Tully Family Foundation

Tully Family Foundation is a small, closely-held Chicago family foundation run entirely by two unpaid officers — Thomas M Tully (President) and Ellen Danaher Tully (Secretary) — with no paid staff, per the foundation's own filings. It is explicitly preselected/invitation-only: our database flags `preselected_only: true`, `application_instructions` as none, and no public application form or deadline exists. Independent aggregators (Instrumentl, Impala, Cause IQ) corroborate that unsolicited proposals are not accepted. Note: the website on file (tullyfamily.org) currently resolves to an unrelated organization, the Tully Rinckey Foundation, a veterans-focused nonprofit in Albany, NY — this appears to be a data-matching error, and grant seekers should not rely on that site for Tully Family Foundation guidance. The foundation's real giving pattern, drawn from 133 recorded grants totaling $1.38M, shows a tight, loyalty-based portfolio: the large majority of top recipients (John Carroll University, Northwestern University, St Ignatius College Prep, Mother McAuley High School, DePaul College Prep, Catholic Charities, and others) received grant_count of exactly 2, indicating repeat, multi-year support to a stable roster rather than one-off gifts to new organizations. This is a relationship-first funder: 89 of 133 grants (67%) went to Illinois organizations, concentrated in Chicago Catholic education (grade school through university), Irish-American cultural/heritage groups, Catholic parishes and charities, and a handful of marquee medical institutions (Eisenhower Health, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Lurie Children's Hospital). First-time, unconnected applicants have a low probability of breaking in cold. The realistic path is a warm introduction through one of the foundation's existing grantee institutions, a shared board or parish connection, or membership in the Irish-American philanthropic network (e.g., Ireland Funds of America, Irish American Heritage Center) that recurs throughout its grant history — Ellen Danaher Tully's surname suggests a personal Irish heritage connection driving several of these gifts, including direct support to named national schools in Ireland.

Per the foundation's own 990 data, the most recent typical grant size profile is: median $5,000, average $9,531, ranging from $200 to $104,742 across 74 grants. Our multi-year grantee aggregate (133 grants, $1.38M total, avg $10,374) tells a similar story but with several outsized institutional gifts pulling the average up. Annual grants paid have been remarkably stable: $548,209 (2019), $691,920 (2020), $705,302 (2021), $673,200 (2022), and $706,500 (2023) — a tight $548K-$706K band with no year-over-year volatility exceeding ~25%. Total assets peaked at $10.18M in 2021 (boosted by $1.52M in net investment income that year) and have since declined to $8.29M in 2024 as investment income normalized ($157,617 total revenue in 2024 vs. $1.6M+ in 2021). By program area, using the top-50 grantee list as a proxy: education is dominant, led by John Carroll University ($200,000 across 2 grants), Northwestern University ($50,000), Evans Scholars Foundation ($40,000), and a cluster of Chicago Catholic schools (St Ignatius College Prep $30,600, Providence St Mel $25,000, DePaul College Prep, Mother McAuley, Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, and Marine Corps Scholarship Fund each at $20,000) — roughly 45-50% of top-50 dollars. Health/medical follows at an estimated 20-25%, anchored by Eisenhower Health Foundation ($100,000) and Shirley Ryan Ability Lab ($100,000), plus Lurie Children's Hospital ($40,000) and Mayo Clinic ($20,000). Religious and Catholic-institution giving (Church of the Holy Family $50,000, Catholic Charities $20,000, Catholic Church Extension Society $20,000, Old St Patrick's Church $17,000, Immaculate Conception $10,000) accounts for roughly 15%. A distinct Irish-American heritage niche — Ireland Funds of America ($30,000), Irish American Heritage Center ($10,000), Irish Fellowship Club Educational Fund ($11,750), plus several named national schools in Ireland at $20,000 each — makes up much of the remainder. Geographically, Illinois captures 89 of 133 recorded grants (67%), with Wisconsin (8), California (6), New York (4), Massachusetts (3), and Florida/Minnesota/Ohio/Tennessee/Virginia (2 each) rounding out the map.

All five peers sit within roughly $10,000 of Tully's $8.29M asset base and share the same broad IRS NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking), but our data bundle does not include their grant-level detail, so a direct giving-pattern comparison isn't possible from this dataset alone. What differentiates Tully within this peer set is specificity: rather than a generic grantmaking mandate, its 133-grant history shows a concentrated, identity-driven program (Chicago Catholic institutions, Irish-American heritage, and a short list of major medical centers) typical of small single-family foundations where the founders' personal and cultural affiliations — not a formal RFP process — determine the grantee roster.

The most recent primary filing (Form 990-PF) was submitted November 20, 2025, covering fiscal year 2024, reporting $8,292,480 in total assets and $157,617 in total revenue — a sharp drop from the $1.64M in total revenue reported for 2021, driven almost entirely by the swing in net investment income ($1.52M in 2021 vs. effectively flat in 2024). No leadership changes are evident: Thomas M Tully (President) and Ellen Danaher Tully (Secretary) appear as the sole officers across every year represented in our records, both drawing $0 in compensation, consistent with a hands-on family-run operation rather than a staffed institution. Independent 990 aggregators (Instrumentl, Impala, Cause IQ) report FY2024 distributions in the $560K-$706K range to roughly 70-74 grantees, in line with the foundation's historical $548K-$706K annual giving band going back to 2019. We found no announcements of new grant programs, strategic plans, or public-facing initiatives — the foundation maintains no active social media presence and no dedicated grants portal. One data-quality note worth flagging to any grant seeker: the website URL on file (tullyfamily.org) now resolves to the Tully Rinckey Foundation, an unrelated veterans-services nonprofit based in Albany, NY, with no apparent connection to this Chicago-based family foundation (EIN 36-4156972). Grant seekers should disregard that site and instead rely on IRS Form 990-PF filings (via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) and the foundation's registered address — 222 N LaSalle Street, Suite 1925, Chicago, IL 60601 — for verification.

This is not a cold-application funder, and grant seekers should calibrate effort accordingly. The foundation's own filings list no application form URL, no stated deadline, and no funding cycle, and `accepting_applications` in our data reflects general preselected grantmaking rather than an open call. Multiple independent sources confirm unsolicited proposals are not reviewed. Practical guidance: (1) Do not lead with a large ask — the median individual grant is $5,000 and the average is $9,531; six-figure gifts (John Carroll University at $200,000 combined, Eisenhower Health and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab at $100,000 each) go only to a small number of long-standing institutional partners, not new applicants. (2) Align explicitly with one of the three demonstrated pillars — Chicago Catholic education (grade school through university), health/rehabilitation research, or Irish-American heritage and cultural preservation — since virtually every top-50 grantee falls into one of these buckets. (3) Seek a warm introduction rather than a mailed LOI: the recurring grant_count of 2 across nearly every major recipient suggests the foundation renews relationships with organizations it already trusts, so an existing grantee, shared parish, or Irish-American cultural network connection (Ireland Funds of America, Irish American Heritage Center, Irish Fellowship Club) is a more realistic entry point than a direct approach. (4) If a direct approach is attempted, address it to the registered office (222 N LaSalle St, Suite 1925, Chicago, IL 60601, phone 312-917-8700) and reference Thomas M Tully or Ellen Danaher Tully by name, since they personally review and approve grants with no program staff intermediary. (5) A common mistake would be treating this as an open RFP funder or submitting a large capital-campaign ask as a first request — both run counter to the observed pattern of modest, incremental, relationship-based giving.