Vann Family Foundation Inc.

The Vann Family Foundation operates as a classic single-family, volunteer-governed private foundation: zero officer compensation across every filing year in the dataset (2011-2023), a board drawn entirely from the Vann family and two longtime associates (James M. Vann and Majorie Lee Vann as co-chairs, James Vann III as secretary, Sherry S. Connolly as president/treasurer, plus directors Debbie Gilreath and Stephanie Moen), and no program staff, RFP process, or online portal. Grantseekers should understand this is not a competitive grants program in the conventional sense — it is primarily a vehicle for the personal philanthropy of Jim and the late Lee Vann (former leadership of Fort Wayne's Rea Magnet Wire Company), supplemented by a modest tier of recurring commitments to causes with a direct personal or civic tie.

Of the $3,910,479 in grants tracked across 44 disbursements, 95.5% ($3,735,000) went to just two relationships: Mayo Clinic (cardiovascular patient care/research/education, $1,875,000 across 4 grants) and a donor-advised fund at The Foundation For The Carolinas bearing the Vanns' own names ($1,860,000 across 4 grants) — money then redirected by the family through a separate vehicle invisible to outside applicants. Everything else, roughly $175,000 spread across 36+ smaller grants, went to organizations with clear Fort Wayne/Indiana civic ties (University of St Francis, Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, City of Fort Wayne Parks & Recreation), Vann-family-adjacent causes (Vera Bradley Foundation For Breast Cancer, headquartered in Fort Wayne), or recurring small commitments (Wreaths Across America, Ronald McDonald House chapters, Clemson University Foundation).

First-time applicants without a Fort Wayne/Allen County connection or an introduction through the Vann family or Rea Magnet Wire network should expect long odds and, if funded, a modest award in the $1,000-$10,000 range. The strongest path in is a specific, local, health- or education-related request submitted as a short letter — not a formal proposal — ahead of the September 1 deadline, ideally referencing a cause (cardiovascular health, breast cancer research, veterans, Fort Wayne trails/parks) the family has already shown it cares about personally, or an existing relationship with a board member.

Total assets stand at $12,570,173 per the foundation's most recent IRS filing, independently corroborated by CauseIQ at $12,625,918 — up from $9,822,924 at the close of FY2023 and just $3,609,672 in FY2011, roughly 3.5x growth over twelve years. Annual grants paid have grown even faster: from $194,500 (2011) to a steady climb reaching $1,301,159 in FY2023, a 6.7x increase, with total giving (grants plus related charitable disbursements) at $1,399,929 that year. FY2023 was an outlier on the revenue side too: $5,150,138 in contributions received (versus $0 in three of the prior four years) alongside $585,179 in net investment income, pushing total revenue to $5,819,956. That capital injection likely helped fund the family's subsequent $5 million pledge to Fort Wayne's Pufferbelly Trail bridge, announced July 2024 and not yet reflected in this dataset's financial history.

Grant size is sharply bimodal. Two anchor recipients — Mayo Clinic ($1,875,000/4 grants) and The Foundation For The Carolinas' 'Lee and Jim Vann Donor Advised Fund' ($1,860,000/4 grants) — account for 95.5% of tracked giving, pulling the average grant to $88,875, a figure almost entirely driven by these two relationships. Strip those out and the remaining ~$175,000 spans organizations like Samaritan's Purse ($60,000/3 grants, disaster relief), University of St Francis ($25,000/5 grants), Vera Bradley Foundation and Vera Bradley Foundation For Breast Cancer (a combined $40,000 for general support and cancer research), and a long tail of $2,000-$10,000 gifts to veterans groups, schools, and Fort Wayne civic organizations — a median closer to $3,000-$8,750 for non-anchor recipients. Independent web sources (Grantmakers.io, CauseIQ) corroborate this pattern, citing 11 grants in the most recent tax year ranging roughly $680-$1,095,000 with a median around $2,500.

Geographically, Indiana dominates by count (17 of 44 tracked grants, 39%), followed by North Carolina (7, largely the donor-advised fund), Illinois (5), Maine (5), Minnesota (4, Mayo Clinic), Colorado (3), and South Carolina (3).

These six foundations were matched purely on asset size — all cluster within roughly $4,600 of one another ($12,570,173-$12,574,726) — rather than on programmatic overlap, so this peer set reveals shared balance-sheet scale more than shared mission; none of the five peers publish website or giving detail in this dataset, itself a sign that sub-$15M family/corporate foundations of this type frequently operate with minimal public footprint. What Vann's own filings do reveal, and what is typical of this asset tier, is a volunteer-run structure with zero officer compensation and no program staff. Foundations this size (roughly $9-13M in assets) typically distribute close to the IRS-mandated 5% minimum payout — Vann's $1,301,159 in FY2023 grants against $9,822,924 in FY2023 assets works out to about 13.2%, well above the floor, reflecting the unusual $5,150,138 capital infusion that year — and payout tends to concentrate in a handful of anchor relationships rather than a broad open call, a pattern grantseekers should expect from peers of similar scale even absent direct data on their specific giving.

The dominant recent story is the Vann Family Foundation's $5 million pledge, announced July 18, 2024, toward an approximately $11 million pedestrian bridge carrying Fort Wayne's Pufferbelly Trail over Coliseum Boulevard. Jim Vann — former chairperson of Rea Magnet Wire Company — made the gift in memory of his late wife, Lee Vann, citing her love of the city's trail system, in remarks alongside Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker and Fort Wayne Trails Executive Director Kent Castleman. The bridge is meant to connect roughly 85 miles of trail south of Coliseum Blvd. with 35 miles to the north; it was slated to go to bid in 2025 with construction targeted for 2026, and officials noted additional funding beyond the Vann gift would still be needed to complete the crossing. No further public updates on bid results or construction start have surfaced since the July 2024 announcement.

This gift, the largest single commitment in the foundation's history, is consistent with the FY2023 financials showing an unusual $5,150,138 contribution inflow — the family appears to have capitalized the foundation ahead of the pledge. No leadership changes were found in the data reviewed; the board (Jim Vann, Majorie Lee Vann, James Vann III, Sherry Connolly, Debbie Gilreath, Stephanie Moen) has been stable across all filings. Beyond the bridge, no new program announcements, RFPs, or public statements about 2025-2026 grantmaking priorities were located — the foundation maintains a low public profile outside this major civic gift.

Timing: the foundation states a September 1 annual deadline; submit letters in the preceding months (June-August) to allow board review, since there is no evidence of a year-round rolling process.

Format: per the foundation's own stated guidance — 'no formal process; just send a letter detailing request' — do not prepare a full grant proposal, budget narrative, or look for an online portal; none exists (no application_form_url or grants_page_url on file, and vann.org itself carries no visible grants content, appearing to be a placeholder site). A one-to-two page letter on organizational letterhead is the expected format.

Address: Sherry S. Connolly, President/Treasurer, Vann Family Foundation Inc., 11008 Carnoustie Lane, Fort Wayne, IN 46814, (260) 341-4777. No public email is on file, so mail or phone is the reliable channel.

Alignment language: reference causes the family has demonstrably funded repeatedly — cardiovascular/patient care and medical research (Mayo Clinic), breast cancer research (Vera Bradley Foundation For Breast Cancer), Fort Wayne civic infrastructure and trails (the $5M Pufferbelly bridge pledge), veterans support (Wreaths Across America), and Indiana K-12/higher-ed (Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, University of St Francis). A request mapping cleanly onto one of these themes, especially with a Fort Wayne or Allen County nexus, is far more likely to land than a generic national appeal.

Relationship building: with zero officer compensation and no program staff, the gatekeeper is Sherry Connolly and the Vann family directly. Cold, unsolicited national appeals should expect the lowest odds. Local Fort Wayne nonprofits with any board-level connection, or organizations already receiving multi-year renewals (Wreaths Across America has received 5 separate grants; University of St Francis 5; Clemson University Foundation 3), should lean into that continuity when re-applying rather than treating each year as a fresh pitch.

Sizing the ask: outside its two anchor relationships (Mayo Clinic, Foundation For The Carolinas donor-advised fund), typical outside grants run $2,000-$25,000, with a median near $2,500-$8,750. Request a specific, modest amount rather than an open-ended one.

Common mistake to avoid: do not submit a lengthy application expecting a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline — there is no evidence one exists; the process is intentionally lightweight and informal.