About Middle Run Charitable Foundation
A $250,000 grant to Delaware Botanic Gardens is the clearest recent signal of Middle Run Charitable Foundation’s priorities: it supports place-based institutions in Delaware with a mix of general assistance, education, and community services. The foundation’s recent awards repeatedly land in Wilmington and nearby communities, with large gifts to organizations tied to health, housing repair, faith-affiliated schooling, and animal welfare. In 2025, The Nemours Foundation received $100,000, and Friendship House received $65,000, both as general assistance. Other sizable grants went to Faithful Friends Animal Society, Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church, Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County, and St Michael's School and Nursery, each at $50,000. That pattern suggests a board-driven funder that is comfortable writing checks for operating needs as well as specific projects. Recent education support includes St Michael's School and Nursery, Reading Assist, Vision to Learn, and Epic Delaware, while community-serving grants also reached Jewish Family Services Delaware, Kind to Kids Foundation, Kingswood Community Center, and Ronald Mcdonald House of Delaware. The grant record shows a regional Delaware focus with occasional awards outside the state for organizations of particular interest to the board.
What Middle Run Charitable Foundation Funds
The foundation’s clearest theme is support for healthy, self-sufficient families. In 2025, it gave $100,000 to The Nemours Foundation for general assistance and $30,000 to Saint Patrick's Center for general assistance, both aligned with health and basic services. Housing repair and homebuilding also appear repeatedly: Habitat for Humanity of New Castle County received $50,000, and Good Neighbors Home Repair received $30,000. Faith-affiliated education is another visible thread. St Michael's School and Nursery received $50,000 in 2025 after a $50,000 education grant in 2023, showing continued support for the same institution. The grant record also includes reading and youth-learning work, including $30,000 to Reading Assist and $25,000 to Vision to Learn, indicating a practical interest in education access rather than a single program model.
How Middle Run Charitable Foundation Gives
Typical awards cluster around $20,000 to $25,000, with a lower quartile of $10,000, a median of $20,000, and an upper quartile of $25,000. Larger outliers exist, including a $250,000 grant and several $50,000 gifts. The foundation appears to fund the same organizations more than once: St Michael's School and Nursery, Faithful Friends Animal Society, Reading Assist, Epic Delaware, Habitat for Humanity of NCC, Vision to Learn, and Upstream Alliance all appear in multiple years. It operates as a private foundation making direct grants, and it accepts unsolicited applications through annual grant programs with two cycles each year.
