Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation

Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation

The foundation carries forward the wealth generated by Gary Milgard, who co-founded Milgard Windows with his brother James and sold the company to Masco Corporation in 2001. After his death in 2002, proceeds funded a philanthropic structure centered in Tacoma, Washington. Gary's widow Carol Milgard, who contributed significantly to the company's culture during her lifetime, provided additional assets to the foundation upon her death in 2018 (per Altss research). Unlike a centralized single-family office, the Milgard philanthropic architecture deliberately fragments authority: each of the couple's three children — Cari Milgard-DeGoede, Lori Milgard Rivera, and Mark Milgard — presides over their own sub-foundation (Whisper, Ruth, and Skylight, respectively), while an additional vehicle, the Windows of Hope Foundation, operates under daughter Sunshine Milgard. Grantmaking prioritizes Pierce County, Washington, and the greater Los Angeles area, with programs spanning animal welfare, marine life preservation, and homelessness initiatives. The foundation operates a direct youth outreach program in Los Angeles in partnership with the Del Rey Yacht Club, deploying a dedicated vessel called the Kindness Kruise. Beyond programmatic grants, the foundation maintains a small portfolio of financial assets including a stake in the HedgePremier / Rida Fund LP (per Altss research). The geographic split mirrors the family's own distribution: Tacoma serves as the institutional base, while the LA presence reflects where several second-generation members now live. The foundation's operations run through its headquarters at 1701 Commerce Street in Tacoma, a commercial property it owns. Scott Ehlers, a grandson of the founders, directs the Kindness is Free program, signaling a third generation's involvement. The endowment's total size is not publicly disclosed, making its grantmaking capacity opaque to external observers. James A. Milgard, Gary's brother and co-founder of the window business, maintains his own philanthropic presence in the region as a major donor to the University of Washington Tacoma, operating separately from the family foundation's structure. The foundation's structural differentiator is its deliberate fragmentation into sibling-run sub-foundations — a governance choice that avoids concentrating grantmaking authority in a single family office or committee. This architecture mirrors the Milgard family's succession preferences: autonomy per household rather than institutional consolidation. The model has persisted through a generational transition, with grandchildren now running programmatic initiatives alongside the original executive director, Christine Zemanek, who serves as the connective tissue across all four vehicles.