Wisner Family Foundation

The Wisner Family Foundation (EIN 82-1829984, Wilmington, DE) is a small, closely-held family foundation administered through Foundation Source rather than a standalone office — a common structure for families that want professional back-office support (tax filing, grants administration) without staff or a public-facing program. IRS/Foundation Source records list the foundation as 'preselected_only,' meaning the family directs virtually all giving to organizations it already knows rather than reviewing unsolicited proposals; there is no application_form_url, no opportunities_url, and application_instructions is blank. Directors are Terry Wisner (President), Sean Wisner (CFO/Secretary), Brett Wisner (Secretary), and Wendy Knox — all uncompensated, indicating a genuine family-run vehicle rather than a professionally staffed program.

Grantee data confirms the pattern: of 27 recorded grants totaling $382,800, every dollar went to organizations in two hometown clusters — Whitehall, MT (17 grants, including Jefferson Valley Community Foundation, Whitehall High School District, and Butte-area nonprofits) and the Santa Cruz Valley/Rio Rico, AZ border region (7 grants, anchored by a $160,000 relationship with Santa Cruz Valley Opportunities In Education), plus a handful of gifts to Norman, OK (3 grants, Children's House of Norman). No grant in the available record has gone to an organization outside these three communities.

For a first-time applicant, this means the Wisner Family Foundation should be treated less like a grants program and more like a set of personal relationships the family maintains with places they live, work, or spend time. Organizations based in Whitehall/Jefferson County MT, the Santa Cruz Valley/Nogales-Rio Rico corridor in AZ, or Norman, OK have the only realistic path in; a cold LOI from an organization outside these geographies is very unlikely to succeed regardless of program quality. The most productive approach is a warm introduction — through Jefferson Valley Community Foundation, Montana Community Foundation, or a family contact — rather than a formal proposal. Given the repeat-grant pattern to top recipients (Santa Cruz Valley Opportunities In Education: 4 grants; Jefferson Valley Community Foundation: 5 grants), the relationship, once established, tends to recur rather than being a one-time gift.

Across the 27 grants in the available grantee record, the Wisner Family Foundation gave $382,800 total, averaging $14,178 per grant, but the distribution is heavily skewed. Gifts ranged from $1,000 (Whitehall Area Food Pantry; Town of Whitehall's community pool fund) up to a $160,000 cumulative relationship with Santa Cruz Valley Opportunities In Education Inc (4 grants averaging $40,000 each, for facility improvements, a preschool tuition scholarship fund, and K-8 expansion). The next largest relationship, Jefferson Valley Community Foundation in Whitehall, MT, received $105,000 across 5 grants (avg. $21,000) for a chamber mural restoration, tennis/pickleball courts, and a fundraiser gala. Below those two anchor relationships, gift sizes drop sharply: Whitehall High School District ($43,800/2 grants for a laser engraver), Montana Community Foundation ($25,000/2 grants, Butte SPIRIT Center endowment), and Children's House of Norman, OK ($21,000/3 grants). The remaining seven recipients each received $1,000-$8,000, typically single 'general & unrestricted' gifts.

By geography, Montana dominates grant count (17 of 27, 63%), though Arizona leads in total dollars via the single large Santa Cruz Valley relationship; Oklahoma accounts for 3 grants tied to one recipient. By purpose, education infrastructure and scholarships form the largest category (Santa Cruz Valley preschool/K-8 funding, Whitehall HS's laser engraver — together over half of total dollars), followed by community/civic infrastructure (JVCF's mural, courts, pool fund — roughly 28%), and smaller human-services gifts (food banks/pantries, about $11,500 combined).

Annual Form 990-PF filings show grants_paid climbing from $47,000 (2019) to $113,000 (2023), a payout that has lagged the growth in assets from $1.8M to $3.9M over the same span; FY2024 total_giving was not yet reported at data pull, though revenue jumped to $1,695,519 on renewed contributions. Total assets grew from $1,607,294 (2020) to $5,393,819 (2024) — a 3.4x increase in four years — driven by large, irregular family contributions ($1,230,000 in 2021; $900,000 in 2023; $0 in 2020) rather than investment gains alone (net investment income has stayed in the $15,000-$116,000 range).

All five peers are asset-matched almost to the dollar ($5,392,536-$5,395,572), forming a tight national cohort of small, single-family foundations, none of which maintain a public website in our records — reinforcing that the Wisner Family Foundation's closed, relationship-based model is the norm rather than the exception at this asset tier. None of these peers discloses an annual giving figure or a focus area beyond the generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, so grant seekers cannot differentiate among them on published data alone. At this small-foundation scale, the most useful comparative fact available is the Wisner Family Foundation's own documented, purpose-level grantee history — making it, despite having no public program page, the most transparent foundation in its own peer set.

No foundation-issued press releases, program announcements, or leadership changes were found for the Wilmington, DE Wisner Family Foundation (EIN 82-1829984) in this research pass — consistent with its closed, family-directed structure and Foundation Source administration. wisner.org, the website on file, is an unpopulated placeholder domain with no content. The most current verifiable signal is FY2024 Form 990-PF data: total assets reached $5,393,819 (up from $3,930,694 in FY2023) and revenue rose to $1,695,519, driven primarily by renewed family contributions rather than investment performance; itemized grants_paid and total_giving for FY2024 were not yet broken out in the available filing data. Leadership has been stable across the filing history reviewed — Terry Wisner (President), Sean Wisner (CFO/Secretary), Brett Wisner (Secretary), and Wendy Knox (Director), all uncompensated.

One important caution for grant seekers doing their own research: search results are dominated by a separate, unrelated organization also named 'Wisner Family Foundation' (EIN 81-4571600, based in Wayne/Muskegon, MI, web: wisnerfamilyfoundation.org), which runs an open online application (wisnerfamilyfoundation.org/apply) and reportedly awarded about $52,000 across 12 grants in 2025 for PreK-12 education, special-needs, community, and faith-based programs. That Michigan entity's activity should not be attributed to the Delaware/Montana-linked foundation profiled in this report — the two share a name but are distinct legal entities with different EINs, geographies, and application postures.

At the community level, Jefferson Valley Community Foundation — Whitehall's community foundation and a repeat Wisner grantee (5 grants, $105,000) — opened its regular annual grant cycle in September 2024, per local coverage in the Whitehall Ledger, a useful yearly touchpoint for organizations seeking the same kind of local relationship the Wisner family has funded repeatedly.

Because the Wisner Family Foundation has no published application form, LOI process, deadline, or grants portal (application_form_url, opportunities_url, and application_process are all blank in its IRS/Foundation Source record, and it is flagged 'preselected_only'), the standard grant-writing playbook — cold LOI, generic proposal, wait for a portal response — will not work here. Practical, funder-specific tips:

• Geography is the hardest filter: every one of the 27 documented grants went to an organization in Whitehall/Jefferson County, MT; the Santa Cruz Valley/Rio Rico, AZ border corridor; or Norman, OK. If your organization is not based in or serving one of these three communities, there is no evidence this funder has ever made an exception — don't lead with a national or unrelated-regional program.
• Build the relationship through a known intermediary rather than direct solicitation. Jefferson Valley Community Foundation and Montana Community Foundation have each received Wisner gifts multiple times (5 and 2 grants respectively) — an introduction or co-application through one of these community foundations is a more realistic entry point than approaching the family cold.
• Match the funder's actual giving pattern, not a stated priority list — this foundation publishes no mission statement, but its real gifts cluster around K-12/early-childhood education and facilities (Santa Cruz Valley Opportunities In Education's preschool tuition and K-8 expansion, Whitehall HS's laser engraver), local civic/cultural infrastructure (mural restoration, sports courts, community pool), and small human-services gifts ($1,000-$8,000). Frame requests around tangible, place-based projects rather than general operating asks for large budgets — even the largest single-recipient relationship averaged $40,000 per grant, not seven figures.
• Expect a multi-year relationship once funded, not a one-off: top recipients received repeat gifts across 4-5 separate grants, suggesting the family re-funds organizations it trusts rather than rotating to new ones each cycle.
• Do not confuse this foundation with the similarly named Michigan 'Wisner Family Foundation' (EIN 81-4571600), which does accept applications online — sending a proposal to that funder's portal expecting it to reach this family will go nowhere.
• With directors as uncompensated family members and no listed staff, the most respectful and effective channel is a brief, personal letter or a warm introduction from a trusted community leader (e.g., a JVCF or Montana Community Foundation contact) rather than a formal multi-page proposal package.