Caerus Foundation

Caerus Foundation

Caerus Foundation was established in 2003 by J. Thomas Hurvis, the founder of Old World Industries, a Northbrook, Illinois-based automotive chemicals manufacturer best known for the Peak brand. The foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) private independent foundation, governed by Hurvis as President alongside family directors Sara H. Younkin and Christina M. Hurvis. Its grant-making centers on four program areas: the arts, education, the environment, and global health. The foundation runs a hybrid allocation model. It makes traditional grants to nonprofits — including participation in the Sustain Our Great Lakes public-private partnership alongside Crown Family Philanthropies — while also holding a venture capital portfolio and direct investments. IRS filings show it carries positions in venture funds and maintains a loan receivable to Funding University, Inc., a fintech-focused education lender. On the real-asset side, the foundation holds a position in Link Real Estate Investment Trust, a publicly traded Hong Kong property vehicle with a mixed-use portfolio across retail, office, and logistics assets in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore. The foundation's most recent available filings peg its asset base at approximately $122 million (Altss estimate), placing it in the mid-sized private foundation tier. Governance rests with a tight family board — Hurvis as President, Younkin as Vice President and Director, and Christina Hurvis as Secretary and Director — without the multi-layered investment staff typical of larger institutional endowments. The foundation does not maintain offices beyond its Northbrook headquarters. Caerus sits at the intersection of two distinct institutional forms: it operates as a classic grant-making private foundation while holding a portfolio that includes venture capital fund commitments, a direct loan to a fintech operating company, and a publicly listed Asian REIT position. That unusual mix — traditional environmental and education grants alongside direct venture and cross-border real asset exposure — reflects the founder-operator flexibility of a single-family vehicle housed inside a 501(c)(3) structure.