Stauffer Family Foundation

The Stauffer Family Foundation (EIN 74-2483868, Wilmington DE registration via Foundation Source) is a closed, board-directed private family foundation with $3.7M in assets — not an open-call grantmaker. Its DB record flags `preselected_only: true` and lists no application form, no grants page, and no LOI process (`application_instructions: "__none__"`), and no independent web search turned up a public application pathway. Across 97 tracked historical grants, the foundation gives almost exclusively to organizations it already knows: the same roughly 35-40 recipients (evangelical churches, missions agencies, and a handful of veteran/advocacy groups) recur across multiple 990 filing years, with an average of roughly 2.5 separate gifts per top recipient. This is the clearest signal of how the board actually operates — it sustains existing relationships rather than reviewing new proposals.

For an organization outside that existing circle, the realistic path in is alignment plus a warm introduction, not a cold application. Two alignment vectors matter most: first, faith identity — the overwhelming majority of dollars go to evangelical Christian churches, parachurch missions organizations, and Christian relief/advocacy groups (Campus Crusade for Christ/Cru Global, Samaritan's Purse, Focus on the Family, Alliance Defending Freedom, SIM USA, Compassion International); and second, geography — Colorado accounts for 38 of the roughly 91 state-coded grants (42%), matching the DB's `geographic_focus: ["CO", "IL"]` field, with a visible cluster of grants to Steamboat Springs- and Arvada-area congregations (Steamboat Christian Center, Grace Church of Arvada, Brave Church, Big Horn Ministries) suggesting a personal family connection to that region.

First-time prospects with no faith affiliation and no Colorado or Illinois tie should treat this as a low-probability fit and deprioritize significant proposal-writing time here. Organizations that do fit should pursue introduction through an already-funded grantee or shared church/ministry network rather than an unsolicited written appeal, and should expect a modest, unrestricted gift rather than a large program grant — every grant in the sample is coded "General & Unrestricted," with none earmarked for capital campaigns or restricted programs.

FY2023 (most recent full 990-PF in the data set): $192,800 in grants paid against $3,703,336 in total assets — a 5.2% payout rate, just above the IRS-mandated 5% minimum for private foundations, indicating a compliance-driven distribution level rather than an aggressively scaling giving program. Grants paid were essentially frozen at $194,800 for four straight years (FY2020-FY2022), even though net investment income swung wildly over that period — from $118,038 (2020) to $527,904 (2021) to $91,998 (2023) — confirming the board sets a fixed annual budget rather than varying payout with market performance. Total giving (which includes grants plus minor administrative costs) ran $241,676-$268,995 annually from 2019-2023.

Looking back further, grants paid roughly doubled over a decade: from $57,500-$113,900 (2011-2013) to $190,000-$194,800 (2019-2023), tracking asset growth from $1.3M to roughly $3.7-3.9M over the same span.

At the individual-grant level, the typical award is small: median $3,600, average $6,284, range $1,000-$31,700, based on 31 grants in the most recent full-detail cycle. Across the full 97-grant historical sample ($584,400 tracked, avg $6,025/grant), giving is highly distributed rather than concentrated in a few lead gifts — the two largest relationships, Campus Crusade For Christ Inc ($88,500 across 3 grants) and Cru Global Inc ($55,500 across 3 grants), are in fact the same ministry organization operating under two legal names, and together account for just under 25% of all tracked dollars. No other single recipient exceeds $31,700 cumulative.

Sector concentration is stark: the substantial majority of recipients are evangelical Christian churches, missions agencies, and parachurch ministries (Samaritan's Purse $30,000, SIM USA $15,300, Cure International $15,000, Focus on the Family $15,000, Biblica $8,400, Compassion International $9,000), with a smaller secondary cluster in veteran support (Wounded Warrior Project, Tunnel to Towers, $10,000 each) and conservative legal/advocacy work (Alliance Defending Freedom $14,000, Judicial Watch $16,000). Geographically, Colorado dominates with 38 of roughly 91 state-coded grants (42%), followed by California (11), Illinois (10), North Carolina (9), and Florida (8).

No peer foundation records were returned in this foundation's data bundle, so the table below uses characteristics of comparably sized, Foundation Source-administered family foundations as a category benchmark rather than named financial peers, alongside the one directly comparable data point (payout rate) this analysis can compute with confidence.

Stauffer's 5.2% payout rate sits at the low end of the private-foundation-minimum band, and its zero-restriction, "General & Unrestricted" purpose coding on essentially every tracked grant is more typical of a founder-directed relationship fund than a program-driven institutional funder. Unlike larger faith-based peers that increasingly publish LOI windows to manage inbound volume, Stauffer shows no public application infrastructure at all — consistent with a foundation whose giving list is effectively fixed year to year.

No news coverage, press releases, or announcements specific to the Stauffer Family Foundation surfaced in web search for 2025-2026 — expected for a foundation with no communications function and a Foundation Source-administered mailing address rather than dedicated staff. The most current concrete data point is the FY2025 Form 990-PF, filed April 10, 2026 per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: $296,809 in revenue (46% dividends, 54% net asset sales, plus $696 interest), $244,914 in total expenses, $212,307 (86.7% of spend) directed to charitable disbursements, and $3.7M in net assets carried forward — figures roughly in line with the FY2019-FY2023 pattern already on file, with no indication of a major gift, wind-down, or expansion.

Leadership has been stable across every filing year sampled: Jeffrey Stauffer (President/Director), Todd Stauffer (Director), Lynne Cranor (Director), and Lori Graber (Director/Secretary) appear consistently with zero reported compensation, suggesting no governance turnover to flag.

One data-quality note for future outreach: the website on file for this foundation, stauffer.org, resolves to Fondazione Stauffer, an unrelated Italian music-education academy in Cremona — this foundation has no confirmed public website, so any outreach strategy should not rely on a foundation-run web presence.

Because the foundation files no press materials and appears in no grantmaking news coverage, the annual 990-PF schedule of grants is effectively the only "activity feed" available to prospective applicants. The most useful thing to watch going forward is not a press release but the FY2026 filing (expected around April 2027): whether the $194,800-ish flat grants budget holds again, and whether any names outside the recurring evangelical-ministry and Colorado-congregation list appear for the first time.

There is no formal application process to optimize for here — the DB record marks this foundation `preselected_only`, lists application instructions as none, and no grants portal, LOI form, or public guidelines exist anywhere online. Plan accordingly:

• Do not submit a cold unsolicited proposal expecting a review process; there is no evidence one exists. Time spent on a polished cold LOI to this funder is likely wasted relative to funders that do run open cycles.
• The single strongest lever is mission and geographic fit combined with a warm introduction. Organizations that are evangelical Christian churches or missions/relief ministries, especially ones with a presence in Colorado (particularly the Steamboat Springs / Arvada area) or Illinois, most closely match the 97-grant historical pattern.
• Keep any prospective ask modest and unrestricted. The median historical grant is $3,600 and the average is $6,025-$6,284 depending on sample window; the largest single relationship tops out at $88,500 cumulative (across 3 grants to the same org). A first ask in the $1,000-$10,000 range, framed as general operating support, matches how this foundation actually gives — every tracked grant is coded "General & Unrestricted," so program-restricted or capital-campaign asks are a mismatch with observed behavior.
• The repeat-giving pattern (average roughly 2.5 grants per top-50 recipient across filing years) suggests the realistic goal for a new relationship is not a single large grant but a small first gift that could recur in future cycles if the relationship holds.
• If your organization has no faith-based identity and no Colorado/Illinois connection, be honest that this is a low-fit prospect; philanthropic dollars here have not historically gone to secular, non-regional causes in the tracked sample.
• Track the FY2026 Form 990-PF (expect an April 2027 filing, based on the FY2025 April 10, 2026 filing date) via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer for any new recipient names — a new name appearing on the schedule of grants is the only reliable external signal that the board's fixed circle of recipients has widened.