Weil Foundation

The Weil Foundation (EIN 31-1627660) is a small, family-governed private foundation based at 8 Bayberry Pl in Wilmington, North Carolina, with $6.76 million in assets (FY2023) and no paid program staff. Officers are Weil family members: Audrey York Weil (President) and Kenneth M Weil (Vice President/Secretary-Treasurer across filings), with Jake B Weil and Brian L Weil serving on the Advisory Committee (each drawing $20,000 in the most recent filing, while the President/VP roles carried $0 compensation in 2021-2023, down from $40,000 in 2018-2020). This is a classic closely-held family foundation, not an institutional grantmaker with program officers — decisions run through the family's personal and community networks.

Critically, this foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. Third-party aggregators (Cause IQ, Grantable, Instrumentl) that verified against this exact EIN describe grantmaking as "by invitation only," with no public LOI form or open deadline. That distinguishes it sharply from a same-named, unrelated foundation at weilfoundation.org (Tucson, AZ, funding integrative medicine at academic medical centers, with a public January 31 LOI deadline and a July-June funding cycle) that dominates web search results for "Weil Foundation." Grantseekers researching EIN 31-1627660 should disregard that funder's public process entirely — it belongs to a different organization.

Across 246 recorded grants totaling $869,175, the foundation strongly favors organizations already inside its network: 122 of 246 grants (nearly half) went to North Carolina nonprofits, concentrated around Wilmington/New Hanover County, with secondary clusters in Massachusetts (14), New York (14), California (13), and Texas (12) — likely tracking where Weil family members live, work, or have personal ties. Recipients skew toward direct-service and community organizations (food banks, wildlife/land trusts, women's shelters, youth programs) rather than large national or policy-advocacy institutions, though it also makes modest gifts to institutions with likely family ties, such as Duke University ($65,000 across 2 grants for scholarship and operating support).

For an organization with no prior relationship to the Weil family, the realistic path in is not a cold application but a warm introduction — through a current grantee, a Wilmington-area board connection, or a shared institutional tie such as Duke. First-time seekers should not budget on this as a primary revenue source; treat it as a small, loyal, long-tail supporter to layer in after establishing credibility in the NC region.

Across the filed years available (FY2011-FY2023, with gaps), total giving has ranged from $273,680 (FY2020, pandemic dip) to $389,828 (FY2013), with FY2023 the highest on record in the dataset at $383,960 total giving / $370,101 in grants paid. Assets have grown steadily from $5.29 million (FY2018) to $6.76 million (FY2023), funded almost entirely by investment returns rather than new contributions — net investment income was $953,395 in FY2023 alone (a strong market year), versus only $11,696 in new contributions received that year. The foundation received one large infusion of $500,700 in outside contributions in FY2011 but has otherwise run on its own endowment since, with contributions received at or near $0 in most years (2018-2020).

Per-grant size is small and consistent with a family-directed rather than institutional funder: the foundation's own tracked grant data shows a median of $1,750, an average of $2,990, and a range of $100 to $25,000 across 96 grants; independent web sources (Instrumentl, Grantable) corroborate this, citing a $2,000-3,000 median, roughly $4,000 average, and a historical outer range of $1,000-$50,000. The overall average across all 246 recorded grants (spanning multiple years) is $3,533. The largest identifiable single relationships are Duke University ($65,000 across 2 grants for scholarship and operating support), Convoy of Hope ($60,000/2 grants), Audubon Society of North Carolina ($55,987/3 grants), Nutrition Facts ($40,000/3 grants for educational services), and one-time $30,000 gifts each to World Central Kitchen and The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, CT — but the bulk of the portfolio is dozens of grants under $5,000 repeated 2-3 times to the same regional nonprofits (e.g., Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, $14,849/4 grants; Crisis Control Ministry, $9,000/3 grants).

Geographically, North Carolina dominates with 122 of 246 grants (49.6%), consistent with the family's Wilmington base, followed by Massachusetts and New York (14 each), California (13), Texas (12), Virginia (10), and DC (8). By cause, the pattern splits across food security (Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC, Nourish NC, Brighter Bites), animal welfare/conservation (Audubon Society NC, Coastal Land Trust, Caring Hearts for Canines), health and medical services (New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation, $27,700; Novant Health Foundation, $25,000), and general operating support to social-service and faith-based organizations — a generalist community-philanthropy profile rather than a single-issue funder.

The matched peer set consists of five similarly-sized private foundations and trusts, all clustered near $6.89 million in assets and classified under the same "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE code. These appear to be asset-matched by size rather than genuine programmatic peers — four of the five have no public website, and none publish granular giving totals in generally available sources.

Weil Foundation is unusual within this peer set for actually disclosing a granular grant history (246 recorded grants across 30 states) and maintaining a social media presence (Twitter/X, Facebook handles on file), whereas four of five peers have no discoverable public web presence at all. Grant seekers should treat all six organizations similarly — as micro-cap family funders best reached via personal networks rather than public RFPs — with Weil's roughly $370K/year in giving representing a payout rate in the mid-single digits on its ~$6.8M corpus, broadly in line with the 5% federal minimum distribution requirement for private foundations.

Public, dated news specific to this Wilmington, NC foundation (EIN 31-1627660) is scarce — it is a closely held family foundation with no communications staff, and general web searches for "Weil Foundation" surface several unrelated, same-named organizations (a Tucson, AZ integrative-medicine foundation at weilfoundation.org; the Weil, Gotshal & Manges law-firm foundation and its Weil Legal Innovators Program; a Swedish "Robert Weil Family Foundation"; and the Patricia & Christopher Weil Family Foundation) that should not be attributed to this entity.

What the verified Form 990-PF and aggregator data show: FY2023 was the foundation's strongest recent year, with $370,101 in grants paid across roughly 84 grants (per Instrumentl's 990 tracking) and $383,960 in total giving, up from a pandemic-era low of $212,047 in grants paid (FY2020). A more recent Instrumentl data pull cites $285,229 distributed across 57 grants for the most recently tracked year, suggesting giving pulled back somewhat from the FY2023 peak — consistent with a foundation whose annual payout tracks investment performance rather than a fixed program budget (net investment income swung from $162,929 in FY2022 to $953,395 in FY2023).

A governance shift is also visible in the compensation data: the President and Vice President/Secretary-Treasurer roles (Audrey York Weil, Kenneth M Weil) moved from $40,000/year each in 2018-2020 to $0 in the most recent filings, while two Advisory Committee members (Jake B Weil, Brian L Weil) now each draw $20,000 — indicating a reallocation of paid family roles rather than a change in overall foundation strategy. No new program announcements, leadership departures, or major gift disclosures specific to this foundation were found in current web coverage.

Because the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals, the single most important tip is: do not apply cold. Cause IQ, Grantable, and Instrumentl, each cross-checked against this exact EIN, describe grantmaking as invitation-only, and none list a public LOI form, portal, or open deadline for EIN 31-1627660. Do not follow the January 31 deadline or online proposal-guidelines process advertised on weilfoundation.org — that page belongs to an unrelated, similarly-named integrative-medicine foundation in Tucson, AZ, and applying there will not reach the Wilmington, NC Weil family.

Practical path in: - Build presence in the Wilmington/New Hanover County, NC nonprofit ecosystem first. Roughly half of this foundation's grant dollars (122 of 246 recorded grants) go to North Carolina organizations, and many are repeat, multi-year relationships (3-4 grants each) rather than one-time gifts — indicating the family renews support for groups it already trusts. - If your organization has any tie to Duke University, the Wilmington region, or causes it has funded repeatedly — food security (food banks, Nourish NC), animal welfare/conservation (Audubon NC, land trusts), women's shelters and crisis services, or regional hospital foundations (New Hanover Regional Medical Center, Novant Health) — lead with that alignment in any introduction. - Seek a warm introduction through a current grantee's board or staff, a Wilmington-area community foundation contact, or a shared institutional connection, rather than submitting a general inquiry to the contact address cold. - Keep the ask modest and specific: typical awards run $1,750 (median) to $2,990 (average), with the large majority under $5,000-$10,000 and few exceeding $25,000-$30,000. Framing a request as general operating support for a defined program — the language used in the majority of past grant purposes ("operating expenses," "to support the organization and its purpose") — matches how this funder actually gives. - The contact of record is Kenneth M Weil, via cwillett@weilfoundation.org and (702) 370-6913 — treat this as a relationship-building contact, not an application portal, and do not expect an RFP-style response. - Common mistake: conflating this foundation with the Tucson, AZ integrative-medicine "Weil Foundation" that shares a similar name — proposals framed around integrative medicine, medical education, or Osher Center-style programming are addressed to the wrong funder entirely.