FundersWashington

Hill Family Foundation

Mercer Island, WA · EIN 91-1539805. Reported 60 grants totalling $3,207,025 to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$50,000median grant
$3,207,025granted, 2021-2024
32organizations funded
83%of grantees funded again the next year
$5,497,198assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Hill Family Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $50,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $25,000 and $100,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $150,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
11 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
14 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
16 grants
$100,000 and Up
16 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
DescSeattle, WA$300,000332024
Food LifelineSeattle, WA$300,000332024
Low Income Housing InstituteSeattle, WA$300,000332024
FarestartSeattle, WA$225,000332024
Nw HarvestKent, WA$200,000222022
Friends of YouthKirkland, WA$150,025332024
Community PassagewaysSeattle, WA$150,000332024
Community Roots HousingSeattle, WA$150,000112024
TreehouseSeattle, WA$150,000332024
United WaySeattle, WA$150,000222024
Vashon Maury Community Food BankVashon, WA$125,000112024
Compass Housing AllicanceSeattle, WA$100,000112024
Nw HavestSeattle, WA$100,000112024
Plymouth HousingSeattle, WA$100,000332024
YMCA Pierce CountyTacoma, WA$100,000112021
United Indians of All TribesSeattle, WA$80,000222024
Compass Housing AllianceSeattle, WA$75,000222022
YMCA SeattleSeattle, WA$75,000222022
Community Root HousingSeattle, WA$50,000112022
YWCA SeattlekingsnohomishSeattle, WA$50,000112024
Vashon Maury Comm Food BankVashon, WA$45,000222022
LangstonSeattle, WA$40,000332024
Undue Medical DebtBoston, MA$27,000112024
Africatown Community Land TrustSeattle, WA$25,000112021
AmaraSeattle, WA$25,000222024
Mercer Island Youth ServicesMercer Island, WA$25,000112021
YouthcareSeattle, WA$25,000112024
Atlantic Street CenterSeattle, WA$20,000222024
Black Future Co-Op Fund (seattle Foundation)Seattle, WA$20,000222022
BlackpastSeattle, WA$10,000222022
Black Future CoopSeattle, WA$10,000112024
Black PastSeattle, WA$5,000112024

19 of 32 (59%) received money in more than one year over the 3 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 83%, across 1 year-to-year transition. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is unusually consistent. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

Plus 21 grants to individuals totalling $1,105,000 -- scholarships, hardship and emergency assistance. We deliberately do not publish the names of people who received them, even though the filings do.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 38 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Youth Development
6 grants
Mental Health
6 grants
Arts & Culture
5 grants
Human Services
4 grants
Employment
3 grants
Food & Nutrition
3 grants
Housing & Shelter
3 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202118$770,025$25,000
202220$1,155,000$50,000
202422$1,282,000$50,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 99% of this one's giving went to organizations in Washington. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Washington
$3.2M
Massachusetts
$27K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

American Online Giving Foundation Inc18 shared recipientsSeattle Foundation18 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund17 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc15 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program15 shared recipientsMightycause Charitable Foundation13 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $50,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Washington.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Hill Family Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 7900 28TH Street Suite 310, Mercer Island, WA, 98040. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 91-1539805 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.