Second Chance Foundation

Second Chance Foundation is a small, single-trustee-directed private foundation (EIN 59-2708392) based in Naples, Florida, with roughly $11.4 million in assets. There is no program staff, no public grants portal, and — despite the website field on file — no functioning foundation website; the domain listed in public databases (secondchance.org) 404s, and a similarly named charity (secondchancefdn.org) is an unrelated organization. This is the profile of a classic personal-network family foundation: trustee Bruce D. Conley directs giving, and the recipient list reads like a map of the trustee's own community ties rather than a response to open solicitations.

The grantee history bears this out. Of $879,285 in tracked grants across 23 gifts, the largest single recipient was a Fidelity Donor Advised Fund ($348,000 across two gifts) — a pass-through vehicle, not a program grant — followed by Collier Community Foundation ($200,000, tied to Hurricane Ian recovery support), Rodgers Memorial Hospital Foundation ($100,000 capital gift), and Journey 21 Inc ($52,380). Below that, gifts drop quickly into the $500-$40,000 range and go to small, local organizations: Naples Botanical Gardens, Hear Wisconsin, The Naples Players, Laces of Love, Golden Paws Assistance Dogs. Grants split almost evenly between Florida (11 of 23) and Wisconsin (12 of 23), the foundation's two apparent centers of personal or family connection.

For a first-time applicant, the honest read is that this is not an open, competitive funder. There is no application_form_url, no grants_page_url, and application_instructions on file are explicitly blank. Accepting_applications is marked true in IRS data, but with a median grant of roughly $11,000 and a heavy skew toward organizations already known to the trustee, cold applicants should expect low odds without some existing relationship, board introduction, or geographic/mission overlap with Naples or Wisconsin community institutions. The most realistic strategy is a short, personal letter of inquiry by mail rather than a formal proposal, framed around local impact in Collier County or the Milwaukee/Madison area.

Second Chance Foundation's total giving has ranged from a low of $205,745 (FY2019) to a high of $740,057 (FY2021) over the last decade, averaging roughly $450,000-$500,000 in most years; grants paid (the cash disbursement figure, distinct from total giving which includes program-related items) ranged from $53,600 (2019) to $637,500 (2021). The most recent full year captured in IRS filings, FY2023, shows $455,000 in grants paid against $624,815 in total giving and $436,136 in total revenue — meaning the foundation distributed more than it earned that year, drawing down its $9.65 million asset base. A more recent FY2025 filing (per ProPublica) shows disbursements of roughly $477,500 against $407,945 in revenue and $11.4 million in net assets, continuing that pattern of giving slightly ahead of investment income in some years.

Across the 23 tracked grants (total $879,285, average $38,230), the distribution is sharply bimodal. A handful of large gifts dominate the dollar total: the $348,000 Fidelity DAF pass-through (39.6% of tracked dollars), $200,000 to Collier Community Foundation (22.7%, explicitly tagged "Ian Support" — Hurricane Ian relief), and $100,000 to Rodgers Memorial Hospital Foundation (11.4%) together account for nearly three-quarters of all tracked giving. The remaining ~20 grants are far smaller — a median around $10,000-$11,000 and a floor as low as $300-$500 (Historic Palm Cottage Naples, Golden Paws Assistance Dogs, Works of Mercy, Children's Foundation WI). The foundation's own reported typical_grant_size data (drawn from a smaller sample of 7 grants) shows a median of $11,000, an average of $33,500, and a range of $500-$150,000, consistent with this bimodal pattern.

By purpose, the largest identifiable categories are disaster relief/community foundations (~23%, driven by Hurricane Ian recovery), healthcare/hospital capital support (~12%), arts and culture (~12%, spread across Naples Botanical Gardens, Create Wisconsin, The Naples Players, and community arts centers), and disability/human services (~8%). Geographically, giving splits nearly evenly between Florida (11 grants) and Wisconsin (12 grants), with no significant activity documented outside those two states.

No peer foundations were pre-matched in the data bundle for this profile, so the comparison below uses general small-private-foundation benchmarks (Candid/Council on Foundations norms for foundations in the $8-15M asset range) alongside Second Chance Foundation's own filed data. These are directional reference points, not specific named peer organizations verified in this research pass.

*Benchmark rows, not specific verified peer institutions.

Second Chance Foundation's giving sits in the middle of the pack for its asset size — its ~4-6% effective annual payout is consistent with (and in high-disbursement years like 2021 well above) the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement for private foundations. What distinguishes it from many similarly sized funders is the complete absence of a public-facing grants process; even relationship-driven peer foundations at this scale often publish at least a one-paragraph funding statement or contact form, which Second Chance Foundation does not.

The most concrete recent data point is the foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF, filed April 14, 2026 per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, showing $407,945 in revenue (primarily dividends, 61.8%, and asset sales, 38.2%), $665,866 in total expenses, $477,500 in charitable disbursements, and net assets of $11.4 million — a net operating loss for the year driven by investment performance rather than a pullback in giving. Trustee Bruce D. Conley's compensation has risen substantially over time, from $46,000 in FY2020-2021 to $90,000 by FY2025, a trend worth noting for applicants sizing up the foundation's operating overhead relative to its grant output.

No grantee announcements, press coverage, leadership changes, or new program launches specific to this foundation surfaced in web search — consistent with an organization that has no website, no communications function, and no public program staff. The most recent identifiable programmatic activity in the grantee data is Hurricane Ian disaster-recovery giving (the storm struck Southwest Florida in September 2022): $200,000 to Collier Community Foundation and $40,000 to Naples Botanical Gardens were both tagged "Ian Support," indicating the foundation responded to that regional disaster with targeted relief grants in its Florida giving.

Because the underlying database's grantee and program detail appears to draw from filings spanning 2011-2023 (with financial totals refreshed through FY2025 via ProPublica), the most reliable read on "recent activity" is: steady, unpublicized giving at roughly historical levels, concentrated in the same Naples/Wisconsin geography and same mix of health, arts, disability-services, and disaster-relief causes the foundation has supported for over a decade — with no evidence of a strategic pivot.

There is no published application process for Second Chance Foundation — application_form_url, grants_page_url, and opportunities_url are all blank in available records, and application_instructions is explicitly marked "none." Treat this foundation as closed-by-default and plan accordingly:

• Skip the formal proposal. With no portal, no guidelines, and no visible RFP cycle, a lengthy grant application is unlikely to be read. A concise (one-page) letter of inquiry sent by mail to 5085 Seahorse Ave, Naples, FL 34103, or a phone call to (239) 821-9100, is more consistent with how this foundation appears to operate.
• Lead with geography. Every tracked grant went to an organization in Florida (specifically the Naples/Collier County area) or Wisconsin (Milwaukee/Madison). Organizations outside those two states have essentially no documented precedent of funding here — do not lead with a national or out-of-region pitch.
• Match the size to the ask. Outside of the three largest outlier gifts (the DAF pass-through, the Hurricane Ian community-foundation gift, and the hospital capital grant), the realistic range for a new organization is $500-$40,000, with a median around $10,000-$11,000. Asking for $100,000+ as an unknown applicant is out of pattern.
• Emphasize local, tangible impact over research or advocacy. The grantee list skews toward direct-service and capital-project organizations — hospitals, botanical gardens, theater companies, disability services, community arts centers, and animal-assistance nonprofits — rather than policy, research, or national-scope work.
• Disaster response is a proven entry point. The $200,000 Hurricane Ian gift shows the foundation is responsive to acute regional need in its home community; organizations providing recovery or resilience services in Collier County after a disaster event have a documented precedent.
• Don't expect a site visit or multi-stage cycle. With a single compensated trustee and no program staff, this foundation does not appear structured for the LOI-then-full-proposal-then-site-visit progression common at larger institutional funders. Build a direct relationship with the trustee's office rather than navigating a review committee.
• The biggest mistake to avoid: treating this like an open, competitive grant program. The absence of any public grants infrastructure after a decade-plus of filings strongly suggests unsolicited applications from unconnected organizations are a low-probability path.