Chestnut Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Chestnut Family Foundation mainly supports arts education in the Atlanta area. Other interests include early childhood education and pediatric health.
IP TAKE: The Chestnut Family Foundation is a relative newcomer to the philanthropic scene in Atlanta and appears to be a good source of funding for arts organizations that offer educational and outreach programs for children of the Atlanta area. While the foundation does not run an open application program per se, it welcomes inquiries via the form on its contact page, claiming that all inquiries are reviewed by the foundation’s team. Chestnut funding is probably less accessible in the areas of early childhood education and pediatric health, in which areas the foundation only gives to a select few recipients.
PROFILE: Established in Atlanta, Georgia in 2017, the Chestnut Family Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Ben and Theresa Chestnut. Ben Chestnut was raised in the state of Georgia. He studied physics and industrial design at the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a cofounder of the widely used customer relationship management platform Mailchimp. Theresa Chestnut is originally from South Korea, and she worked as a pediatric nurse at Hughes Spalding Hospital in Atlanta. The Chestnut Foundation, which mainly funds organizations in the Atlanta area, seeks to “partner with nonprofits that have demonstrated compassion and creativity in improving access and choice for children in the areas of health and the performing arts.”
Grants for Early Childhood, K-12 Education and Arts Education
The Chestnut Family Foundation names the development of self confidence in children as the driving force behind its education and arts education grantmaking. Beyond this, however, the foundation does not name specific strategies for its grantmaking in these areas. A recent grantee working in the area of early childhood education is Atlanta’s City of Refuge, which received $600,000 for its high quality, full-day preschool for children between the ages of six weeks to five years old. The foundation has also supported several arts organizations that provide in- and out-of-school learning opportunities at the K-12 level. Grantees include Moving in the Spirit, Artsnow, the Ballethnic Dance Company, the Jessye Normal School of the Arts and the Georgia Ballet. The foundation has also funded a scholarship at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in the family’s name.
Grants for Public Health
To date, the Chestnut Family Foundation’s grantmaking for public health has been limited to support for the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation, an organization which coordinates specialized medical care for all children of the Atlanta community.
Important Grant Details:
In a recent year, the Chestnut Family Foundation made just under $1 million in grants, with most grants ranging from $100,000 to $300,000. Larger sums have been awarded in only a few cases. Funding is mainly limited to the Atlanta area, and grantees tend to be well established in the community. For additional information about past grantmaking see the foundation’s recent tax filings.
The Chestnut Family Foundation accepts general inquiries via its contact page, which states that “all inquiries will be reviewed” by the organization’s team. The foundation does not provide guidelines or due dates for the submission of full proposals at this time.
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