Building Dreams Foundation

Building Dreams Foundation is the philanthropic vehicle of Raymus Homes, a Manteca, CA homebuilder founded by Toni and Bob Raymus. It has no paid staff: the board of record is Toni Raymus (President), Bob Raymus (Vice President), Laurie Raymus (Director), and Andrew Sephos (Director), all with $0 listed compensation across every filed year — this is a hands-on family foundation, not an institutional grantmaker with program officers. There is no formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline and no evidence of site visits in the record; the entire application consists of a mailed letter with your organization's name and address, the specific grant amount requested, and a copy of your IRS determination letter, sent to Toni Raymus at PO Box 2188, Manteca, CA 95336, by October 31 each year. The foundation favors organizations with a physical presence and track record in the Manteca-Lathrop/Central Valley area: 64 of the 65 grants in its tracked giving history (98.5%) went to California recipients, with a single documented exception in North Carolina. Toni and Bob Raymus personally sit on the boards of HOPE Family Shelters, the Boys & Girls Club of Manteca-Lathrop, Give Every Child a Chance, and Doctors Hospital of Manteca — all of which appear among its funded organizations — so a warm relationship through this local civic network matters more than a polished cold application. First-time applicants should also recognize the funding pattern: about a third of the top 50 tracked grantees received support across two or three separate gifts, indicating the foundation rewards continuity and stewardship rather than one-off giving, but it does not appear to enter multi-year funding commitments — each year's request is evaluated fresh. Because there is no dedicated foundation staff or communications channel, the most effective approach is a concise, specific ask (a named project or cost, not general capacity-building) paired with any existing personal connection to the Raymus family's civic and business network in San Joaquin County. Organizations well outside California, or without a clear Central Valley service footprint, should treat this as a long-shot funder regardless of mission fit.

Across its tracked giving history, Building Dreams Foundation has made 65 recorded grants totaling $326,323, an average of $5,020 per grant. The foundation's own most-recent-year snapshot shows a typical grant size with a median of $5,000, an average of $5,578, and a range from $600 to $15,000 across 22 grants — this is a small-check funder, not a capital-campaign funder. Looking at cumulative multi-year totals to individual organizations, the largest relationships are Hope Ministries ($35,000 across 3 grants, for shelter property purchase and liability insurance), University of the Pacific ($31,000 across 2 grants for operating costs), Boys & Girls Club of Manteca-Lathrop ($28,250 across 3 grants for education-center staffing), Calvary Community Church ($25,000 across 3 grants for auditorium sound/light upgrades), and Haven of Peace ($22,221 across 3 grants for building/grounds upgrades). By purpose, funding clusters into four buckets: human services and shelter (Hope Ministries, Haven of Peace, Gospel Center Rescue Mission, St. Vincent De Paul), youth and education (Boys & Girls Club, Sierra High School, Give Every Child a Chance, Weston Ranch High School), food security (Second Harvest Foodbank of San Joaquin County, $16,450 across 3 grants), and general operating-cost or event-sponsorship gifts, which make up roughly a third of the top 50 recorded grants by count. Geographically, giving is almost entirely local: 64 of 65 grants (98.5%) went to California organizations, overwhelmingly in the Manteca-Lathrop-Stockton corridor, with one grant reaching North Carolina. On the balance sheet, assets have grown modestly and unevenly — $1,639,149 (FY2020) to $1,713,303 (FY2019, out of sequence in filings) to $1,911,140 (FY2021) to $2,024,486 (FY2022) to $1,954,224 (FY2023), and $2,076,514 as of the most recent IRS record. Annual giving is volatile and tracks irregular capital injections from the Raymus family rather than a fixed payout formula: total giving was $133,443 (FY2019), $133,122 (FY2020), $189,420 (FY2021, following a $340,000 contribution), $73,981 (FY2022, the low point), and $147,087 (FY2023). Investment income alone (roughly $55,000-$69,000 per year in recent filings) funds a meaningful share of baseline grantmaking even in years without new contributions.

Because Building Dreams Foundation does not publish a program budget, the closest available comparison set is five similarly-sized 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' category foundations matched on total assets (all approximately $2.08 million, versus this foundation's $2,076,514). None of these peers have a public website on file, and none disclose an annual giving figure or stated focus area in this dataset, which itself is telling: like Building Dreams Foundation, small family foundations at this asset scale typically operate without staff, websites, or public communications.

Building Dreams Foundation stands out among this peer set as the only one with any public application process at all — a mailed request with minimal documentation and a fixed October 31 deadline — while its peers show no discoverable website, grants page, or public giving criteria. This makes Building Dreams Foundation comparatively more accessible than a typical asset-matched peer, even though its actual grant sizes (median $5,000) remain modest relative to its $2M+ asset base.

No 2025-2026 press coverage, leadership changes, or new program announcements were found for the actual Manteca, CA foundation (EIN 35-2253656) during this research. Search results instead surfaced unrelated organizations sharing similar names — most prominently a Naples, FL foundation at buildingdreamsfoundation.org run by Diamond Custom Homes, which reported raising over $140,000 at its fourth annual golf scramble benefiting Southwest Florida nonprofits (Habitat for Humanity of Collier County, the Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center, and the Immokalee Foundation) — none of which are connected to the Raymus family's foundation. Note for internal data hygiene: this database's stored website field (buildingdreamsfoundation.org) and its 'Collier County, Florida' geographic focus and Florida-area-code phone number appear to be mismatched to that unrelated Naples entity rather than this foundation; the foundation's actual online presence is the community-involvement page on raymushomes.com. Based on IRS filings, the foundation's leadership has been stable since its 2005 ruling date, with Toni Raymus continuing as President and principal contact and Bob Raymus as Vice President. The most recent verified asset figure ($2,076,514, recorded 2026-09-06) shows continued modest growth over the FY2023 close ($1,954,224). No new programs, focus-area changes, or funding announcements beyond routine annual grantmaking were identified. Given the foundation's consistently low public profile — no dedicated grants page, no social media, no press office — the absence of news should be read as normal operating pattern rather than a signal of disruption.

This is a low-overhead, relationship-driven funder, and the application tips that matter are specific to how it actually operates. First, the deadline is fixed and narrow: October 31 every year, with no evidence of a second cycle or rolling review — build your calendar around this single date. Second, the required materials are deliberately minimal: your organization's name and address, the specific dollar amount you're requesting, and a copy of your IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter, mailed to Toni Raymus at PO Box 2188, Manteca, CA 95336 (phone 209-824-3080 to confirm receipt, since there's no online portal or automated acknowledgment). A common mistake would be over-building this into a full grant proposal with budgets, logic models, and multi-page narratives — the foundation's own instructions ask for none of that, and a lean, direct letter that mirrors its expectations is more likely to be read favorably by an all-volunteer family board. Third, be specific and local in your ask: the funded purposes on record read like single-line project descriptions ('grant to purchase 20 car seats for less fortunate,' 'grant for improvements to auditorium sound and light systems,' 'grant to fund salaries & staffing for education center') rather than general operating appeals, and 98.5% of dollars stayed within California, concentrated in the Manteca-Lathrop area. If your organization isn't based in or serving San Joaquin County or the broader Central Valley, temper expectations accordingly. Fourth, relationship-building matters more than cold outreach: Toni and Bob Raymus personally serve on the boards of HOPE Family Shelters, the Boys & Girls Club of Manteca-Lathrop, Give Every Child a Chance, and Doctors Hospital of Manteca — organizations adjacent to or overlapping with this civic network have a structural advantage. Fifth, size your ask realistically: the median grant is $5,000 and the observed ceiling for a single gift is roughly $16,460, though larger cumulative relationships (up to $35,000) are built over multiple separate annual grants rather than one large award — don't ask for a single six-figure gift. Finally, note that once funded, continuity is possible: several organizations in the historical grantee list received support in two or three separate cycles, so treating a first grant as the start of an ongoing relationship — with informal follow-up on how funds were used — appears to be rewarded in subsequent years.