The Miles Foundation Inc.

The Miles Foundation Inc. is a Fort Worth-based private foundation established in 1997 to honor the legacy of oil and gas entrepreneur Ellison Miles. Now guided by CEO Grant Coates — whose family has stewarded the foundation since its founding through decades-long ties to Miles Production Company — the foundation operates with a tight-knit, relationship-first grantmaking philosophy. A critical first fact: all grants are awarded on a strictly invitation-only basis. Unsolicited proposals are explicitly not accepted; the foundation states on its website that it regrets being unable to consider them.

The foundation's philosophical north star is ensuring every child has the foundation to lead a "healthy, hopeful, and productive life." In practice, this maps to five funding areas: early childhood education, third-grade literacy, family engagement, leadership development, and character development. Implementation runs through a combination of direct grants to Fort Worth-area nonprofits, contributions to the Miles Foundation Community Fund at North Texas Community Foundation (the single largest cumulative grantee at $4.13M across 25 grants), and ecosystem investments in national policy organizations including Stand Together and the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Grantee relationships are long-term by design. The top 20 grantees in the IRS filing data received an average of 3.6 grants each; anchor partners like Child Care Associates (6 grants), North Texas Community Foundation (25 grants), and Star Sponsorship Program (6 grants) reflect a preference for deepening existing partnerships over constantly expanding the portfolio. New entrants are typically already embedded in Fort Worth's education reform community or connected through national school choice networks.

For first-time applicants, the path in runs through ecosystem relationships rather than cold outreach. Seek introductions via North Texas Community Foundation, Texas charter school advocacy groups, or national networks like the Philanthropy Roundtable and Stand Together. Personal introductions to CEO Grant Coates (CEO since 2011, MBA from TCU) or Chief Philanthropy Officer Sara Redington (Vanderbilt communications background, founder of Redington Solutions) carry significant weight. The board is deliberately small — Grant Coates, Sherry Wilson, and Jack Burdett, all members since 1997 — ensuring grantmaking decisions remain highly personal and relationship-mediated. Once an invitation arrives, be prepared for a process that prizes quantifiable outcomes, strategic clarity, and deep Tarrant County rootedness.

The Miles Foundation has maintained consistent annual grantmaking across more than a decade, with direct grants paid ranging from $1.99M (2020) to $2.71M (2019) and stabilizing in a $2.28M-$2.48M band from 2021-2023. Total giving figures — which include contributions to donor-advised fund vehicles at North Texas Community Foundation and DonorsTrust — run roughly double: $4.80M-$4.88M annually in 2021-2023, with a notable spike to $11.23M in 2019 that likely reflects a large DAF transfer. The 2024 fiscal year shows $65.9M in total assets with $3.27M in total revenue, though full giving data was not yet reported at the time of this analysis.

Assets have grown steadily from $27.2M (2012) to $65.9M (2024), driven by strong investment income — net investment income reached $8.19M in 2021 and $6.09M in 2023. The foundation draws approximately 4-5% of assets annually for total giving, a conservative payout rate consistent with a perpetuity-oriented private foundation.

Grant sizes in the cumulative IRS dataset span $5,000 to $565,101, with a median of $25,000 and a portfolio average of approximately $54,856. The distribution is heavily skewed upward: a handful of anchor relationships absorb large multi-year commitments (Great Hearts Texas: $500,000 across five grants; Texas Public Policy Foundation: $501,215 across four grants), while the majority of community-scale grants fall in the $25,000-$100,000 range.

By program focus, the portfolio breaks into three tiers:

• School choice and education reform: Approximately 55-60% of identified direct program spending, covering Stand Together ($675,000 combined), Texas Public Policy Foundation ($501,215), Great Hearts Texas ($500,000), Lincoln Network ($350,000), Basis Texas Charter Schools ($300,000+), and Families Empowered ($245,000).
• Early childhood education and family support: Approximately 20-25%, including Child Care Associates ($450,000), Lena Pope Home ($230,000), Camp Fire First Texas ($132,500), Avance ($83,500), First3years ($71,862), and Center for Transforming Lives ($75,000).
• Literacy, workforce pipeline, and leadership: Remaining 15-20%, including Reading Partners ($95,000), Teneo Network ($220,000), Tarrant To and Through Partnership ($75,000), and First Tee of Fort Worth ($142,500).

Geographically, Texas claims 81.7% of all grants (210 of 257 total), with Virginia a distant second at 5.4% (14 grants), reflecting national policy network relationships rather than a genuine geographic expansion strategy.

The Miles Foundation sits in a cohort of similarly sized Philanthropy & Grantmaking foundations, all clustered in the $65.8M-$66.1M asset range. What distinguishes it is a hyper-local Texas geography combined with a nationally networked school choice and market-based education ideology — an unusual combination at this asset scale.

What sets The Miles Foundation apart from most peer foundations at this asset level is operational sophistication: a paid professional staff of five, a CEO compensated at $292,750 annually (2023), and a Chief Philanthropy Officer with a Vanderbilt communications background — resources typically seen at foundations two to three times this size. Peer foundations in this asset tier commonly operate with minimal staff and broader, less ideologically defined portfolios. The Steele Foundation in Arizona (steelefoundation.org) is the only peer with a publicly visible website suggesting open applications; the others, like Miles Foundation, appear largely invitation-driven. For grant seekers, Miles Foundation's five-person team and clearly articulated theory of change signal a more strategic, metrics-oriented culture — which means proposals must speak the language of outcomes, not just activities.

The Miles Foundation entered 2025 with clear momentum in education policy and community health. On August 22, 2025, the foundation published "A Letter to Our Stakeholders: Building the Future of Education in Texas," signaling sustained engagement with Texas education reform following state ESA legislation. Two days earlier, on August 20, the foundation publicized results from a Tarrant County Maternal and Infant Health Coalition pilot it supports, which achieved a 91% closed-loop referral rate for local mothers — an early indicator of a widening focus beyond K-12.

A September 5, 2025 feature in 360West Magazine profiled CEO Grant Coates and the foundation's education choice expansion in Fort Worth, last updated April 2, 2026. The foundation also released its 2025 Annual Report, continuing an unbroken annual transparency practice dating to 2013.

In October 2024, the ParentPass app — a co-designed family resource platform — celebrated its two-year anniversary. In December 2023, Vela-supported education entrepreneurs participated in the Texas 88th Legislative Session, reinforcing the foundation's dual role as direct-service funder and policy ecosystem builder. In June 2023, the foundation publicly announced two new staff hires, signaling organizational investment at the staff level.

Leadership is highly stable: Grant Coates has served as CEO since 2011, Sherry Wilson and Jack Burdett have been board members since the 1997 founding, and Sara Redington serves as Chief Philanthropy Officer. No major leadership transitions have been announced. The foundation published quarterly newsletters from 2016 through 2025, providing consistent stakeholder communication.

Because The Miles Foundation operates exclusively through invited proposals, the most important tip is also the first: never submit an unsolicited proposal. The foundation's website explicitly states it cannot consider them, and cold submissions risk damaging the relationship before it begins.

How to get invited: Immerse your organization in the Fort Worth and Tarrant County education ecosystem. North Texas Community Foundation — the foundation's largest single grantee vehicle with $4.13M in cumulative grants — is a natural first bridge; establishing a fund or partnership there and participating in North Texas Giving Day signals genuine community rootedness. Engagement with Texas Public Policy Foundation convenings, Philanthropy Roundtable conferences, or Stand Together network events places you in rooms where Miles Foundation leadership participates. A warm introduction from an existing grantee (Child Care Associates, Great Hearts Texas, Families Empowered, or First Tee of Fort Worth) carries significant weight with the small, three-member board.

Alignment language to use: Frame proposals around the foundation's vision: "healthy, hopeful, and productive" child outcomes; "early childhood to career" continuity; "school choice and education freedom"; "outcome-based metrics." Avoid progressive or government-expansion framing. The foundation's grantee list signals ideological alignment: school choice advocates, market-based reform organizations, and character-development programs are the core.

What they fund vs. what they don't: Funded: early childhood education (birth to pre-K), third-grade literacy, family engagement, school choice infrastructure, and leadership development. Not funded: individuals, capital campaigns, international organizations, political organizations.

Optimal timing: No public grant cycle or deadline exists. The invitation process is relationship-driven. Connect at fall convenings (September-October) to position for early-year review; the foundation's news cadence suggests active periods in late summer and fall.

Common mistakes to avoid: Submitting cold proposals; failing to quantify outcomes with specific metrics; emphasizing organizational longevity over measurable community impact; proposing work outside Fort Worth and Texas without a compelling local rationale.