Thomas R Schilli Foundation

The Thomas R. Schilli Foundation (TRSF) is a small, tightly held family foundation established in 2021 as the legacy vehicle of Thomas R. Schilli, a St. Louis-born transportation entrepreneur and 1964 graduate of St. Louis University High School (SLUH). It is run by Executive Director and Board President Jay Hammond, Ph.D. — the founder's nephew — with no other paid staff and zero officer compensation reported in any filing year (2021-2023). This is a personally-run, values-driven vehicle, not an institutionalized program office, and it should be approached that way: relationship and mission alignment carry far more weight than a polished cold application.

Every documented grant to date has gone to Jesuit-affiliated institutions in the St. Louis area — SLUH and Saint Louis University (SLU) account for effectively all traceable giving, with SLU receiving $1,457,495 across 3 grants and the University of Missouri receiving a single, much smaller $7,500 grant. The foundation's stated mission is explicit and narrow: support local Jesuit schools and their partners providing 'collaborative, integrated, and coordinated educational opportunities for underserved children' in St. Louis, guided by the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences. The IRS record confirms this narrowness, listing application restrictions as 'EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES FOR MARGINALIZED STUDENTS.'

First-time applicants should recognize two hard filters before investing time: geography (St. Louis-area Jesuit institutions and their direct partners) and mission (education for underserved/marginalized youth, informed by Ignatian spirituality). Organizations outside this footprint — even strong education nonprofits elsewhere — are very unlikely to be competitive. Within the footprint, the relationship progression appears informal: initial outreach to info@thomasrschillifoundation.org, likely followed by a direct conversation with Jay Hammond, then a named, project-specific ask (a capital renovation, a named program or center, a competition or fellowship) rather than general operating support. The IRS lists an application deadline of February 28 and marks the foundation as currently accepting applications, but the foundation's own website provides no formal LOI template, portal, or published criteria — treat February 28 as the operative planning deadline, but lead with a personal introduction well before then.

TRSF's giving is small in grant count but concentrated and sizable per grant. Across the only grantee data captured (4 grants totaling $1,464,995), the average grant size is $366,249 — but the range is stark: from $7,500 (University of Missouri) up to a single $1.3 million-class commitment referenced on the foundation's own site (Center for Ignatian Service at SLU) and a separately reported $500,000 capital gift to SLUH's chapel/ministry-center campaign. In other words, this is a foundation that makes very few, very large, project-anchored grants rather than a broad portfolio of smaller awards.

Total giving has grown unevenly year over year: $200,085 in 2021 (the foundation's first full year), $244,946 in 2022, and $1,104,371 in 2023 — a roughly 4.5x jump. Total assets have stayed essentially flat around $12.7-12.8M across 2022-2024 ($11.7M in 2022, $12.8M in 2023, $12.77M in 2024), meaning the 2023 payout represents roughly 8.6% of assets, well above the 5% minimum distribution requirement for private foundations. Net investment income ($489,791 in 2023; $644,976 in 2022) suggests the endowment is actively managed and generating enough return to fund this payout pace without eroding principal.

By recipient type, 100% of traceable grant dollars in the DB sample went to higher-education institutions (SLU, University of Missouri) rather than K-12 schools directly, even though the foundation's public narrative emphasizes 'children' and K-12 partners like SLUH. This suggests the foundation channels K-12-facing dollars (like the SLUH chapel gift) through relationships not fully captured in the grantee database, while its largest and most recent big-ticket commitments (Center for Ignatian Service, Ignatian Minor) flow to SLU as an intermediary/partner institution. Geographically, giving is 100% concentrated in Missouri (St. Louis), consistent with the 'local Jesuit schools' mission — there is no evidence of giving outside the St. Louis metro.

TRSF sits in a cluster of similarly-sized private foundations (all near $12.7-12.8M in assets) drawn from the Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category, but its geographic and mission focus is far narrower than most of this peer set:

Asset size alone makes TRSF a near-identical peer to these five foundations, but it stands out for having a publicly documented, single-issue mission (Jesuit K-16 education in one metro area) and a live, IRS-listed application deadline, where most of the listed peers show no discoverable website, mission statement, or application process at all. Of the peer group, only William C Bullitt Foundation has a public website, and TRSF is otherwise the most transparent and most narrowly targeted funder in this cohort — a real advantage for aligned applicants (clarity of fit) but a hard wall for anyone outside St. Louis Jesuit education.

The clearest dated news is from February 23, 2022: TRSF gave $500,000 to SLUH's 'Go Forth' capital campaign to renovate the school's chapel and create the David J. and Kelly E. Laughlin Campus Ministry Center — one of the foundation's earliest major gifts after its 2021 founding. The foundation's own website (undated) describes two further initiatives that appear more recent: a roughly $1.3 million grant to Saint Louis University's Center for Ignatian Service to expand service-learning, which also helped launch SLU's Ignatian Minor academic program, and support for the Clavius Project Jamboree, a STEM competition for students at partner schools.

No web search surfaced any 2025 or 2026-dated press coverage, award announcements, or leadership changes for the foundation — Jay Hammond, Ph.D. (the founder's nephew) remains the sole named director/Executive Director in both the IRS filing data and the SLUH article. The foundation's financial trajectory is the best available proxy for recent momentum: total giving rose sharply from $244,946 in fiscal 2022 to $1,104,371 in fiscal 2023, and total assets have held steady near $12.77M through fiscal 2024, indicating a foundation still in its early, ramping-up phase (only 3 full fiscal years of grantmaking on record: 2021-2023) rather than a mature, steady-state grantor. No public statement addresses funding plans for 2025 or 2026; applicants should not assume continuity of priorities without direct confirmation from Jay Hammond's office.

TRSF publishes no formal application portal, LOI template, or published funding priorities document — the strongest signal of fit comes from pattern-matching the foundation's actual grants, not from a stated RFP. Concretely: (1) Confirm your organization is a Jesuit school, Jesuit-affiliated university, or a direct 'partner' of one in the greater St. Louis metro area — every traceable grant fits this profile, and the IRS restriction field explicitly limits funding to 'educational purposes for marginalized students.' Organizations outside St. Louis or outside the Jesuit network should not apply. (2) Anchor your ask to a single, nameable project rather than general operating support — past grants funded a named campus-ministry center, a named academic center's service-learning expansion, a named academic minor's launch, and a named STEM competition. A generic 'help fund our programs' request is a weaker fit than 'help us launch/renovate/expand [specific named thing].' (3) Because the foundation is run by one executive director with a personal family connection to the founder (Jay Hammond, Ph.D., nephew of Tom Schilli), a warm introduction through SLUH, SLU, or another regional Jesuit institution will carry more weight than an unsolicited written proposal — lead with a phone call or introduction, not a cold email packet. (4) The IRS record lists an application deadline of February 28 annually and marks the foundation as currently accepting applications — treat this as the hard planning deadline for any given fiscal year's request, but begin relationship-building at least 2-3 months earlier given the informal, conversation-driven process. (5) Frame language around Ignatian spirituality and the Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences explicitly — the foundation's own materials repeatedly invoke this framework ('intellectual and spiritual gifts of an Ignatian-informed education'), and proposals that speak this language directly are more likely to resonate than generic education-equity framing. (6) A common mistake to avoid: pitching K-12 direct-service programs without an institutional Jesuit-school partner attached, or requesting funding for populations/geographies outside St. Louis — both fall outside every documented grant to date. (7) Given zero reported officer compensation and no visible program staff, expect a slower, more personal review process rather than a committee-driven cycle with published timelines — plan for direct follow-up rather than assuming automated status updates.