The Taylor Foundation

The Taylor Foundation is a family-controlled private grantmaking foundation established in May 2012 by Glen A. Taylor — the North Mankato, MN billionaire behind Taylor Corporation (one of North America's largest printing companies) and former majority owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. The foundation operates from a deeply personal, relationship-driven philanthropic philosophy that prizes long-term partnerships with southern Minnesota community anchors over transactional grant cycles or national intermediary organizations.

Decision-making rests entirely with an eight-member family grant committee: Glen A. Taylor and Larry D. Taylor as founding directors, joined in November 2023 by Rebecca L. Taylor, Megan Mulvihill, Therese A. Taylor, Robert D. Nelson, Nancy Zallek, and David Krause. All committee members serve without compensation. There are no program officers, no external staff, and no formal RFP process — this means grant decisions flow through personal credibility, organizational reputation, and demonstrated local impact rather than compliance with a scoring rubric.

The foundation's grantee history reveals a clear preference for sustained partnerships: Feeding Our Communities Partners received 3 separate grants totaling $30,000 across multiple award cycles, while the Mankato Area Foundation received $10,000 for its Community Youth Fund. Both are established southern Minnesota institutions with deep community roots. First-time applicants should study these relationships carefully — the Taylor committee rewards consistency and community credibility over novel programming or national affiliations.

The application threshold is intentionally low: a letter to the Foundation Grant Committee describing the nature of the request, mailed to 1725 Roe Crest Dr, North Mankato, MN 56003. There is no LOI stage, no site visit requirement in the published process, and no online portal. The foundation is listed as actively accepting applications on a rolling basis.

With the 2023 fiscal year showing a $10 million contribution influx and the IRS profile now reflecting assets of approximately $67 million, The Taylor Foundation is clearly entering a new philanthropic era. Grant seekers who establish relationships now — before formal grant programs are announced — are positioned to benefit from the foundation's anticipated scaling of its direct grantmaking well beyond the historic $10,000 per-award threshold.

The Taylor Foundation's historical grantmaking has been modest but remarkably consistent, with annual grants paid holding at exactly $10,000 from fiscal years 2019 through 2023. The smallest documented grant on record is $1,000 in fiscal year 2013 — the foundation's second year of active grantmaking. Awards stabilized at $5,000 per recipient in 2014 and 2015, then stepped up to $10,000 by 2019, where they have remained through the most recent 990 filing.

Total giving (which the IRS calculates to include grant payments and certain investment-related expenses) has ranged from $11,395 in 2020 to $15,774 in 2023. Prior to the 2023 inflection point, total assets ranged from a low of $100,003 at founding (2012) to a peak of $225,416 in 2021, sustained by investment income averaging $10,000–$12,000 per year. The foundation ran lean by design — a two-person committee making one or two $10,000 grants annually from a modest asset base.

Fiscal year 2023 represents a structural break: $10,000,000 in contributions received in a single year, net investment income surging to $2,027,808, and total assets reaching $8,905,229. The foundation's IRS profile lists a current asset figure of $67,023,652 — a figure not yet reflected in the available 990 financials, indicating significant additional asset transfers since the 2023 return was filed. This trajectory is consistent with Glen Taylor's parallel philanthropy through the Taylor Family Farms Foundation, capitalized at $172 million in December 2023 with an additional $100 million added in January 2026.

Geographically, 100% of documented grants flow to Minnesota, concentrated in the Mankato/southern Minnesota corridor. By program area, food security (Feeding Our Communities Partners: $30,000 total, Operations) and youth/community development (Mankato Area Foundation: $10,000, Community Youth Fund) account for all confirmed giving. The sister Taylor Family Farms Foundation distributes grants up to $30,000 through partner foundations, providing a useful near-term benchmark for what The Taylor Foundation may offer as direct grants scale. Organizations with annual budgets under $3 million and concentrated community impact in southern Minnesota are best positioned to capture these emerging grant dollars.

The Taylor Foundation occupies a mid-tier asset position among private grantmaking foundations, with a reported asset base of approximately $67 million. The table below compares it to IRS-identified peer foundations of similar asset scale:

The Taylor Foundation differs from its asset peers in two critical ways. First, its historic annual giving ($10,000) has been far below the payout norms for a foundation of its emerging asset size — peer foundations at the $67 million range typically distribute $3–5 million annually at a standard 5% payout rate. This gap between assets and giving signals that The Taylor Foundation is in an active build-and-scale phase, not a steady-state distribution operation. Second, it is the only foundation in its peer cohort with a documented accessible application process — the letter-to-committee model is far more approachable than the invitation-only structures at Della Pietra and Beveridge. Grant seekers who would be locked out of those foundations can engage The Taylor Foundation directly today.

The defining recent development in the Taylor philanthropic ecosystem is Glen Taylor's January 7, 2026 announcement of a $100 million additional gift — in farmland and securities — to the Taylor Family Farms Foundation (TFFF). This gift, confirmed by both the Mankato Free Press and the Mankato Area Foundation's own announcement, brings Taylor's total philanthropic commitment to approximately $272 million across the two foundations. TFFF's income model is designed for perpetuity: annual rent payments from working farmers, rather than land liquidation, generate continuous grant capacity across a 20-county southern Minnesota and 17-county northwest Iowa service area.

In fiscal year 2023, The Taylor Foundation itself received a $10 million contribution — a watershed influx that sent net investment income to $2,027,808 and total assets to $8,905,229. This capital injection coincided with Glen Taylor expanding the Foundation's Grant Committee in November 2023 from its original 2 members to 8, adding Rebecca L. Taylor, Megan Mulvihill, Therese A. Taylor, Robert D. Nelson, Nancy Zallek, and David Krause.

Downstream from The Taylor Foundation's direct grants, the Mankato Area Foundation — a documented Taylor Foundation grantee — has distributed TFFF proceeds including a $200,000 grant to the ECHO Food Shelf for a walk-in freezer and $100,000 to Region Nine Development Commission for a food rescue coordinator who recovered over 100,000 pounds of food valued at approximately $200,000 within ten months of hire. These downstream grants provide the clearest window into the programmatic priorities that The Taylor Foundation's own expanded direct grantmaking is likely to pursue through 2026 and beyond.

The Taylor Foundation's application process is deliberately minimalist: a letter to the Foundation Grant Committee describing the nature of the request. There is no online portal, no prescribed length, no LOI stage, and no published deadline. This simplicity is not an oversight — it reflects a family committee that values direct communication and organizational character over bureaucratic compliance.

Align with documented program areas. Every confirmed grant has targeted food security (Feeding Our Communities Partners, Operations funding) or youth and community development (Mankato Area Foundation, Community Youth Fund). Proposals framing community food access, rural child welfare, or southern Minnesota quality-of-life improvements carry the clearest alignment. Emerging priorities from the broader Taylor ecosystem include rural emergency services, childcare availability, parks and recreation accessibility, and healthcare access in small towns.

Anchor your letter in local geography. The foundation has funded exclusively Minnesota-based organizations, all in the Mankato/southern Minnesota corridor. Explicitly situate your organization's work in this geography — city name, county, and service population. Out-of-region applicants face significant disadvantages regardless of mission alignment.

Make the ask specific and dollar-concrete. Without a form to guide structure, your letter must state clearly: the grant amount requested (historically $5,000–$10,000, though larger requests are appropriate given the foundation's expanded asset base), the specific use of funds (Operations and program support are both acceptable), and the measurable community outcome expected. Avoid abstract impact language; the committee responds to tangible local results.

Request general operating support if appropriate. Feeding Our Communities Partners received grants earmarked for Operations — not restricted project funding. This is unusual among private foundations and represents a genuine opening for organizations that need unrestricted capacity support.

Leverage network proximity. If your organization has a formal or informal relationship with the Mankato Area Foundation, Feeding Our Communities Partners, or the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, reference it explicitly. These three organizations sit at the center of the Taylor philanthropic network and serve as natural validators.

Initiate by phone. The foundation's listed contact number is (507) 625-2828. A brief call before submitting your letter — to confirm current priorities and the preferred submission format — is appropriate given the informal process structure and signals organizational professionalism to the committee.