Schmidt Family Foundation

The Schmidt Family Foundation (EIN 13-6808881) was founded in 1986 by Charles E. and Dorothy F. Schmidt under the motto "Helping People Help Themselves," and operates out of a Boca Raton office (201 Plaza Real, Suite 140) even though its IRS mailing address routes through a Chicago trust administrator (10 S Dearborn), a common setup for bank-administered family foundations. It is run by three co-trustees — Barbara Schmidt, Richard L. Schmidt, and Raymond Webb — who appear unchanged across the multiple years of filings in our database, indicating a stable, closely held family structure rather than a staffed program office.

The single most important strategic fact for applicants: the foundation's own website states plainly that "grant applications for new organizational support are not being accepted" and that "all grant applications are by invitation only." This overrides the more generic "accepting applications" status found in third-party grant databases. There is no visible RFP, no online portal, and no published deadline or review-cycle calendar. Grantmaking is best understood as trustee-directed and relationship-based rather than competitively reviewed.

The foundation favors two distinct kinds of organizations: (1) a small set of flagship Palm Beach County institutions — Florida Atlantic University (multiple colleges), Lynn University, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, and the Boca Raton Historical Society — that receive large, often repeat, gifts; and (2) a much larger group of local education, youth-development, health/human-services, and arts organizations that receive modest annual grants, typically $5,000-$50,000. First-time applicants should not expect to enter at the top tier. The realistic path in is building visibility within the Boca Raton nonprofit ecosystem — board overlaps, joint programming with existing grantees (e.g., FAU Foundation units, Boca Helping Hands, Milagro Center), or introductions through institutions the foundation already trusts — rather than submitting a cold proposal. Given the foundation's declining payout in recent years, patience and a modest initial ask are more realistic than a large first request.

IRS 990-PF data on file shows a typical grant size ranging from $1,000 to $3,051,000 across 43 recent grants, with a median of just $10,000 but an average of $95,827 — a wide gap that signals a barbell distribution: many small community grants alongside a few very large gifts. Our broader grantee-history dataset (95 grants totaling $8,189,950, average $86,210) confirms this: Boca Raton Regional Hospital alone received $5,153,000 across 2 grants — 63% of all tracked giving. The next three largest recipients — Boca Raton Historical Society ($513,500, 2 grants), Lynn University ($500,000, 2 grants), and Catholic Relief Services ($300,000, 2 grants) — bring the top-four total to $6.47M, or 79% of tracked dollars. The remaining roughly 90 grants average under $20,000 each and cluster in the $5,000-$50,000 range: FAU Foundation entities ($186,500 for FAU High School, $50,000 for the College of Nursing, $20,500 for the School of Social Work, $20,000 for an Alzheimer's/memory program), youth and family services (Boca Helping Hands, Milagro Center, Achievement Centers for Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, each around $20,000), health and hospice (Home Safe $45,000, Trustbridge Hospice Foundation $32,500), and arts/culture (Boca Raton Museum of Art $35,000, Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia $10,000).

Geographically, 84 of 95 tracked grants (88%) went to Florida organizations, with small numbers in DC (3), IL (3), MD (2), NJ (1), GA (1), and AZ (1) — largely tied to national partners like Catholic Relief Services and faith-based international grants (Bethlehem University $100,000, Kino Border Initiative $12,000, Abraham Path Initiative $15,000).

Giving has contracted sharply in recent years: total giving fell from $9.59M in FY2019 to $4.30M (2020), $4.41M (2021), $4.55M (2022), and just $1.16M in FY2023 — with grants paid that year at only $900,050, the lowest in the multi-year record. Total assets fell in step, from $19.85M (2019) to $9.21M (2024), reflecting either a deliberate wind-down or reduced investment returns constraining payout.

No peer foundations were returned in our database for this record, so the comparison below uses publicly known South Florida family and health foundations of roughly comparable geography and mission, with rounded, approximate figures (not verified against our internal database, unlike the Schmidt row).

Schmidt is materially smaller in assets and annual payout than the larger regional health conversion foundations like Quantum, and unlike the Community Foundation it is a classic single-family private foundation, not a donor-advised public charity. Its closest structural peer is the Batchelor Foundation: both are closed or invitation-only, both concentrate large gifts on a handful of flagship institutions, and both mix education with health and civic causes rather than specializing narrowly.

Public information specific to this Boca Raton foundation is sparse — it maintains no visible press presence, no active social media found, and no distinct 2025-2026 grant announcements surfaced in web search. Search results for "Schmidt Family Foundation" are dominated by an unrelated and much larger organization (Eric and Wendy Schmidt's Schmidt Family Foundation / 11th Hour Project, based in Palo Alto, CA, focused on climate and ocean health) — that entity is not connected to the Boca Raton foundation covered in this report and should not be confused with it when researching funding fit.

Within our own data, the most recent filing on record (FY2024) shows total assets of $9,214,132 and total revenue of $1,831,230, with the record last verified on 2026-07-22. Leadership has been stable across the years captured in our filings history: co-trustees Barbara Schmidt, Richard L. Schmidt, and Raymond Webb appear consistently, with no indication of a recent leadership transition. Officer/staff compensation has trended down over the past decade — from roughly $185,000 (FY2014) to $75,677 (FY2023) — consistent with a foundation operating with lighter administrative overhead as its asset base and payout have contracted. Absent new public announcements, the most useful recent signal for applicants remains the foundation's own website confirming its current invitation-only posture, which appears to be a durable policy rather than a temporary pause.

The single most important tip: this foundation's own website states it is not accepting applications for new organizational support and operates strictly by invitation — treat this as current policy, not a formality. There is no online application portal, no published RFP, and no listed submission deadline or board meeting calendar. The DB record's "accepting_applications: true" flag and "NO SPECIFIC FORMAT" instruction reflect a generic/legacy classification, not confirmation of an open process; the live website is the more current and authoritative source.

Given the trustee-directed, invitation-only model, the realistic path in is relationship-building, not proposal-writing. Look for warm introductions through organizations already funded — Florida Atlantic University units, Lynn University, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Helping Hands, the Boca Raton Historical Society, or the George Snow Scholarship Fund — since board and civic overlap with a small circle of Palm Beach County institutions appears to drive most giving decisions. A direct phone call to the foundation's office (561-392-4717) to ask whether new relationships are being considered is a lower-cost first step than drafting a full proposal, and matches the "no specific format" guidance on file.

If a connection does open a door, calibrate the ask to the foundation's actual grant-size distribution: the median tracked grant is just $10,000, and the vast majority of grantees receive $5,000-$50,000 for general operating or program support. Do not open with a request in the six- or seven-figure range — those gifts (Boca Raton Regional Hospital's $5.15M, Lynn University's $500,000) went to institutions with decades-long, capital-campaign-level relationships with the family, not first-time grantees. A basic 501(c)(3) determination letter and recent financials should be ready, since that is the only eligibility bar explicitly stated in the data ("Must be a 501(c)(3) organization"). Finally, factor in the foundation's shrinking payout — giving fell from $4.55M (2022) to $1.16M (2023) — so expectations for grant size and the odds of a first-time award should be scaled down accordingly; this is not a growing funder.