Wakerly Family Foundation

The Wakerly Family Foundation runs a closed, invitation-only model — its own guidelines state it "does not accept unsolicited proposals at this time," and board members personally identify and invite the organizations they want to fund. There is no open portal, no public RFP, and no cold-application path. Every current grantee relationship traces back to one of six board members — President John Wakerly, Vice President Regina (Gina) M. Rich, Treasurer Ralph T. Wakerly, and board members Michael J. Wakerly, Susanne D. Robertson, and Marie Hoy — personally sponsoring an organization as its "WFF advocate." For a grant seeker, the strategic implication is blunt: the highest-leverage activity is building a relationship with one of these six people, not polishing a proposal template. Founded in 1996-97 by John Wakerly and his late wife Kate (who passed in 2004 and was the foundation's founding president), the Foundation explicitly favors "relatively small, low-overhead organizations and programs that can obtain high leverage" — a preference visible in its grantee list, which skews toward direct-service nonprofits (food banks, cancer-support charities, parochial schools, family service agencies) rather than large institutions, Marquette University (John's alma mater, $120,000 across 4 grants) being the notable exception. The grantee data also shows the Foundation rewards continuity: Bear Necessities, Marquette, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, Pearls for Teen Girls, Neighborhood House, and Humanitarian Service Project each received 3-4 separate grants, indicating that once an organization is inside the circle, renewal is the norm rather than the exception — the Foundation states previous grantees are "automatically invited to apply for future grants." First-time (uninvited) organizations should treat outreach to a board member — via a shared board connection, a Marquette University tie for John Wakerly, or geographic proximity in Chicago, Milwaukee, or the Bay Area — as a prerequisite step that must happen before any proposal is drafted.

The Foundation's tracked grant history shows 56 grants totaling $1,006,000, an average grant of $17,964. The Foundation's own current typical-grant-size data (12 most recent grants) shows a median of $18,500, an average of $20,000, and a range of $8,000 to $50,000 — consistent with its published guideline that standard one-year grants run $1,000-$10,000, with "selected applicants" able to request more for special projects (explaining outliers like the $50,000 upper bound). Annual total giving has climbed steadily: $236,952 (2019) to $243,041 (2020) to $250,623 (2021) to $261,660 (2022) to $283,575 (2023) — a 19.7% increase over four years — while grants paid rose in lockstep from $235,500 to $282,000 over the same period. Total assets have stayed essentially flat over a decade, from $6,855,158 (2011) to $6,359,482 (2023) and $7,041,458 currently, confirming this is a steady-state payout foundation (roughly $250,000-$300,000/year) rather than one accumulating a growing corpus. Geographically, Illinois dominates with 25 of 56 tracked grants (44.6%), Wisconsin follows with 19 (33.9%), and Massachusetts, Oregon, California, Colorado, and Georgia each account for 2-3 grants — a footprint that tracks board members' home states far more than the Los Altos, CA headquarters. By program purpose, health/medical support (Bear Necessities' pediatric cancer program at $155,000/4 grants, ABCD Inc.'s breast cancer support at $80,000/3 grants, After Breast Cancer Diagnosis at $25,000, Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation's Courageous Kids at $25,000/3 grants) totals roughly $285,000 (28% of tracked giving); education (Marquette University Engineering Outreach at $120,000/4 grants, Br Rice High School scholarships at $105,000 combined, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School financial aid at $75,000/4 grants, Providence St. Mel at $40,000 combined) totals roughly $340,000 (34%); basic-needs/social services (Northern Illinois Food Bank at $87,000 combined, Chicago Lights at $40,000, Humanitarian Service Project at $40,000, Rosie's Place at $36,000 combined) totals roughly $203,000 (20%); and mental health (Pearls for Teen Girls at $50,000/4 grants, Ozaukee Family Services at $30,000/3 grants) totals $80,000 (8%).

Wakerly sits squarely in the middle of this peer group by asset size — all five comparison foundations cluster within about $270,000 of its $7.04M asset base, making them a reasonable proxy set for small, single-family private foundations in the $6.9M-$7.2M range. The underlying dataset does not carry giving totals, focus-area codes, or application policies for the five peers (all list "Unknown" NTEE category), so a direct programmatic comparison isn't possible from this data; what is clear is that at this asset scale, none of these foundations are large enough to run public grant programs, and Wakerly's own invitation-only model is typical of how family foundations this size typically operate — payout is modest (roughly 4% of assets annually for Wakerly) and relationship-driven rather than open-competition.

No press coverage, news releases, or public announcements from or about the Wakerly Family Foundation were found for 2025 or 2026 — unsurprising for a foundation of this size, which has no communications staff and does not appear to issue press releases; its public footprint is limited to its own guidelines page, IRS Form 990-PF filings, and third-party grant-database listings (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Candid, Cause IQ, Grantmakers.io). The most recent concrete data point is the Foundation's FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed and published around October 2025, which reported roughly $7 million in total assets and 16 grants issued at a $15,000 median grant size that fiscal year — a smaller grant count than the Foundation's historical pattern of issuing multiple grants annually to a rotating base of roughly 15-20 organizations, worth watching in a future filing to see if it represents a genuine shift toward fewer, larger awards or a one-year anomaly. No board or leadership changes were identified; the same six-person board (John Wakerly, Regina M. Rich, Ralph T. Wakerly, Michael J. Wakerly, Susanne D. Robertson, Marie Hoy) has controlled the Foundation across all filings reviewed. The Foundation's defining historical event remains the 2004 death of co-founder and founding president Kate Wakerly, after which the Foundation's geographic scope broadened beyond the Bay Area to follow the residences of surviving board members — the single biggest structural shift in the Foundation's nearly 30-year history, and still the reason its grant footprint concentrates in Illinois and Wisconsin today.

Because the Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, the single most important "application tip" is pre-application: secure an introduction to one of the six board members (John Wakerly, Regina M. Rich, Ralph T. Wakerly, Michael J. Wakerly, Susanne D. Robertson, or Marie Hoy) before drafting anything. Look for natural connection points — John Wakerly is a Marquette University electrical engineering alum and former Stanford lecturer/Cisco Systems VP of engineering, which likely explains Marquette's recurring $120,000 in Engineering Outreach funding; board members' residences in Illinois and Wisconsin explain the Chicago- and Milwaukee-area concentration of grantees. Once invited, submit a tight 1-2 page PDF proposal by email directly to your named board advocate — not a general foundation address — covering: the specific program needing support, the community need it addresses, the population served (demographically and geographically), how the program differs from other services already available, expected outcomes and how they'll be measured, total project cost versus the amount requested from WFF, and the consequence if the program isn't funded. Be ready to supply 501(c)(3) certification, a board member list, an annual budget, program-ratio figures, and a financial-statements overview if asked. Anchor your ask in the Foundation's three stated pillars — social services, education, and economic development — and its explicit sub-priorities: private education, emergency assistance for at-risk populations, immigrant support (education/housing/employment), economic opportunity via job training and financial literacy, children's/family mental health, and elder quality-of-life. Keep the dollar ask realistic: standard grants run $1,000-$10,000 for one year, and the Foundation's own guidance says funding beyond $10,000 is reserved for "selected applicants" requesting support for special projects — first-time invitees should not open with a five- or six-figure ask. Emphasize lean operations; the Foundation has a stated preference for small, low-overhead organizations with high funding leverage, so proposals top-heavy with administrative costs work against you. Expect a roughly one-month response window after submission. Because prior grantees are automatically re-invited, treat the first grant as the opening move in a multi-year relationship — strong outcomes reporting after year one meaningfully increases the odds of renewal, as seen in the Foundation's pattern of 3-4 repeat grants to the same organizations (Bear Necessities, Cristo Rey Jesuit, Pearls for Teen Girls, Humanitarian Service Project, Neighborhood House).