I want to share some exciting news about our work at the Tom E. Dailey Foundation: We just passed the million dollar mark in awarded grants! Since 2013, we have funded 352 grants totaling $1,009,661. And, we are evolving the foundation for the future.
.
Back in 2012, I was blessed to have the financial capacity to create this foundation after the sale of a business. It has been one of the great joys of my life to be able to support hundreds of worthy organizations in the categories of diversity, at-risk youth, the arts, parks & gardens and railroad heritage.
Along the way, we found that there is a huge need for foundations such as ours to support smaller nonprofit organizations who are seeking grants of $10,000 or less for specific projects. Most foundations do not fund smaller grants, or have cumbersome, complicated application processes which smaller nonprofits do not have the resources to navigate. These types of organizations and grants are our primary focus.
Until now, the activities of our foundation have been solely funded by me. With COVID-19 financial challenges to our Zoup! Restaurant business, I will not have the ability to continue to fund the foundation at the same level as past years… but we have a plan!

With the support of our board of directors, we have entered a strategic planning process to open the foundation to outside funding. In other words, we will soon begin to accept donations from the public to continue our work. We will also be changing the name of our organization to reflect the fact that I will no longer be the sole funder.
I’m excited about our evolution and future. Stay tuned for more details, and we welcome your suggestions and comments. Feel free to send them to me at tom@daileyfoundation.org.

Tom E. Dailey Foundation Inc.