Dorcas Foundation

Dorcas Foundation is a small, family-governed private foundation in Advance, NC (Forsyth/Davie County) whose IRS mission statement is explicit: "to provide support to Energize Ministries, Inc. and other local ministries." This is not a competitive grant program in any conventional sense — it is a giving vehicle built around one family's existing charitable relationships. All five listed officers and directors (President Kim Riley Beauchamp, Treasurer Kimberly R. Beauchamp, Secretary David W. Owens Sr., Director Sheila Owens, Director Joel Boyles) are uncompensated, and the foundation's own IRS filings mark it as funding preselected organizations only, with `application_instructions` on file reading "none" and no published application form, portal, or deadline. Third-party aggregators (Instrumentl, Grantmakers.io) independently corroborate this reading, describing Dorcas Foundation as an organization that "selects its grantees" rather than soliciting proposals. Across its 15 recorded grants totaling $786,000, one recipient — Energize Ministries Inc., a Winston-Salem pastoral-care and clergy-restoration ministry — has received $710,000 (90.3%) across four separate grants, confirming this is fundamentally a dedicated funding arm for one affiliated organization rather than a general community foundation. The remaining seven grantees (Samaritan's Purse, The Gideons International, Green Meadows Baptist Church, Winston-Salem Rescue Mission, Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministries, Salem Outreach Network, Davie Pregnancy Care Center) are small, flat, recurring gifts of $2,000-$30,000, all Christian ministry or human-services organizations physically located in or near Forsyth/Davie County, NC, with one grant reaching Tennessee. For an organization outside this circle, the realistic strategy is not to submit a proposal but to build a genuine relationship with Energize Ministries or with the local Winston-Salem/Mocksville Christian ministry network the family already funds — jail and prison ministry, crisis pregnancy care, rescue missions, and disaster relief are all represented. A cold approach via the foundation's contact form should be treated as a long shot, not a primary channel.

Total lifetime recorded giving is $786,000 across 15 grants, for an average grant of $52,400 — but that average is skewed heavily by Energize Ministries' four grants (which alone average $177,500). Excluding Energize Ministries, the other 11 grants average just $6,900, and the foundation's own computed "typical grant size" field (built from a 4-grant sample, presumably the larger, more foundation-like gifts) shows a range of $15,000-$30,000 with a median and average both at $22,500. At the small end, several ministries (Winston-Salem Rescue Mission, Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministries, Salem Outreach Network, Davie Pregnancy Care Center) receive flat, recurring $2,000 gifts, twice each in the recorded data ($4,000 total per organization) — these read as small, loyal annual gifts rather than project grants. Geographically, 14 of 15 grants (93%) went to North Carolina organizations and 1 to Tennessee; there is no evidence of giving outside this two-state footprint. By program purpose, "pastoral support and restoration" (Energize Ministries) accounts for 90.3% of dollars; "disaster & refugee relief" (Samaritan's Purse) 3.8%; Bible distribution (Gideons International) and missionary support (Green Meadows Baptist Church) 1.9% each; and general "support" grants to the four small local ministries roughly 0.5% each. On the financial trendline, total assets have held steady in the $4.25M-$4.66M range for FY2021-FY2023 (peaking at $4.66M in 2022, dipping to $4.25M in 2023 alongside a market-driven decline in net investment income from $200,520 to $48,164), while grants paid have plateaued at $240,000-$248,000/year for the two most recent filed years after a multi-year ramp-up from a $27,500 base in 2019. Given zero new contributions received in FY2023 ($0, versus $213,425 in 2021 and $4.39M in the 2020 capitalization year), the foundation now appears to be operating primarily off investment income and existing corpus rather than fresh family contributions — a signal that the ~$240K-$250K/year giving level may be close to a sustainable steady state rather than a growth trajectory.

All six organizations share both the same NTEE major category (Human Services) and near-identical asset scale ($3.76M-$4.25M), but the category label is misleading — several peers (a memorial park, an athlete-named foundation, an equestrian trust) are likely narrow, name-affiliated or single-purpose vehicles much like Dorcas Foundation itself, rather than general community funders. Dorcas Foundation stands out as one of the few in this peer set with actual, itemized grant-level detail available (15 grants, $786K lifetime, 90% to one affiliated ministry), which is itself informative: foundations at this asset tier are frequently single-family, single-cause vehicles with no meaningful open-door grant program, and cold applicants should expect the same closed structure across most of this peer group.

No foundation-specific news, press mentions, leadership changes, or program announcements for Dorcas Foundation (EIN 56-2232813) were found in web search as of September 2026; the organization does not appear to issue press releases or maintain active social media specific to its grantmaking. The most recent verified activity is its FY2023 Form 990-PF, the latest return publicly indexed by ProPublica/Instrumentl at research time, reporting $240,000 in grants paid and $287,370 in total giving. The last material change of any kind in the underlying record is the FY2020 capitalization event, when the foundation received $4,394,833 in contributions in a single year — transforming it from a roughly $264,000 micro-fund (FY2019) into a $4.5M+ endowed foundation almost overnight — after which grantmaking scaled up over three subsequent years to its current $240K-$248K/year plateau. Board composition has been stable: Peggy R. Long served as Secretary through April 2, 2020 and was succeeded by David W. Owens Sr.; Kim Riley Beauchamp (President), Kimberly R. Beauchamp (Treasurer), Sheila Owens (Director), and Joel Boyles (Director) appear consistently across the filing history reviewed. Its primary and dominant grantee, Energize Ministries Inc. of Winston-Salem, NC, is an active pastoral-care and clergy-restoration ministry (reachable at 800-477-3583, 4419-A Wallburg Rd., Winston-Salem, NC 27107) with its own public web presence describing ongoing work supporting pastors and ministry-leader families — grant seekers researching Dorcas Foundation's true funding behavior should treat Energize Ministries' own activity and announcements as the more informative signal than anything published under the Dorcas Foundation name itself.

Treat Dorcas Foundation as a closed, relationship-driven funder rather than a competitive grants program: the foundation's own IRS filing lists application_instructions as "none," has no published application form, portal, deadline, or funding cycle on record, and is independently described by Instrumentl and Grantmakers.io as funding preselected organizations only. The single highest-value signal in the data is concentration — 90.3% of all dollars ($710,000 of $786,000) has gone to one organization, Energize Ministries Inc., across four grants averaging $177,500 each. If your organization has any existing relationship with Energize Ministries, with the Beauchamp or Owens families, or with the Winston-Salem/Mocksville, NC Christian ministry community (Green Meadows Baptist Church, Salem Outreach Network, Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministries), lead with that connection explicitly rather than a cold proposal. For the handful of smaller, recurring $2,000 gifts the foundation makes to local human-services ministries (rescue mission, crisis pregnancy center, prison ministry), the pattern suggests these are established, personally-vetted annual relationships rather than open competitions — a first-time applicant should not expect to displace or join this small circle through a written application alone. If you do attempt outreach, use the contact form at dorcasfoundation.org/contact-us (no direct grants email or phone number for the foundation itself was found; the address on file is 1317 Beauchamp Rd., Advance, NC 27006, phone 254-535-2419), frame your request around Christian ministry, disaster/refugee relief, pastoral or clergy support, or direct human-services work in North Carolina (secondarily Tennessee) since these are the only categories with any funding history, and keep expectations calibrated: this is a family foundation making roughly $240,000-$248,000/year in grants, nearly all of it already committed to one affiliated grantee, so unsolicited inbound requests are very unlikely to be funded. The single biggest mistake would be treating this as a general-purpose Human Services funder and investing significant proposal-writing effort before confirming any personal connection exists.