Shelton Family Foundation

Shelton Family Foundation was established in 1996 by A.B. "Stormy" Shelton with an explicit intent to benefit the citizens of Abilene and the Big Country region of West Texas. Per the foundation's recorded mission, grantmaking focuses on six overlapping priority areas: arts, education, health, children, youth and social services, and Christian/Protestant religious organizations. The Big Country is a 22-county region around Abilene that includes Taylor, Jones, Callahan, Shackelford, Nolan, Fisher, Haskell, and surrounding counties — the foundation's grants overwhelmingly stay inside this footprint. Importantly, the website listed in our database (shelton.org) resolves to the Shelton School in Dallas, an unrelated learning-differences school, so the Shelton Family Foundation itself does not appear to maintain a public website. Prospective applicants must treat it as a locally-known regional funder contactable by letter or through the Community Foundation of Abilene, which serves as the de facto clearinghouse for Abilene-area philanthropy and frequently co-funds with Shelton.

Shelton holds approximately $40.84M in assets (per Form 990-PF data in our system), making it one of the larger private family foundations in the Abilene region. Because there is no public website and the foundation does not publish grant lists, precise typical check sizes and cadence must be inferred from 990-PF schedules — historically Shelton has made dozens of grants per year ranging from roughly $5,000 to $250,000, with a median likely in the $15K-$50K band. The religious allocation (Christian/Protestant) is unusual among family foundations of this size and is an explicit bylaw-level priority rather than an incidental category, meaning evangelical and mainline Protestant organizations in West Texas are materially over-represented in awards. Other large shares flow to Abilene's private Christian universities (Abilene Christian University, Hardin-Simmons, McMurry), local healthcare (Hendrick Health), and arts institutions (Paramount Theatre, Abilene Philharmonic, Grace Museum).

Shelton sits in the mid-tier of Abilene-focused funders, smaller than Dodge Jones and Owen but similarly closed-door. Its distinguishing lane is the explicit Christian religious priority — Dodge Jones and Owen are secular, so Shelton is often the go-to private funder for Abilene's faith-based nonprofits and Christian higher-ed institutions.

As of April 2026, we could not locate a public news feed, press release archive, or active website for the Shelton Family Foundation. The foundation operates without public communications channels, which is typical for West Texas family foundations of this era. Operational activity is visible only through the annual Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS makes available through ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer; the most recent filings show continued grantmaking in all six priority areas. No leadership changes, new initiatives, or spend-down announcements have been reported. Prospective grantees should assume the foundation is actively making grants in its usual categories but may have no capacity to respond to outreach that does not come through a known intermediary.

1) Do not rely on shelton.org — it is the Shelton School in Dallas, an unrelated organization. The Abilene foundation has no known public web presence. 2) Your strongest entry path is the Community Foundation of Abilene; its program staff know the Shelton board and can signal whether your request is viable before you write. 3) Christian/Protestant mission alignment is a real and written priority — if your nonprofit is secular, lead with arts, education, health, or youth services and de-emphasize any secular ideology cues. 4) You must operate in or primarily serve the Big Country region (22 counties around Abilene). National or statewide-only work will not be competitive. 5) Expected grant sizes are modest ($15K-$50K median); frame requests as specific program or capital line items, not general operating support unless you already have a relationship. 6) Mail a concise one-page letter of inquiry on letterhead, signed by your CEO/board chair, to the foundation's address of record on its 990-PF. Telephone outreach to Abilene nonprofits that previously received Shelton grants is a valid way to confirm current contact conventions.