Vicksburg Foundation

Vicksburg Foundation is a small, all-volunteer family/community foundation run by an eight-person board (Rudy Callen, Pres/Treasurer; William Oswalt, Pres Emeritus; Warren Lawrence, Secretary; Lloyd Appell, VP; plus four directors) who take zero compensation and log minimal hours — this is a relationship-driven, not process-driven, funder. There is no RFP, no online portal, and no prescribed application format; the foundation's own filings state only that 'a description of the purpose and amount requested' plus 'evidence of exempt status' is required. That informality favors organizations the board already knows: the Village of Vicksburg municipal government alone has received 14 separate grants totaling $445,618 (34% of the $1.31M tracked in the grantee dataset) for everything from police body cameras to the Oswalt Park project, and the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation has been funded 17 separate times. First-time applicants should not expect a competitive RFP process — expect instead a short letter reviewed at a periodic, undisclosed board meeting, with success driven heavily by geographic fit and, over time, by becoming a known, repeat local partner. The stated priority is explicit and literal: organizations 'which contribute to the betterment of life in the Vicksburg or Southeast Kalamazoo County area are given priority,' though 'other organizations may also be considered' — in practice, every tracked grantee in the dataset is Michigan-based and almost all sit within a few miles of the village. There is no evidence of a formal LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; the relationship instead resembles an ongoing civic partnership, where municipal government, the school district, the library, the historical society, and local service clubs (Lions Club, United Way) return year after year for modest, purpose-specific asks. New applicants should lead with a concrete, local project description and a specific dollar figure rather than a broad capacity-building narrative, and should expect the first ask to land well below the foundation's ceiling — most awards cluster in the $2,400-$18,000 band, with six-figure or five-figure-plus grants reserved for established civic anchors like the Village government or capital projects with strong community visibility (e.g., the $100,000 SW Michigan Miracle League field and $75,000 United Methodist Church renovation, both one-time capital gifts).

Across the grantee dataset (97 tracked grants, $1,313,365 total, average $13,540) and the most recent Form 990 filings, Vicksburg Foundation gives in a narrow, low-dollar band typical of a small family foundation: the foundation's own typical-grant-size data shows a median of $9,340 (average $11,694) with a documented range of $370 to $40,000, while third-party 990 trackers report a slightly higher recent-year median of $13,000 and a range up to $50,000-$56,000. FY2024 activity (per 990 aggregators) was 17 grants totaling approximately $302,000-$313,000, up from a 2023 low of $238,196 in total giving (on $205,178 grants paid) and well below the $378,476 given in FY2019 — a year inflated by a one-time $1,049,134 contribution/bequest that pushed total revenue to $1.8M. Excluding that outlier year, total giving has ranged $211,468-$338,947 annually since 2012, funded primarily by net investment income ($136,000-$393,000/year) rather than new gifts (contributions received are typically only $44,000-$65,000/year) against a fairly stable asset base of $3.1M-$5.6M. By recipient concentration, municipal/civic giving dominates: the Village of Vicksburg alone accounts for 34% of all tracked dollars ($445,618/14 grants) for projects spanning the Angels Crossing Golf Course, DDA program, Oswalt Park, police body cameras, and small-business COVID aid. Education is the second-largest channel — the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation ($120,773/17 grants) and Vicksburg Community Schools itself ($48,000/2 grants for School Resource Officers) — followed by capital/recreation grants (SW Michigan Miracle League, $170,000 combined across two grantee-name variants for an accessible ballfield and playground), arts and culture (Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center, $58,000/10 grants; Gilmore Keyboard Festival, $10,000), and human services (South County Community Services $45,500, United Way chapters $60,000 combined). Geographically, 100% of tracked giving stayed in Michigan, concentrated in Vicksburg village with a smaller share reaching neighboring southeast Kalamazoo County communities (Schoolcraft, Scotts, Portage).

Vicksburg Foundation is the smallest and least formal of this peer set by a wide margin — its assets are roughly half of Otsego's and less than a third of Three Rivers Communities', and unlike both of those larger SW/NE Michigan peers it has no staff, no cycle, and no published guidelines beyond a one-paragraph priority statement. That informality is a double-edged sword for applicants: there's no competitive RFP to lose, but there's also no transparent scoring process, and success appears to hinge on personal familiarity with the all-volunteer board and a track record of hyper-local impact rather than a polished grant narrative. Compared to Kalamazoo Community Foundation's professionalized, multi-program regional apparatus, Vicksburg Foundation functions more like a village-scale family fund — well suited to small, concrete local asks but not a fit for organizations seeking five- or six-figure program grants outside the immediate Vicksburg/southeast Kalamazoo County footprint.

The most recent verifiable activity is the FY2024 Form 990 filing (per grantable.co and grantmakers.io aggregation), which shows 17 grants totaling approximately $302,000-$313,000 — a rebound from the FY2023 total giving low of $238,196. The three largest FY2024 awards went to the Village of Vicksburg ($50,000), the Village of Schoolcraft ($46,000), and Vicksburg Community Schools ($40,000), continuing the foundation's long-standing pattern of funding municipal government and the local school district as its two most consistent partners. The Schoolcraft award is notable because it extends giving beyond the Village of Vicksburg proper into a neighboring southeast Kalamazoo County community, consistent with — but not previously heavily exercised under — the foundation's stated secondary eligibility area. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or press coverage were found for 2025 or 2026: the board roster (Rudy Callen as President/Treasurer, William Oswalt as President Emeritus, Warren Lawrence as Secretary, Lloyd Appell as Vice-President, and directors James Shaw, Dr. David Schriemer, Katie Grossman, and Amie McCaw) appears unchanged across every dataset snapshot available, and the foundation does not appear to issue its own press releases. Direct verification via the foundation's listed website (vicksburg.org) was not possible — the site returned an HTTP 403 during this research, and the commonly cited vicksburgfoundation.org domain timed out — so this section relies entirely on third-party 990 aggregators rather than the foundation's own current communications; grant seekers should treat the FY2024 figures as the most recent available signal, not a confirmed 2025-2026 trend.

Skip the polished, multi-page proposal — the foundation's own filing language asks only for 'a description of the purpose and amount requested,' so a concise one-to-two-page letter outperforms a formal grant application built for larger funders. Open the letter by explicitly stating how the request serves 'the betterment of life in the Vicksburg or Southeast Kalamazoo County area' — that is the literal screening phrase from the foundation's IRS filings, and using it signals fit immediately. Attach your IRS tax-exempt determination letter every time; the foundation states this is required, with no exceptions noted. Because there is no published deadline and the board 'meets on a periodic basis,' don't wait for an announced cycle — submit when the request is ready and follow up by phone (269-649-9020) after a few weeks if you haven't heard back, since there's no portal to check status in. Right-size the ask: the effective median grant is $9,340-$13,000 and the typical ceiling for a first-time or non-anchor applicant appears to be well under $20,000 — the five- and six-figure awards in the dataset (Village of Vicksburg's $445,618 across 14 grants, the $100,000 Miracle League field, the $75,000 church renovation) went to either the municipal government itself or one-time capital projects with strong, visible community backing. A common mistake is treating this as a competitive, portal-based application — it isn't; framing a request in generic grant-writing boilerplate (impact statements, logic models, evaluation plans) is more likely to read as mismatched than as strong writing to an all-volunteer board reviewing letters informally. Relationship-building matters more than proposal polish: the top recipients (Village of Vicksburg, Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation, Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center) were funded repeatedly — 10 to 17 times each — suggesting that a modest, well-executed first grant followed by a simple annual re-ask is far more effective than a single large proposal. Given the board's civic-institution bias, community organizations with a formal tie to village government, the school district, or long-tenured local service clubs (Lions Club, United Way) should lead with that affiliation explicitly.