T W Lewis Foundation

T.W. Lewis Foundation is a family-directed private foundation founded in 2000 by Tom and Jan Lewis, whose fortune came from T.W. Lewis Company, an award-winning Phoenix-area homebuilder Tom sold to David Weekley Homes in 2012. With roughly $10.2M in assets (FY2024, down from $20.8M in FY2019), it operates out of a single Scottsdale office and gives through four named pillars: Children and Families, Educating Our Youth, Civic and Cultural, and Strengthening America. The Foundation's own 990 data shows nearly all of its 188 tracked grants are coded 'GENERAL PURPOSE' — this is overwhelmingly an unrestricted-operating-support funder, not a program/project-RFP funder, with only one clear exception (a WIC-program-restricted series of grants to Children's Museum of Phoenix). Three applicant profiles fit best: (1) Arizona direct-service nonprofits serving children and families in crisis — Fresh Start Women's Foundation, Arizona Helping Hands, Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, Phoenix Rescue Mission, and St. Vincent de Paul all appear as multi-year repeat partners; (2) national conservative/civic-education and policy organizations — Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Turning Point USA, Prager University, ALEC, Young America's Foundation, Conservative Partnership Institute, and America First Policy Institute together account for well over $1.5M in tracked giving, consistent with board ties (director Jeremy Beer co-founded American Philanthropic, a conservative-donor consulting firm; director Nicole Hoplin has a similar background); and (3) higher-education and Christian-education institutions with a personal Lewis connection — University of Kentucky (Tom Lewis's alma mater, recipient of a $1.5M naming gift to the Lewis Honors College plus UK Athletics and Christian Student Fellowship grants), plus newer named centers at Liberty University and Grand Canyon University. There is no formal LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit funnel; the Foundation states applications 'may be submitted in any form.' That low procedural bar means the real competitive filter is relationship and worldview fit, not paperwork polish. First-time applicants without an AZ service footprint, a conservative/civic-policy profile, or a Kentucky/Christian-higher-ed tie face a steep uphill climb; those that do fit should expect a modest opening gift with room to grow if the relationship proves durable.

Per the Foundation's own reported typical-grant-size data, the median award is $25,000 (average $49,362) across a $200-to-$501,000 range on 43 recorded grants. Across the fuller 188-grant tracked history, total giving is $10,174,441 at an average of $54,119 per grant. Geographic concentration is stark: Arizona receives 128 of 188 grants (68%), followed by DC (14, 7.4%) and Virginia (13, 6.9%) — almost entirely the national conservative-policy cluster headquartered in the DC/VA corridor — then Kentucky (9, 4.8%, tied to Tom Lewis's alma mater), with California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Washington each contributing a handful of grants. Giving is top-heavy: the ten largest tracked recipients (University of Kentucky Lewis Honors College $1.5M, Barrow Neurological Foundation $901K, Banner Health Foundation $600K, Museum of the Bible $500K, St. Vincent de Paul $481K, Heritage Foundation $425.8K, Alliance Defending Freedom $350K, Prager University $325K, Arizona Helping Hands $310K, and Fresh Start $294.5K) total roughly $5.7M — more than half of all tracked dollars — concentrated among a stable, recurring set of roughly 30 'grant partners.' Annual total giving has swung from a peak of $4.7M in FY2021 down to $2.1M (FY2022) and $2.71M (FY2023); FY2024 grants-paid figures were not yet available in this dataset, but FY2024 revenue was only $559,430 against an asset drop from $12.8M to $10.18M, implying continued active distribution in excess of investment income. That pattern — payout running 13%-25% of assets in recent years, well above the 5% IRS minimum — combined with assets nearly halving since 2019 and contributions received staying minimal ($0-$20K most years), signals a foundation actively spending down rather than growing its corpus indefinitely. Program-wise, funding is almost entirely unrestricted general support rather than earmarked capital or program grants.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (each within roughly $10.18M-$10.19M of T.W. Lewis) and share its generic IRS 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, but none has a public website or published giving framework comparable to T.W. Lewis's four-pillar structure and dedicated grant-application portal — making T.W. Lewis unusually accessible and transparent for its asset tier. T.W. Lewis also stands out for its payout rate: distributing 13%-25% of assets annually versus the 5% federal minimum most small family foundations target, meaning it is a comparatively active, engaged funder rather than a dormant vehicle, even as its own asset base has been shrinking.

The most concrete recent activity comes directly from the Foundation's own news page rather than independent press. Its FY2025 holiday campaign renewed major gifts to five core Valley partners — Fresh Start Women's Foundation, Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, St. Vincent de Paul, The Foster Alliance, and Phoenix Rescue Mission — consistent with the multi-year repeat-funding pattern visible in the 990 data. On March 22, 2025, grant partner Fresh Start Women's Foundation held its annual gala at The Phoenician, a marquee event in the Foundation's Children and Families giving circle. On the higher-education side, the Foundation's naming-gift strategy continued to expand beyond its historical anchor at the University of Kentucky (Tom Lewis's alma mater, site of a $1.5M gift to the Lewis Honors College): a new T.W. Lewis Center for Student Success was dedicated at Liberty University's School of Business, and a T.W. Lewis Center for career development was launched at Grand Canyon University — both extending the Foundation's pattern of funding leadership and career-development programming at Christian-affiliated universities. A staff addition in 2025 ('Anna,' per the Foundation's About page) now formally coordinates grant agreements and reporting for the Children and Families and Educating Our Youth pillars, suggesting the service-oriented side of the portfolio is being run with more process than in the past. No leadership transition at the board or chairman level was found; Tom Lewis remains Chairman and Jan Lewis Vice Chairman per the most recent filings. No independent news coverage of specific 2025-2026 grant announcements beyond the Foundation's own site was located in this search.

Apply through the Foundation's own online form at twlewis.com/grant-application/ (the 'Apply Now' link leads to twlewis.com/grant-application-form/) — this is the sole application channel; there is no separate LOI stage, no RFP calendar, and no fixed deadline, since organizations may apply at any time but only once per calendar year. The Foundation explicitly states an application 'may be submitted in any form,' so a clean narrative covering mission, the population served, the amount requested, and — critically — which of the four pillars (Children and Families, Educating Our Youth, Civic and Cultural, Strengthening America) the request maps to will outperform a heavily templated proposal. Because nearly every historical award in the tracked data is coded GENERAL PURPOSE, ask for unrestricted operating support by default rather than a narrowly scoped program budget; the one clear exception (a recurring WIC-program-restricted grant to Children's Museum of Phoenix) shows restricted funding is possible but is the exception, not the rule. Expect a response within about 30 days of submission per the Foundation's stated turnaround. First-time grants tend to open near the historical median of $25,000; the path to a larger, multi-year relationship runs through demonstrated results — Arizona Helping Hands, Fresh Start, and Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation all show grant counts climbing from a single initial award to four repeat awards in the tracked history. The strongest fit is an Arizona-based direct-service organization serving children and families in need, or a national conservative/civic-education organization (the DC/VA cluster — Heritage Foundation, Alliance Defending Freedom, Turning Point USA, ALEC — represents over $1.5M of tracked giving), or an institution with a personal tie to founder Tom Lewis (University of Kentucky, Liberty University, Grand Canyon University). Applicants outside these lanes — without an AZ service footprint, a values/civic alignment, or a founder connection — should not expect a response regardless of program quality. Because Foundation assets have fallen from $20.8M to $10.2M over the past five years while distributions have stayed active, applicants should not assume grant sizes will hold steady long-term and should apply promptly rather than waiting for a future cycle. Direct contact: (480) 768-4958, 6720 N Scottsdale Rd Ste 230, Scottsdale, AZ 85253, correspondence addressed '% Thomas W Lewis.'