Notice–New Grant Process

Effective July 1, 2013 (the conclusion of the first 2013 grant cycle), the Kenney Brothers Foundation will no longer accept unsolicited letters of inquiry or grant proposals. We’ve come to this decisions reluctantly as the foundation has always had an open policy with respect to LOIs and proposals. Over the last 4 years, the number of LOIs we receive has increased dramatically. We speculate that this is the result of both the recession and the small number of foundations that make grants specifically for western water work. We regret we do not have the resources to be able to review and respond to this influx of proposals and LOIs. All existing multi-year commitments will be honored.

In the future, we will consider only those proposals we have invited; we will not consider unsolicited proposals. We will make contact with those groups we think will fit our mission and values. We will note these changes here and in our grant guidelines.

Grants Announced

The Kenney Brothers Foundation is pleased to announce its grants for the second half of 2012. As always, we appreciate the interest and enthusiasm of the many groups that applied for a grant this year. We also appreciate your patience with our streamlined and relatively simple process. Our process requires very little in terms of time and expense on the grantee side. By the same token, we try to keep administrative expenses to a minimum by operating with a ghost staff, no office, and no official phone so that 99.5% of our available funds can be distributed to groups such as yours.

Kenney Brothers Foundation does not require any formal contracts, reporting or written acknowledgement of the grant. We specifically ask that you not send us hard copy grant reports. The same goes for fancy annual reports, newsletters, presents, pins, badges, t-shirts or bumper stickers. Seriously! Save your money for the work you’re doing. Sending that kind of material to me does not improve your chances of renewing a grant in the coming year, it just clutters up our mailbox and creates work for the local recycling team. Smart groups will stay in touch and send any necessary acknowledgement via e-mail, jay[at]kenneybrosfdn.org. We are happy to read anything you send my way when I have time.

Listed below are the grantees for the Wick Fund. If you submitted a letter of inquiry and your group is not on this list, we were unable to find enough funds to support your group and wish you the best of luck finding funding elsewhere.  There is never enough money to meet the needs of all the good groups that apply for support. Please send me an email if you have any questions. Thanks for doing the work that you do. We hope the people and groups around you appreciate that work as much as we do.

Grants Announced–June 2012

I’m pleased to announce our grants for the first half of the year. The following groups were selected to receive grants from the Wick Fund and/or the Jay Fund of the Kenney Brothers Foundation. Checks will be issued immediately. If you submitted a letter of inquiry and your group is not on this list, we were unable to find enough funds to support your group and wish you the best of luck finding funding elsewhere.  Please send me an email if you have any questions.

Grants Announced

The Kenney Brothers Foundation is pleased to announce their grants for the second half of 2011. Checks have been cut and will be mailed by week’s end. Please see the past grantees page for a complete listing of grants made. The list represents grants from both the Wick Fund and the Jay Fund. As is our custom, we do not have nor require any formal reporting process, but are always pleased to learn by email of progress, success, and even failure. All grants made were discretionary grants and ranged in size from $500 to $10,000.

Charles “Chip” Kenney

The Kenney Brothers Foundation mourns the death of Chip Kenney, founding and long-time board member of the William C. Kenney Watershed Protection Foundation. Chip, 53, died December 7, 2011, at his home in Kenwood, CA. Chip was born March 4, 1958 in Rhode Island to Horace and Helen (Kendall) Kenney, the fourth of five children. He graduated from the University of Denver in 1980, and in 1985 followed his love of nature and sports to the California coast, where he lived until his passing. He was a lover of animals and his family and enjoyed woodworking and growing organic fruit. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Judith Kenney, daughter Theresa Kenney, father Horace Kenney, and siblings Chad Kenney, Jay Kenney, and Susanna Russo. He was preceded in death by his mother, Helen Kenney, and his brother, William (Wick) Kenney. Memorial Contributions may be sent to NORCAL Golden Retriever Rescue, 405 El Camino Real #420, Menlo Park, CA 94025-5240.