How much does Merkley Charitable Trust give?

Merkley Charitable Trust reported 13 grants totaling $191,105 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 14 and 20 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Merkley Charitable Trust fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Recreation & Sports (53%), Animals (14%), Health (6%).

Who are Merkley Charitable Trust's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Humane Society of Genesee County ($174k), Food Bank of Eastern Michigan ($54k), Hurley Foundation ($44k).

Does Merkley Charitable Trust fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Merkley Charitable Trust accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Merkley Charitable Trust?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable Trust, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Flint.

Where is Merkley Charitable Trust based?

Merkley Charitable Trust is based in OH.

Foundation Dossiers

Ohio · Private foundation

Merkley Charitable Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$191k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 13
Grants FY2025: 14
Organizations funded FY2024: 14%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $5,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $105,452
Organizations funded a year: 14 to 20; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 3
Total assets, FY2025: $3.8M
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 14% of the organizations Merkley Charitable Trust funded were first-time grantees, receiving 4% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementAnimalsRecreation & SportsPhilanthropyOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	13	$191k	15%
FY2024	14	$216k	14%
FY2023	17	$207k	29%
FY2022	18	$200k	17%
FY2021	20	$209k	30%
FY2020	20	$216k	n/a

99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Recreation & Sports$661kAnimals$174kHealth$77kFood & Nutrition$74kArts & Culture$70kHuman Services$62kYouth Development$45kHousing & Shelter$28kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Humane Society of Genesee County	$174,433	5	13%
Food Bank of Eastern Michigan	$54,000	6	0%
Hurley Foundation	$44,000	4	0%
Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute	$33,000	5	0%
Flint Institute of Arts	$25,000	6	0%
The Crim Fitness Foundation Inc	$20,000	5	0%
Crossover Outreach	$18,000	5	1%
Flint Institute of Music	$17,500	3	0%
YMCA of Greater Flint	$17,000	3	0%
Genesee Area Focus Fund	$12,500	3	0%

Show all 27 grantees

All grantees of Merkley Charitable Trust by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Humane Society of Genesee County	$174,433	5	13%
Food Bank of Eastern Michigan	$54,000	6	0%
Hurley Foundation	$44,000	4	0%
Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute	$33,000	5	0%
Flint Institute of Arts	$25,000	6	0%
The Crim Fitness Foundation Inc	$20,000	5	0%
Crossover Outreach	$18,000	5	1%
Flint Institute of Music	$17,500	3	0%
YMCA of Greater Flint	$17,000	3	0%
Genesee Area Focus Fund	$12,500	3	0%
Chosen Few Arts Council	$12,500	5	4%
Ele's Place Inc	$11,000	3	0%
Genesee County Habitat for Humanity	$11,000	3	0%
Communities First Inc	$10,000	4	0%
Flint Soap Box Derby	$9,000	3	5%
Kettering University	$8,000	2	0%
Shelter of Flint Inc	$7,000	4	0%
The Flint Diaper Bank Inc	$5,000	1	2%
The Flint Children's Museum	$5,000	2	0%
Flint Cultural Center Corporation	$5,000	1	0%
Friends of for Mar Foundation Inc	$5,000	1	28%
Flint & Genesee Group	$5,000	1	0%
Faith Foundation Resources	$4,500	2	1%
Senior Winter Games of Genesee County	$4,000	1	n/a
Asbury Community Development Corp	$2,000	1	0%
Boys & Girls Club of Greater Flint	$2,000	1	0%
Without Walls Outreach	$1,000	1	1%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 11 recipients with no EIN on record ($718k), not named here.

Merkley Charitable Trust supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 26 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 26.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable TrustOH45.4× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable Trust · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · Community Foundation of Greater Flint · Burroughs Memorial Trust · The Whiting Foundation · Nartel Family Foundation · The Hagerman Foundation · The Serra Foundation · Ruth Mott Foundation · Child Welfare Society of Flint · Anna Paulina Foundation · Tummala Charitable Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Merkley Charitable Trust with peer funders

About Merkley Charitable Trust

How much does Merkley Charitable Trust give?: Merkley Charitable Trust reported 13 grants totaling $191,105 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 14 and 20 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Merkley Charitable Trust fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Recreation & Sports (53%), Animals (14%), Health (6%).
Who are Merkley Charitable Trust's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Humane Society of Genesee County ($174k), Food Bank of Eastern Michigan ($54k), Hurley Foundation ($44k).
Does Merkley Charitable Trust fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 14% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Merkley Charitable Trust accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Merkley Charitable Trust?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Stella & Frederick Loeb Charitable Trust, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Flint.
Where is Merkley Charitable Trust based?: Merkley Charitable Trust is based in OH.