The Lozier Foundation

The Lozier Foundation is a family-governed private foundation established in 1986 by Allan and Dianne Lozier, founders of Lozier Corporation, an Omaha-based retail display manufacturer with national facilities. With $437 million in assets and annual giving reaching $40.2 million in FY2023, Lozier ranks among Nebraska's most consequential private philanthropies. Its giving philosophy centers on sustained, relationship-driven investment in underrepresented communities — primarily in the Omaha metro area — with a secondary footprint wherever Lozier Corporation operates.

The foundation operates on a predominantly invitation-based model. Organizations not already in relationship with Lozier should submit a formal Letter of Intent to foundationassistance@lozierfoundation.org before expecting an application. This is not a cold proposal process: program staff actively cultivates relationships through community immersion, and first-time grantees typically enter through prior connections with the Lozier family, referrals from existing grantees, or partnerships with anchor organizations like the Omaha Community Foundation.

The typical relationship arc runs: LOI submission → program officer engagement → GOapply platform invitation → rolling review with no hard deadline. There are no annual application windows for the foundation's core grantmaking; submissions are reviewed as received, which allows the foundation to move quickly for organizations with urgent needs and established trust.

First-time applicants should understand three structural realities. First, the foundation strongly favors organizations with deep community roots and documented local impact, particularly in North Omaha and South Omaha neighborhoods. Second, multi-year, multi-grant relationships are the norm — top grantees like the Women's Fund of Greater Omaha have received 8 grants totaling $1.87 million over multiple years. Third, the foundation funds across grant types within the same calendar year: a single organization can receive general operating support and a capital grant simultaneously, as demonstrated by Habitat for Humanity of Omaha ($1.9M across 11 grants combining operating and capital support).

The board is composed entirely of Lozier family members and close associates — Dianne Lozier, George Lozier, Sandra Lozier, Susan Lozier, Collette Lozier, and Ashley Kuhn serve as trustees — with Robert Braun Jr. as part-time Executive Director. Kwin Kunkle serves as the primary program contact for application logistics. Decisions reflect the family's personal knowledge of Omaha's civic landscape rather than formal RFP cycles, making organizational reputation and community credibility central to the evaluation process.

The Lozier Foundation's grantmaking has expanded dramatically over the past decade: from $14.4 million in total giving (FY2015) to $40.2 million (FY2023), representing nearly 3x growth. In the database of 1,046 confirmed grants totaling $104.3 million, the average grant is $99,682 — pulled upward by large anchor investments. The foundation's own disclosure puts the typical grant at a median of $25,000, with an average of $77,112 and a documented range of $500 to $1,450,609.

The Omaha Community Foundation is the single largest grantee by a substantial margin: 22 grants totaling $31.1 million, channeled through named sub-funds including the Lozier Community Grants Fund, Neighborhood Grants Program, Futuro Latino Fund, African American Unity Fund, and Refugee Funeral Fund. This reflects Lozier's strategic use of OCF as a community deployment vehicle. Removing OCF from the analysis reveals a more typical direct-grant profile centered on $50,000 to $500,000 investments in individual nonprofit organizations.

Annual giving trend: $21.5M (FY2019) → $23M (FY2020) → $28.4M (FY2021) → $26.2M (FY2022) → $40.2M (FY2023). FY2024 revenue of $31.3 million indicates continued investment income but FY2024 grants paid is not yet public. The FY2023 payout rate of approximately 8.8% ($40.2M on ~$458M average assets) significantly exceeds the standard 5% minimum distribution, reflecting active family engagement rather than passive endowment management.

By geography, Nebraska dominates: 908 of 1,046 grants (87%) go to Nebraska organizations. Iowa receives 31 grants (3%), Alabama 33 (3.2%), with smaller allocations to Indiana (11), Pennsylvania (11), Minnesota (10), and Missouri (10) — all mirroring Lozier Corporation facility locations.

Notable individual large grants include: University of Nebraska Foundation ($4.7M, 10 grants for biomedical research, early literacy, and teacher scholarships); Mental Health Innovation Foundation ($2M, 1 grant); Habitat for Humanity of Omaha ($1.9M, 11 grants); Women's Fund of Greater Omaha ($1.87M, 8 grants); Teachers College Columbia University ($1.8M, 3 grants funding the Baby's First Years early childhood research project). The Columbia Teachers College relationship is a notable outlier from the foundation's local emphasis, reflecting interest in evidence-based early childhood research with implications for Omaha schools.

The following table compares The Lozier Foundation to four asset-matched peers identified in the same Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category, all with assets in the $434–441 million range.

All five foundations share the invitation-only model common to family foundations at this asset scale. What distinguishes Lozier is its exceptional hyper-geographic concentration: while peers like the Walton and Marriott foundations fund nationally, approximately 87% of Lozier's grants remain anchored in Nebraska. Lozier also stands out for its payout rate — its FY2023 payout of approximately 8.8% far exceeds the sector's 5% minimum, making it among the most actively distributing foundations of comparable size. For grant seekers, this combination of concentrated geography and high payout creates significant opportunity for Omaha-area nonprofits — but effectively closes the door for organizations without a Nebraska or Lozier Corporation community nexus.

The most visible 2026 news involving the Lozier name is Lozier Corporation's January 9, 2026, announcement of plans to establish a Miller Park Trust for North Omaha — building on what local news describes as millions already invested in the park by the Lozier family. While the Trust is a corporate initiative distinct from the foundation, it reinforces the family's deepening place-based investment strategy for North Omaha, a strategy the foundation's grantmaking has tracked through investments in Habitat for Humanity, Holy Name Housing Corporation, Heart Ministry Center, and the Omaha Discovery Trust.

On governance, the most recent 990 filing notes that trustee John Heaston, listed as deceased 5/31/2024, represented the first board departure in several years. The board remains dominated by Lozier family members, with Collette Lozier receiving the only trustee compensation in recent filings ($29,772 in FY2022; $29,145 in FY2023).

Financially, FY2024 shows $437 million in assets and $31.3 million in revenue — a pullback from FY2023's $458 million assets and $50.6 million revenue, likely reflecting market normalization. FY2024 grants paid data is not yet public in 990 filings.

The $2 million single grant to the Mental Health Innovation Foundation stands as the most strategically significant recent programmatic signal — the largest single-organization award outside the traditional four pillars, indicating the foundation is willing to make bold, concentrated bets in emerging priority areas. The 2025 Community Grants program (corporate vehicle) ran its structured April–May cycle and will reopen Spring 2026.

Because Lozier is invitation-based, the Letter of Intent is the single most consequential document you will write. It determines whether you receive an application invitation at all. Keep the LOI to one to two pages, lead with the specific community served (North Omaha, South Omaha, or a named Lozier Corporation facility community), demonstrate quantified impact on underrepresented populations, and explicitly name which of the four pillars — Education, Women & Girls, North Omaha Initiatives, or Human Services — your work maps to. Do not submit a generic organizational overview.

Optimal timing: submit your LOI in January through March if targeting a spring funding decision. The foundation reviews on a rolling basis, but program staff naturally cluster outreach cycles. Avoid December and late summer. If applying through the corporate Community Grants program (smaller asks, facility communities), note its annual April–May window.

What they look for in proposals: documented impact on Black, Latino, and immigrant communities; organizational financial stability (general operating support means they are betting on the institution); multi-year sustainability plans; authentic community relationships rather than top-down service delivery. The grantee list confirms Lozier funds civil legal aid ($550K to ACLU of Nebraska), immigrant services ($935K to Immigrant Legal Center, $975K to Justice for Our Neighbors), and civic engagement ($775K to Nebraska Civic Engagement Table) — this foundation is explicitly comfortable with advocacy and systems-change work.

Common mistakes: framing your work as regional or national without anchoring it to Omaha specifically; leading with a project grant before establishing a general operating relationship; submitting without prior contact; using generic grant-writing language that does not mirror Lozier's published priority terminology.

Alignment language to use: 'underrepresented communities,' 'inner city,' 'North Omaha,' 'economic mobility,' 'women and girls,' 'systemic change,' 'early childhood,' 'education access,' 'human services.' Once invited to GOapply, download the guide specific to your grant type (general operating, program, capital, or education) and prepare the Major Donor Data Sheet — a required document listing your major funders used to assess financial health and funder diversification. Treat it as carefully as your budget narrative. Contact Kwin Kunkle at kwin.kunkle@lozierfoundation.org for any GOapply access issues.