Family foundations with no website: how to approach them

Sponsor a Purpose team · 5 min read · 2026-10-04

You found a foundation that funds work like yours in your county. You search for it and get nothing: no website, no staff page, no online application. Just a name, an address, and maybe a trustee or two listed in a filing.

That silence puts a lot of grant seekers off. It should do the opposite. A foundation with no website gets far fewer applications than one with a polished portal, which means a thoughtful letter from you has much less competition. The work is in doing the research the website would have done for you.

Why so many family foundations stay quiet

A family foundation is often run by the founders, their children, or a small group of trustees who meet once or twice a year. There is no program officer, because there is no staff. A website would invite a flood of requests the family has no capacity to read, so they simply do not have one.

That does not mean they are closed. Many give to the same handful of organizations every year and add a new one when something catches a trustee's attention. Your job is to become that something, politely and with evidence that you understand what they already fund.

Start with the 990-PF

Every private foundation files a Form 990-PF with the IRS each year, and it is public. For a foundation with no website, this filing is the website. It tells you three things you need.

Who they fund. The grants paid schedule lists recipient organizations, amounts, and often a one-line purpose. Read three years of it if you can. You are looking for patterns: the same recipients year over year, the size range of grants, and the cause areas that keep appearing.

Who decides. The officers, directors, and trustees section lists names and addresses. In a family foundation these are usually the people who read the mail and vote on the grants.

How to apply, if at all. Part XV asks whether the foundation accepts unsolicited applications and, if it does, where to send them and what to include. Some say "contributions only to preselected organizations." Take that seriously, but read the grant list anyway: a foundation that makes a new grant to an unfamiliar organization every year is more open than its checkbox suggests.

Our foundation directory pulls these filings into one profile per funder, with prior grants, filed contact details, and trustees listed together, so you can check a foundation in a few minutes instead of paging through scanned PDFs.

Check for fit before you write anything

Before drafting a word, answer these honestly from the filing:

• Have they funded organizations in your geography, or anywhere near it?
• Have they funded work in your cause area, or close to it?
• Is your likely ask inside the range of grants they actually make?

If two of the three are a clear yes, you have a prospect. If none are, move on. A family foundation that gives exclusively to three hospitals and a private school in another state is not going to change course because your letter is good. Spend that time on a funder whose cause area matches what you do.

Look for a personal connection

Because family foundations are run by a small number of people, relationships matter more than they do with a staffed foundation. Take the trustee names from the filing and ask your board, your major donors, and your volunteers whether anyone knows them.

A short introduction from someone a trustee already trusts does more than any letter you can write. If you find a connection, ask that person to mention your work and ask whether the family would welcome a note. Then write the note and reference the introduction in the first line.

No connection is fine. Many family foundations make grants to organizations they had never heard of until a well-researched letter arrived.

Write a short first letter

With no portal and no guidelines, the default format is a brief letter by mail, addressed to the first trustee listed or to the address in Part XV. Keep it to one page. It should do four things:

1. Say why you are writing to them specifically. Name one or two grants from their filing that sit close to your work. This shows you did the reading and are not sending the same letter to everyone.

2. Describe what you do in plain terms. Who you serve, where, and one concrete result from the last year.

3. Make a modest, specific ask. Pick an amount inside the range they usually give, tied to a specific program or need.

4. Offer an easy next step. A short call, a visit, or a fuller proposal if they would like one.

Send it on letterhead with a signature. A printed letter stands out in a mailbox that mostly holds bills.

Then wait, and follow up once

Family foundation trustees often review requests only at their annual or semiannual meeting, so silence for a few months is normal. If you have not heard back after about eight to twelve weeks, one short follow up asking whether they would like more information is reasonable. After that, add them to your annual update list and try again next cycle.

If they decline, thank them in writing. Trustees remember gracious responses, and the next cycle is another chance.

Make your online presence do some work

Trustees who get your letter will usually look you up, even if they have no website themselves. What they find matters. Our free website grader checks your site in about a minute and shows what a first time visitor sees, so the trustee who searches your name lands on something current.

Keep the research where your team can find it

Family foundation research takes time, and it is easy to lose. Record the trustees, the grant patterns, the connections you checked, the date you mailed, and when to follow up. The free Sponsor a Purpose CRM keeps funder records, notes, and follow up dates in one place, so the work survives staff turnover and next year's letter starts from what you already know.

The short version

No website does not mean no money. Read the 990-PF for grants, trustees, and application rules. Check fit on geography, cause, and grant size. Look for a personal connection through your board. Send a short, specific letter by mail, follow up once, and keep the foundation on your annual update list. Quiet funders reward organizations that do their homework.