Hunt Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Hunt Family Foundation supports nonprofit organizations and initiatives that focus on the Paso del Norte region which includes El Paso County, Texas, Southern New Mexico, and Juarez, Mexico. Grantmaking largely focuses on healthcare and education.
IP TAKE: Organizations working outside of this funder's geographic priority area will have to demonstrate their impact in the foundation's preferred region. This is a transparent and accessible funder that’s great to know in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico.
PROFILE: Established in 1987, the Hunt Family Foundation is the foundation of Woody Hunt, who serves as executive chairman of Hunt Companies, a holding company that invests in business focused in the real estate and infrastructure markets. Woody Hunt graduated from University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in finance and an MBA. Hunt also earned an M.A. in management from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He returned to El Paso and found a temporary job working for the family business. The temporary job turned into a permanent job, and he eventually became CEO. Today, Hunt Companies is a holding company that invests in businesses focused on the real estate and infrastructure markets. It is the largest military housing owner in the country, with about 52,000 homes on nearly 50 military bases.
The Hunts and other family members help steer the foundation today. The foundation primarily focuses on healthcare, education, arts, local heritage, quality of life initiatives, and regional economic development.
Grants for Health
The Hunt Family Foundation has supported the Texas Tech University Health Science Center at El Paso since 2002. A $10 million multiyear grant established the Gayle Greve Hunt School of Nursing. The foundation gave a $25 million gift to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso to establish the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine. Other grantees include The Medical Center of the Americas Foundation, El Paso Children's Hospital, and FEMAP Foundation, whose mission is to "raise the quality of life among people living in poverty through health services,education, economic, and social empowerment."
Grants for Education
Hunt is a founder of CREEED, a nonprofit working to increase the number of young El Pasoans who attend college. Near the end of 2017, Hunt made a $12 million commitment to CREEED. The Hunt Foundation also made a $1 million grant to El Paso Community Foundation, helping provide scholarships for El Paso Community College students. Other grantees include New Mexico State University Foundation (NMSU is home to the Hunt Center for Entrepreneurship), UT Austin, Ysleta Education Foundation, and University of Texas at El Paso, home to the Hunt Institute for Global Competitiveness, a think tank.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Hunts, via their foundation, have supported El Paso Museum of Art since 1988. Other grantees include El Paso Zoological Society, El Paso Museum of History Foundation, and Texas State History Museum Foundation.
Grants for Human Services and Economic Development
Hunt is strongly interested in improving the local economy in the El Paso region. Foundation grantmaking has supported human services organizations as well as economic development. Grantees include El Pasoans Fighting Hunger and Paso del Norte Foundation, whose aim is to "improve health, education, economic opportunity and quality of life for children and families of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua."
Important Grant Details:
Grants are often a few thousand dollars, but others are well into the millions of dollars. The foundation does not have an online grants database, but it does share grantmaking news on its website. Grantmaking focuses on a specific geographic region called Paso del Norte in the Southwes,t which includes El Paso County in Texas; Doña Ana County in New Mexico, Otero County in New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez in Chihuahua, México.
The Hunt Family Foundation accepts grant applications between January 1 and April 1 and then makes its decisions by September 15. It accepts unsolicited grant applications via online system. Direct general questions to the foundation staff at 915-747-4294 or via online form.
PEOPLE:
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