Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation

Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation

The Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation launched in 2008, the same year Mike Goodrich completed the sale of BE&K, the Birmingham-based engineering and construction giant he led as Chairman and CEO, to KBR for $550 million. Rather than build a conventional family office around the liquidity event, the Goodriches established an endowed foundation alongside Timberline Holdings, the family's primary investment vehicle. The foundation's governance stays within the family: son Charles Goodrich serves as Chair, and daughter Grace Goodrich holds the Secretary role. Grantmaking concentrates on Alabama, with four program areas: education, environment, arts and culture, and neighborhood revitalization. The foundation favors multi-year commitments to place-based organizations that can show measurable community impact. Since 2009, it has distributed more than $37 million, with assets estimated between $80 million and $110 million (Altss estimate). Notable grantees include Birmingham-based education nonprofits and environmental conservation groups operating within the state. The foundation's approach reflects the engineering background of its founder — it prioritizes scalable, evidence-backed interventions over broad general operating support. The foundation operates from a commercial office at 3800 Colonnade Parkway in Birmingham. Governance remains tightly held, with the founding couple's children occupying key fiduciary roles. The family participates in regional philanthropic networks, including the Southeastern Council of Foundations, while Mike Goodrich maintains individual affiliations with Leadership Alabama and the National Academy of Construction. Timberline Holdings, run by sons Charles and Braxton Goodrich, manages the broader family portfolio separately from the foundation's endowment, maintaining a structural firewall between grantmaking assets and family wealth. The Goodrich structure is unusual for its clean division of labor: Timberline Holdings handles market-rate investing with no philanthropic mandate, while the foundation executes the grant strategy with no commingling of assets. This architecture avoids the common family-office tension between return-seeking and impact goals. The foundation's insistence on Alabama-only grantmaking further distinguishes it from peers that dilute impact across geographies. Succession appears locked, with second-generation family members already in operational control of both the foundation and the family investment entity.