Scott Foundation

The Scott Foundation, established in 2014 by Microsoft CTO/EVP of AI Kevin Scott and President Shannon Hunt-Scott, is a small, founder-directed family foundation ($6.13M in assets as of FY2024) that operates on a closed, preselected-grantee model rather than an open pipeline. Its own website states plainly that it is "not currently accepting grant applications," and IRS 990 data confirms a concentrated giving pattern: 50 tracked grants, averaging $88,835 each, flowing to a stable roster of repeat recipients rather than a rotating cohort of new applicants. First-time seekers should not expect a portal or LOI process to work — the realistic path in is a warm introduction through the foundation's existing networks: Silicon Valley independent-school and social-entrepreneurship circles (via Hillbrook School, where Hunt-Scott chairs the board), reproductive-rights advocacy (Reproductive Freedom For All, NARAL, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Center for Reproductive Rights all appear as grantees), or civic-engagement/voter-registration work (Voto Latino, The American Independent Foundation). The foundation clearly favors organizations it can build a multi-year relationship with: Hillbrook School alone received 3 grants totaling $2,024,745 — almost half of all tracked giving — tied to the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship the Scotts co-founded there in 2017. ACE Charter Schools, Media Matters for America, and Human Rights Watch each received 3 separate grants as well, showing a preference for sustained, multi-year commitments over one-off gifts. Grant sizes span a wide range — from $1,000 to $250,000 per typical grant, with occasional outsized commitments to flagship partners — suggesting the foundation scales its check size to how deeply embedded an organization is in its existing network rather than applying a fixed grant-size formula. For an organization without an existing connection, the more productive strategy is indirect: build visibility in the education-equity, social-entrepreneurship, reproductive-justice, or civic-engagement spaces the foundation already funds, and pursue introductions through current grantees (Hillbrook, ACE Charter Schools, Voto Latino, Reproductive Freedom For All) or through Hunt-Scott's board and advocacy affiliations rather than a cold submission.

The Scott Foundation's total giving has grown steadily from $1,323,961 (FY2019) to $1,106,707 (FY2020, a COVID-era dip) back up to $1,260,034 (FY2021), $1,710,416 (FY2022), and $1,828,903 (FY2023) — a roughly 38% increase from 2019 to 2023. FY2023 grants paid alone were $1,810,000. Total assets stayed remarkably thin relative to giving ($52,082 at FY2023 year-end, rising to $6,133,096 by FY2024 following a $9,587,697 revenue year), confirming this is a pass-through family foundation that distributes most of what it receives in contributions each year rather than building a large permanent endowment. Typical grant size across 24 tracked awards: minimum $1,000, maximum $250,000, median $25,000, average $51,094 — a wide spread that reflects both small program gifts and large flagship commitments. Across the fuller 50-grant historical dataset, total tracked giving is $4,441,745 at an average of $88,835 per grantee relationship (reflecting multi-grant totals to repeat partners, not single checks). Geographic concentration is stark: of 50 tracked grants, 33 went to California organizations (the Bay Area/Silicon Valley base), 10 to Washington, DC (national advocacy groups), with single-digit counts in Massachusetts (3), New York (3), and Hawaii (1). By program area, education dominates: Hillbrook School ($2,024,745 across 3 grants) and ACE Charter School ($640,000 across 3 grants) together account for over 60% of all tracked dollars. Reproductive rights/justice organizations (NARAL, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Center for Reproductive Rights) collectively received roughly $345,000, civic engagement (Voto Latino, American Independent Foundation) around $170,000, and a smaller science/STEM education tier (The Tech Interactive, Science Is Elementary) around $402,000. No public grants in Granted's matched-opportunities database currently align with this foundation's preselected model, consistent with it not running an open application process.

The Scott Foundation sits in a cluster of small, roughly $6.1M-asset family foundations classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking, but its thematic focus and public visibility set it apart from typical peers of similar size, most of which function as low-profile pass-through or donor-advised vehicles with no public website or stated program area.

All five peers cluster within roughly $6.13M–$6.14M in assets — an artifact of how this peer set was matched — but none maintain a public website, published focus area, or visible grantee list, making the Scott Foundation unusually transparent and thematically legible for a foundation of its size. That transparency is a double-edged signal for grant seekers: it makes the foundation easy to research and align messaging to, but the underlying 990 data and website both confirm a closed, preselected model, so the visibility does not translate into an open door.

The most recent verified grant-level data comes from the FY2023 Form 990 ($1,828,903 total giving, 19 awards per third-party 990 aggregators), with FY2024 filings showing total assets rising to $6,133,096 on total revenue of $9,587,697 — a sharp jump in receipts that year, though FY2024 grants-paid figures were not yet broken out in available data. The clearest recent programmatic signal is the April 19, 2025 Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour event hosted at the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship's San Jose-area Hillbrook campus, an initiative the Scotts co-founded in 2017 and continue to actively support — underscoring that Hillbrook/the Scott Center remains the foundation's flagship, highest-dollar relationship. Leadership has remained stable and founder-led throughout: Shannon Hunt-Scott (President/Chairman) and Kevin Scott (CFO/Treasurer, and separately Microsoft's CTO and EVP of AI) continue to run the foundation directly, with no officer compensation reported in any filing year — confirming this is an unpaid, hands-on family operation rather than a staffed grantmaking institution. Hunt-Scott also continues to hold board and advisory roles at NARAL Pro-Choice America and other left-of-center advocacy organizations that overlap with the foundation's reproductive-justice and civic-engagement grantees, suggesting her personal board commitments continue to shape which national organizations receive funding. No major leadership changes, new program launches, or public funding-priority announcements beyond the four-pillar framing (educational equity, social entrepreneurship, social & reproductive justice, civic engagement) were found in available 2025–2026 coverage.

The single most important fact for any prospective applicant: the foundation's own Contact page states it is "not currently accepting grant applications," and its preselected-grantee funding history (a stable roster of repeat organizations across multiple years) confirms this is not a rhetorical brush-off — it reflects how the foundation actually operates. Do not submit an unsolicited LOI or full proposal through a generic contact form; at best it will go unanswered, and repeated cold outreach risks souring a future warm introduction. Instead, invest in visibility within the foundation's four stated pillars — educational equity, social entrepreneurship, social & reproductive justice, and civic engagement — since these are the only frames the foundation has publicly validated with real dollars (Hillbrook School and the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship for education/social entrepreneurship; NARAL, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Center for Reproductive Rights for reproductive justice; Voto Latino and American Independent Foundation for civic engagement). The strongest realistic entry point is a relationship with one of the foundation's existing grantees — Hillbrook School, ACE Charter Schools, Voto Latino, or Reproductive Freedom For All — since the foundation has shown a pattern of funding organizations connected to its existing partner network rather than discovering new grantees cold. A second viable path is through Shannon Hunt-Scott's personal board and advocacy affiliations (she serves on multiple national reproductive-rights and civic organization boards), since the foundation's DC-based national grantees track closely with her personal governance roles. When any contact is made, emphasize outcomes and systemic impact rather than program description alone — the foundation's own language stresses moving beyond direct service toward "systemic change at the national level," and its grant narratives consistently cite mission-level framing ("transform education," "advance reproductive rights," "build a stronger and more inclusive democracy") over activity-level detail. Common mistakes to avoid: treating this as an open-application funder because it has a public website and stated focus areas (it is not); requesting funding outside the four core pillars (no evidence of environment, arts, or general human-services giving despite occasional early grants like Second Harvest Food Bank and Maui Food Bank, which appear to be legacy or one-off gifts rather than an active category); and expecting a fast response — with no compensated staff, all foundation decisions run through Hunt-Scott and Scott personally, so timelines depend entirely on personal bandwidth and relationship depth, not a formal review calendar.