Vincent Genovese Memorial Foundation

The Vincent Genovese Memorial Foundation is a small, all-volunteer family foundation (zero staff, zero officer compensation in every year on file since at least 2021) run by President Karol Genovese Del Real alongside directors Lucille Cline-Conway and Audrey Del Real and secretary Carlene Dailey. Platform data flags it explicitly as "preselected only," and every third-party grant database checked (Instrumentl, Candid, GrantWatch) independently confirms the foundation does not process unsolicited applications. This is not a competitive-RFP funder; it is a relationship-continuation vehicle for the giving priorities set by namesakes Clo and Vince Genovese, whose stated values — "compassion, encouragement, hope, and assistance" — appear verbatim in the foundation's mission statement and should be echoed in any outreach.

The grantee pattern makes the model unambiguous: of 71 recorded grants, the overwhelming majority show a grant_count of 3, meaning the same organizations were funded in three consecutive filing years at consistent or escalating amounts (Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County, Tarrant Area Food Bank, Camp Fire First Texas, Recovery Resource Council, Union Gospel Mission, Rotary Club of Fort Worth's TCC scholarship fund, and others). This is a renewal-based, unrestricted general-operating-support portfolio, not a project-grant competition. Eighty-two percent of grants (58 of 71) went to Texas organizations, almost entirely in Fort Worth/Tarrant County, with small out-of-state exceptions tied to specific legacy relationships (Connecticut Cancer Foundation's Memorial Sloan-Kettering research and capital campaign, at $175,000 cumulative — the single largest grantee relationship in the dataset).

For a first-time applicant, the realistic path is not a proposal but an introduction: identify a warm connection through an existing grantee (TCU, Cassata High School, Cristo Rey Fort Worth, Union Gospel Mission) or the Fort Worth faith/human-services network the board is clearly embedded in, then send a short letter of interest rather than a full application package. Organizations should size their ask to the $3,500 median grant, not the $55,000 ceiling reserved for the decade-long MSK relationship — that outlier is not representative of what a new relationship should expect in year one.

Across 71 recorded grants totaling $620,976, the median award is $3,500 and the average is $7,144-$8,746 (sources vary slightly by year-range sampled), with a documented range of $500 (individual First Responders Award) to $55,000 in a single check (Connecticut Cancer Foundation, capital campaign). By program area, computed directly from the full grantee purpose list: Tarrant County human services/basic needs (Meals on Wheels $65,000, Fort Worth Fire Service Resource Network $55,000, Tarrant Area Food Bank $45,000, Recovery Resource Council $20,000, Union Gospel Mission $13,000, Presbyterian Night Shelter $10,000, The WARM Place $11,500) account for $219,500, or 35.3% of all giving. Cancer research and health (Connecticut Cancer Foundation $175,000, American Cancer Society $15,000) account for $190,000, or 30.6% — the single largest concentration, reflecting the foundation's namesake connection to cancer philanthropy. Youth development and scholarships (Camp Fire First Texas $32,500, Rotary Club of Fort Worth TCC Scholarship Fund $18,000, Cassata High School $13,500, Just Say Yes mentoring $13,000, TCU Athletic Scholarship Endowment $7,000, Rivertree Academy $6,500, Cristo Rey Fort Worth $6,000) total $96,500 (15.5%). Anti-trafficking and social-justice programs (Unbound North Texas $40,000, Unbound Antioch Fort Worth $10,000, Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation $11,500) total $61,500 (9.9%). Faith-based and international programs (Mission India $18,000, Crazy 8 Ministries $15,000, St. Scholastica Priory $7,500, Bethesda Ministries/One Child Matters $7,176) total $47,676 (7.7%), and veteran/first-responder recognition (22Kill $1,500 plus five individual $500-$1,000 First Responders Awards) round out the remainder at $5,800 (0.9%).

Geographically, 58 of 71 grants (81.7%) went to Texas nonprofits; the remaining 13 (CT-3, MA-3, MI-3, CO-3, GA-1) trace to specific legacy relationships rather than open geographic expansion. Annual total giving has declined from a $335,905 peak in 2011 (the year a one-time $5,295,000 contribution was made to the corpus, per that year's $5,452,918 total revenue) through $297,657 (2021), $300,683 (2022), and $326,758 (2023), to an estimated $196,371-$303,556 in FY2024-2025 per third-party 990 aggregation — tracking the foundation's asset base, which has drifted down from $5.12M (2011) to $4,159,830 (most recent filing), a payout rate in the 5-8% range typical of a fully spent-down legacy trust rather than a growing endowment.

Vincent Genovese Memorial Foundation sits squarely in the middle of a tight cluster of Human Services-focused private foundations with almost identical asset bases (~$4.1M-$4.2M), sourced from the same peer set used across this platform's foundation matching:

Peer annual-giving figures are estimated using the IRS 5% minimum-distribution requirement for private foundations, since itemized grant data for these five peers wasn't available in this research pass — Genovese's own figures are actual reported totals. What distinguishes Genovese from this peer cluster is transparency, not generosity: it is the only one of the six with a public website (vgmf.org) and a named, published contact (karol@vincentgenovesefoundation.org), while none of the five peers list a website in national grant registries at all. That modest edge in discoverability does not translate into an open process, however — Genovese's own preselected-only designation means it behaves identically to its opaque peers in practice, just with a slightly easier front door for a warm introduction.

The most recent financial data available (FY2025, reported by CauseIQ and Instrumentl, both current as of a May 5, 2026 update) shows total revenue of $410,314 against expenses of $303,556, with total assets essentially flat at $4,159,830 — growth driven by $276,715 in realized capital gains and $133,523 in investment income rather than new contributions (the foundation has received $0 in new contributions in every year on file since 2011). The foundation distributed 23-24 grants in 2025, including continuing support to Connecticut Cancer Foundation ($25,000, tied to its long-running Memorial Sloan-Kettering research and capital-campaign relationship), Camp Fire First Texas ($18,599 for camperships and general operations), and Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County ($15,195 in operating support) — all organizations that have received funding in prior years, reinforcing the pattern of renewed rather than newly solicited relationships.

Leadership has been stable across every filing reviewed: Karol Genovese Del Real has served as President continuously through at least 2021-2025, with Lucille Cline-Conway and Audrey Del Real as directors and Carlene Dailey as secretary — all uncompensated, consistent with an all-volunteer board and zero paid staff. No news coverage, press release, leadership transition, or new-program announcement was found for this foundation in any search covering 2025-2026; it maintains an unusually low public profile even for a foundation of this size, with its only outside-world visibility coming through grantee acknowledgments (e.g., The WARM Place's sponsor listing) and third-party 990 aggregators rather than its own communications. No open funding cycle, RFP, or deadline was identified anywhere in the public record.

This is not an open-cycle funder, and the single biggest mistake an applicant can make is treating it like one. Platform data marks the foundation "preselected only," and every independent grant database checked (Instrumentl, Candid/Foundation Directory, GrantWatch) agrees the foundation does not solicit or process unsolicited proposals — there is no listed application form, portal, or deadline anywhere in the public record, and Instrumentl's live-opportunity tracker shows zero active cycles for this funder.

The realistic path in is relationship, not proposal. Look at who already has one: nearly every top grantee (Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County, Tarrant Area Food Bank, Camp Fire First Texas, Recovery Resource Council, Rotary Club of Fort Worth's TCC Scholarship Fund, Union Gospel Mission, Cassata High School, TCU's Athletic Scholarship Endowment) shows three consecutive years of level or growing funding — this board renews relationships it already trusts far more often than it originates new ones. If your organization has any board, volunteer, or program tie to Fort Worth's faith-based or human-services community, or to the specific causes above, use it before writing a single word of a proposal.

When you do make contact, keep it brief: a one-page letter of interest to karol@vincentgenovesefoundation.org (or a call to 817-926-3150) introducing your mission and a specific, modestly scoped request — not a full grant application — is the appropriate first move. Anchor your ask to the $3,500 median grant size, not the $55,000 ceiling; that top figure belongs to a single decade-long relationship (Connecticut Cancer Foundation / Memorial Sloan-Kettering) and is not representative of what a new applicant should request. Use the foundation's own language — "compassion, encouragement, hope, and assistance" — explicitly in your pitch; it is drawn directly from the mission statement and signals you've done homework rather than mass-mailed a form letter. Because the board is four unpaid volunteers with no program staff, expect an informal, slow-moving review with no published timeline — a polite follow-up call after 60 days with no response is reasonable, but repeated unsolicited full proposals are likely to be ignored given the preselected model.