FundersWest Virginia

Mary B Nickell Foundation Inc

Bluefield, WV · EIN 20-1185471. Reported 50 grants totalling $269,970 to 23 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$5,000median grant
$269,970granted, 2021-2024
23organizations funded
60%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,552,791assets, 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. Mary B Nickell Foundation Inc 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 $5,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $2,000 and $5,000; the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $20,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

$1,000 - $5,000
19 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
23 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
8 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
Wellspring of Greenbrier IncRupert, WV$70,000442024
Communities in the Schools of Greenbrier CoLewisburg, WV$37,500442024
Greater Greenbrier Valley Community FdnLewisburg, WV$21,000432023
Old Stone Presbyterian ChurchLewisburg, WV$20,000442024
New River Community and Technical College FoundationGhent, WV$15,000332023
Northern Greenbrier Latchkey Kids IncFrankford, WV$15,000332023
Read Aloud West VirginiaCharleston, WV$15,000332024
Carnegie Hall IncLewisburg, WV$10,000222022
Greenbrier Historical Society IncLewisburg, WV$10,000222022
Family Refuge CenterLewisburg, WV$9,000332024
Lewisburg Literary GroupLewisburg, WV$8,000332024
Greenbrier County SchoolsLewisburg, WV$6,000332023
Greenbrier Co Commission on AgingRupert, WV$5,000112022
Greenbrier Valley AquaticLewisburg, WV$5,000112024
Shepherd's Center Greenbrier Valley IncLewisburg, WV$5,000112024
City of RonceverteRonceverte, WV$3,000112024
Frankford Autumn Fest CoporationMaxwelton, WV$3,000222024
Greenbrier East High SchoolLewisburg, WV$3,000112024
Greenbrier Co Humane SocietyLewisburg, WV$2,500112023
Ronceverte Presbyterian ChurchRonceverte, WV$2,500112023
Renick Community Center IncRenick, WV$2,000112022
Greenbrier Valley ChoraleLewisburg, WV$1,470112023
Lewisburg FoundationLewisburg, WV$1,000112024

13 of 23 (57%) received money in more than one year over the 4 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 60%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is about typical. 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.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 14 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Arts & Culture
6 grants
Human Services
4 grants
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
4 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202111$64,000$5,000
202215$70,000$5,000
202312$70,470$4,000
202412$65,500$4,000

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

Lewisburg, WV
$139K
Rupert, WV
$75K
Ghent, WV
$15K
Frankford, WV
$15K
Charleston, WV
$15K
Ronceverte, WV
$6K
Maxwelton, WV
$3K
Renick, WV
$2K

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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.

The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation9 shared recipientsHollowell Dawkins Foundation Inc8 shared recipientsThe Daywood Foundationinc4 shared recipientsUnited Way of the Greenbrier Valley Inc4 shared recipientsThe Louise R Lester Foundation Inc2 shared recipientsFirstenergy Foundation2 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $5,000. 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 West Virginia.
  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 Mary B Nickell Foundation Inc's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 525 Federal Street, Bluefield, WV, 24701. 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 20-1185471 · 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 hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.