OVERVIEW: The Bates Family Foundation funds grantmaking related to education. To a lesser extent, it supports environmental conservation, animal welfare, community development, and arts and culture.
IP TAKE: The foundation lacks transparency, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities. Its grants tend to support the same organizations repeatedly, and many grantees appear to be organizations with which the family has a connection. This will be a difficult funder to approach without a connection to the family.
PROFILE: Established in 1999, the Bates Family Foundation is steered by Rex W. Bates, a veteran of State Farm Insurance. The foundation does not maintain a website, which limits information available on its grantmaking priorities and activities. According to tax filings, the Bates Family Foundation primarily funds grantmaking related to education and maintains secondary interests in conservation, animals arts and culture, and community development. A significant portion of this foundation’s grantmaking serves organizations in the state of Washington, where it is based.
Grants for Higher Education
Higher education is the foundation’s largest giving area, with grants going to many colleges and university in Washington, and some top universities around the country. At the University of Washington, the family endowed the Bates Family‘s Paul G. Ramsey M.D. Endowed Scholarship in Medicine. Other Washington grantees include Seattle Pacific University, Whitman College and the R. Merle Palmer Minority Scholarship Foundation. Other higher education grantees include the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of the Redlands.
Grants for K-12 Education
The Bates Family Foundation prioritizea K-12 education in Washington and across the U.S. Rex Bates worked as a history teacher, dorm parent and coach at Shattuck St. Mary’s School in Minneapolis, which receives ongoing support. After some three decades in insurance, he returned to education and serves as Director of Business Development at Washington’s Annie Wright Schools, which the family also supports. Other K-2 giving tends to support private and faith-based schools. Grantees include Concordia Christian Academy in Tacoma, the Oakwood School in Greenville, North Carolina and St. Paul’s School of Concord, New Hampshire, among others.
Grants for Environment and Animal Welfare
Environmental conservation and animals are much smaller areas of giving for this funder, but a few grants go this way each year. Equestrian organizations are an area of specific interest. Grantees include the Equestrian Land Conservation Resource, the United States Pony Clubs, Detroit Horse Power and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Grants for Community Development, Arts and Culture
Community development and community cultural programs are smaller giving areas for the Bates Family Foundation, and most of this giving stays in the Tacoma area of Washington. The foundation has given to Symphony Tacoma, the YWCA of Tacoma Pierce County, the Sequim City Band, Tacoma’s Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation and the Children’s Museum of Tacoma.
Important Grant Details:
Grants range from $2,000 to $550,000.
Education is, by far, the foundation’s largest giving area, with the biggest grants going to higher education and K-12 schools with which the family has a connection.
Community and arts and culture grants are mainly limited to the Tacoma area.
This funder does not accept unsolicited applications for funding.
For additional information about the Bates Family Foundation’s past giving, see past tax filings.
This foundation does not provide a direct way of getting in touch, but its phone number is listed as (253) 752-4601.
PEOPLE:
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CONTACT:
Bates Family Foundation
P.O. Box 6861
Tacoma, WA 98417
(253) 752-4601
