.3 million today.

For applicants, the most important signal is the mission statement itself: 'helping others help themselves along their own path,' with explicit priority for 'causes where trustees have personal connections.' This is not a foundation built for cold, unsolicited proposals — the grantee list (Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, University of Maine Climate Change Institute, Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Simsbury-area nonprofits) reads like a map of the Sturgis family's own geography (Simsbury/Greater Hartford, CT), interests (climate science via the University of Maine), and personal loss (pancreatic cancer research following Judith's death). First-time applicants without an existing relationship to a trustee should not expect a portal or open RFP; instead, look for genuine overlap with these personal touchpoints or the Foundation's four stated program areas (Environment, Education & Arts, People in Need, Disability Services).

The relationship model favors depth over breadth: most of the 117 grants captured in Granted's grantee data are modest, recurring 'general & unrestricted' checks ($300-$2,000), while a smaller number of larger, project-specific grants ($10,000-$100,000) go to a handful of core partners — Lustgarten, Village for Families and Children, University of Maine — sustained over multiple years. 2022 (the Foundation's 20th year) marked its first shift toward funding specific projects rather than pure general support, so newer applicants have a better shot pitching a discrete, fundable project than requesting open-ended operating support.

Grantmaking has grown steadily and recently accelerated. Grants paid rose from $23,200 (FY2020) to $152,600 (FY2021) to $236,126 (FY2022) to $317,963 (FY2023) — roughly a 35% year-over-year jump in the latest filed year, against total giving of $367,532, total assets of $7,140,195, and total revenue of $772,363 in FY2023. Independent 990 aggregators peg the same year at roughly $318,000 across about 49 awards with a median near $1,000 and a range of roughly $200-$70,000, broadly consistent with the platform's own typical_grant_size data (median $600, average $773, range $300-$2,000) for the Foundation's recurring small-grants segment.

Layered on top of that small-grants base are periodic larger, named-project grants. Across the 117 grants captured in Granted's database (avg. $4,977, cumulative total $577,289), the single largest relationship is the Marc Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation at $100,000 across two grants (funding a Critical Accelerator Initiative database portal) — almost certainly tied to Judith Sturgis's 2021 death from pancreatic cancer. The Village for Families & Children (Hartford, CT) appears under two name variants totaling roughly $124,500 combined, including a single $70,400 check and a $54,140 general-support grant. Other notable gifts include Women's and Children's Alliance ($33,240, Boise, ID), University of Maine Climate Change Institute and University of Maine Foundation ($25,000 each), and 'Underground Ne' ($25,000). Below roughly $20,000, funding drops quickly into a long tail of $1,000-$10,000 gifts to food banks, the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, and Charity Navigator.

Geographically, grants concentrate near the trustees' home base: Connecticut accounts for 37 of the roughly 100 geo-tagged grants (about a third), followed by New Hampshire (18) and Idaho (12 — the Boise cluster around Global Gardens and Women's and Children's Alliance), with smaller clusters in Pennsylvania (8), Illinois and Massachusetts (6 each), Maine (4), and DC/Maryland/Ohio (3 each). Program-wise, giving maps to four stated areas — Environment, Education & Arts, People in Need, and Disability Services — with no single area dominating disclosed dollar totals.

All five peers sit within about $7,000 of Sturgis's $8,316,733 in assets — a tightly clustered cohort of small family foundations sharing the same generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, most likely grouped by asset size rather than programmatic overlap. None of the five peers list a public website in Granted's data, which makes Sturgis unusually transparent for its size: it publishes a mission statement, defined program areas, named trustees with roles, and even a running 'what's new' update page — a meaningfully lower research barrier than most similarly sized family foundations, even though its actual process still runs on relationships rather than an open application.

Web research found no foundation-specific press releases or news coverage dated 2025 or 2026 — unsurprising for a foundation this size, which has never issued formal press releases and relies on its own website for updates. The most recent verifiable financial data is the FY2023 Form 990-PF (typically filed in 2024): $317,963 in grants paid, $7,140,195 in total assets, and $772,363 in total revenue, up from $236,126 in grants paid on $6,735,364 in assets in FY2022. The Foundation's own website states that as of October 2024 it had distributed a cumulative $1.3 million in grants and held roughly $9 million in assets, and its current site copy is branded 'Celebrating 24 years of charitable giving, 2002-2026,' confirming it remains active into the current cycle even without a dedicated news page for 2025-2026.

The clearest inflection point remains 2021-2022: Judith Sturgis's death from pancreatic cancer in 2021 drove a large one-time estate contribution ($5,092,452 received that year alone), and 2022 — the Foundation's 20th anniversary — was the first year it moved from pure general support to funding named projects, including the UMaine Climate Change Institute Exploration Fund, Global Gardens' infrastructure upgrades in Boise, Gifts of Love's backpack program, South Park Inn's electronic health record system, and playground repairs at the Children's Park in Chestnut Hill. Three family trustees (Guy Sturgis, Tamitha Gordon, James Lilliendahl) joined the board in 2020 with defined finance/administration roles, which likely enabled this shift toward more structured, project-based grantmaking.

This is a relationship-first funder, not a portal-first one: the website lists no application form, LOI template, or deadline (both application_deadline and funding_cycle are unset in IRS/990 data), and third-party grant databases explicitly flag that Sturgis does not solicit or accept unsolicited proposals. The single actionable channel is a direct email to sturgisfamilyfoundation@gmail.com — treat this as an inquiry, not a submission portal, and expect a personal reply from a trustee rather than an automated acknowledgment.

Because the mission explicitly calls out 'causes where trustees have personal connections,' the single highest-leverage move is finding or building a genuine connection to Robert Sturgis, Guy Sturgis, Tamitha Gordon, or James Lilliendahl, or to their home community of Simsbury/Greater Hartford, CT — cold applicants with no geographic or personal tie to the family have historically not appeared in the grantee list. If your organization operates in one of the clusters the family already funds (Greater Hartford CT, Boise ID, Boston, Philadelphia, or a climate-science/pancreatic-cancer-research niche), lead with that overlap explicitly.

Match your ask to the funder's own stated shift: since 2022 Sturgis has favored 'targeted grant requests for specific projects' over general operating support, and wants proposals that demonstrate 'significant potential impact,' 'replication possibilities,' and evidence of 'fiscally responsible' management with a community track record — mirror this language directly rather than submitting a generic capacity-building or annual-fund pitch. Do not request funding for lobbying, political activity, commercial ventures, or direct grants to individuals — all are explicitly excluded.

Expect one of two grant sizes with little in between: a modest $300-$2,000 unrestricted check (median $600) if you're a known, recurring partner, or a $10,000-$100,000+ project grant if you can present a discrete, fundable initiative with a clear budget and outcome — the Foundation's two largest known relationships (Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, Village for Families and Children) both fit the latter pattern. Given the small four-person trustee board with no dedicated program staff, keep outreach concise, specific, and easy for a volunteer trustee to evaluate quickly.