Steinert Family Foundation

The Steinert Family Foundation (EIN 77-0219732, Bakersfield, CA) is a closed, relationship-driven family foundation, not a competitive grants program, and applicants should approach it accordingly. Created by Marvin and Nadene Steinert and now overseen by their sons Max (President) and Randall/Gary (Treasurer/VP) alongside Secretary Stephanie Becker, the foundation has been under the administrative management of MB Foundation, the stewardship arm of the U.S. Mennonite Brethren church family, since December 21, 2017 — described by MB Foundation as "the largest single fund" it manages. Multiple independent grant databases (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io, Candid) confirm the foundation gives only to preselected organizations and does not accept or respond to unsolicited funding requests, despite the underlying data flagging accepting_applications as true with no documented application process. In practice, every traceable dollar goes to organizations with a pre-existing personal or denominational tie to the Steinert family: their home congregation (Heritage Bible Church, Bakersfield, $597,190 across 5 grants), Fresno Pacific University (a Mennonite Brethren-affiliated school where Marvin and Nadene were the university's most generous donors and 2011 AFP Outstanding Philanthropists, $500,000 across 3 grants), and a cluster of evangelical churches and ministries (Bridge Bible Church, Copper Hills Church, Mountain View Community Church, Rock Harbor Church). The realistic path to funding is not a cold LOI but a warm introduction through the Mennonite Brethren conference, MB Foundation's donor network, Fresno Pacific University's advancement office, or a Kern County evangelical church network the family already supports. Secular or non-faith-aligned organizations should not expect access regardless of program quality; the two clear exceptions in the data — Garden Pathways (child mentoring, $42,500/5 grants) and The Mission/Mission at Kern County (homeless services, $85,000 combined) — suggest modest openness to secular human-services nonprofits operating in Kern County, likely still reached via a board member's personal involvement. First-time applicants with no relationship should prioritize relationship-building (board service, church membership, MB Foundation donor introductions) over proposal-writing.

Across the 64 grants captured in the dataset (cumulative, spanning recent fiscal years), the foundation distributed $4,476,175 total at an average of $69,940 per grant. The DB's own typical-grant-size calculation (5-grant sample) shows a median of $100,000, average of $117,900, and a range of $1,000 to $350,000 — but the fuller 64-grant/top-recipient view shows most individual checks are far smaller: the bulk of religious-services grants to small churches and ministries (His Way Out Ministries, Jewish Outreach International, Good News in Action, Truth in Love Project, The Faith Church) run $4,000-$7,000 cumulative across 3 grants each, while the largest single relationships anchor the total: "Mb Foundation" itself ($1,550,000/2 grants, internal donor-advised-fund transfer), Heritage Bible Church ($597,190/5 grants), Bridge Bible Church and Fresno Pacific University ($500,000/3 grants each), and Copper Hills Church ($300,000/3 grants). By geography, California dominates with 48 of the recipients tracked (out of a 7-state footprint including NY, AZ, GA, TN, KS, TX), consistent with the foundation's stated geographic focus of CA and KS (the KS tie reflects MB Foundation's Hillsboro, Kansas base, not independent CA/KS program activity). By purpose, religious services and church support account for the largest share of grant count and a majority of dollars, followed by Christian higher education (Fresno Pacific, Heritage Christian Schools), with a smaller allocation to secular-adjacent human services (homeless shelter, child mentoring, girls' empowerment/anti-trafficking via Global Family Care Network, $260,000/4 grants). Annual giving has been remarkably stable in non-outlier years: $653,785 (FY2023), $682,445 (FY2022), $1,868,000 (FY2021, elevated by a $4.98M contribution inflow that year), $589,500 (FY2020), and a $15,238,500 outlier in FY2019 tied to a one-time $15.8M contribution — almost certainly connected to the 2017 restructuring under MB Foundation rather than a repeatable funding level. Total assets sit at roughly $5.07M-$5.36M as of the most recent filings, down from a $5.94M peak in 2021, implying a sustainable annual payout in the $550K-$700K range going forward.

The Steinert Family Foundation is a small, single-family vehicle roughly one-ninth the size of Bakersfield's own Kern Community Foundation and a fraction of a percent the size of the Hillsboro, KS-based MB Foundation that administers it — but unlike both peers, it runs no open grant cycle or public application at all. Kern Community Foundation, by contrast, actively solicits proposals and manages 175+ named funds with defined cycles, making it the far better fit for Kern County nonprofits without an existing Steinert family relationship. MB Foundation itself is not a peer grantmaker so much as the institutional parent now directing Steinert Family Foundation's investment and disbursement strategy — any nonprofit hoping to reach the Steinert family is more likely to succeed by building a relationship inside the Mennonite Brethren/MB Foundation donor network than by approaching the foundation directly.

No 2025-2026 press coverage, new program announcements, or leadership changes specific to the Steinert Family Foundation surfaced in web research — this is consistent with its profile as a quiet, closed family vehicle rather than an institution that issues public communications. The most recent verifiable activity is financial: FY2024 Form 990 aggregation (via Instrumentl/CauseIQ) shows $593,215 in grants paid, in line with the $589,500-$690,000 range the foundation has held since 2020, following the anomalous $15.24M distribution year in 2019. The last documented organizational event of substance remains the December 21, 2017 placement of the foundation's assets under MB Foundation's management by brothers Randy and Max Steinert — described by MB Foundation as the largest single fund it administers — which appears to have triggered the 2019 asset inflow ($15.84M in contributions received that year) and subsequent distribution spike as the fund was restructured. Leadership has been stable: Max E Steinert (President), Gary Steinert (Vice President), Randall Steinert (Treasurer), and Stephanie Becker (Secretary) appear consistently across the officer records with no compensation drawn (all listed at $0), indicating an unpaid, family-run board rather than a staffed program office. Absent any grants portal, staff directory, or public program page, grant seekers should not expect the foundation to publish RFPs, deadlines, or annual reports of its own; the only reliable ongoing signal is its Form 990, filed annually and typically reflected in third-party databases (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Instrumentl, CauseIQ) within roughly a year of the fiscal year-end.

Do not submit a cold, unsolicited application — every third-party grant database that tracks this funder (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io, Candid/Foundation Directory) explicitly notes it gives only to preselected organizations and does not respond to unsolicited requests, and no application form, portal, or instructions exist anywhere in the public record. The single most effective strategy is relationship-first: this is a Mennonite Brethren family foundation administered by MB Foundation (Hillsboro, KS) since 2017, so organizations with any existing tie to the U.S. Mennonite Brethren conference, MB Foundation's donor network, or Fresno Pacific University's advancement office have a realistic path that a stranger does not. A second viable channel is geographic and civic: the family's home base is Bakersfield/Kern County, CA, and its non-denominational grants (Garden Pathways' child mentoring, $42,500/5 grants; The Mission's homeless shelter work, combined $85,000) suggest local human-services credibility with Kern County board or community connections can matter even without a direct church tie. If pursuing a connection, lead with mission alignment to the family's explicitly stated purpose — supporting organizations that "communicate Christ's love through preaching the gospel, making disciples, and training leaders" — rather than generic nonprofit-effectiveness language; secular organizations with no faith component or Kern County presence are the weakest fit in this dataset. Given the multi-year, repeat-grant pattern seen across nearly every top recipient (Heritage Bible Church: 5 grants; Fresno Pacific: 3; Bridge Bible Church: 3; Copper Hills Church: 3; Global Family Care Network: 4; Garden Pathways: 5), the foundation clearly favors sustained relationships over one-time gifts — a first grant, if it happens, is more likely to be modest ($4,000-$16,000, matching the smaller recipients) with the expectation of a multi-year relationship rather than a single large ask. The biggest mistake an outside applicant could make is treating the accepting_applications flag or the presence of a listed phone number ((661) 872-5545) as an invitation to submit a formal proposal; a warmer first move — a personal introduction via a shared church, the MB Foundation network, or Fresno Pacific — is far more likely to be productive than any written application.