Lafollette Medical Foundation Inc.

LaFollette Medical Foundation is a hyper-local, single-county grantmaker born from the 2007 sale of LaFollette Community Hospital, and its giving philosophy still reflects that origin: fund health-adjacent quality-of-life work for Campbell County, Tennessee residents, full stop. With $9.9 million in assets and roughly $660,000-$685,000 in annual giving in its two most recently disclosed years (FY2022-2023), it operates less like a national program officer and more like a community trust overseen by a small, unpaid volunteer board (President Traci Chambers, Treasurer Micheal E. Walden, Secretary Stacey Wood-Heatherly, plus additional directors including two physicians, Dr. Richard Burdeaux and Dr. James Farris). None of the 14 officers or directors listed in the foundation's filings draw compensation, underscoring a volunteer, civic-minded governance model rather than a professionally staffed program office.

The foundation strongly favors organizations it already knows. Of the 75 disclosed grants across FY2019-2023, the top six recipients — Springs Of Life Recovery Center, City of LaFollette Fire Department, Campbell County Board of Education, Campbell County Senior Citizens, Community Health of East Tennessee, and Campbell County Children's Center — each received exactly five grants, meaning every one of them was funded in every single disclosed cycle. This is a renewal-driven, relationship-based funder: a first-time applicant should not expect a single large award to materialize from a cold submission. Instead, plan to apply for a modest first grant, attend the board meeting in person (mandatory per the foundation's website, which states a representative from each applying organization is required to attend), and use that appearance to build the multi-year relationship that produces steadily larger asks in subsequent cycles.

Eligibility is a hard geographic and legal filter, not a soft preference: applicants must be 501(c)(3) public charities (not private foundations, unless a public instrumentality such as a city fire department or county school board) serving Campbell County residents specifically — statewide or regional Tennessee nonprofits without a describable Campbell County footprint are not a fit. First-time applicants should lead with concrete, quantifiable local impact rather than broad mission language, mirroring how the foundation itself describes funded work in its own grant purposes, such as 'HOME DELIVERED MEALS FOR ELIGIBLE SENIORS' and 'FIRE PROTECTION FOR THE CITY OF LAFOLLETTE.'

Over FY2019-2023, the foundation held $9.6 million-$11.3 million in assets and paid out $510,119-$683,056 in grants annually (total giving, which includes program-related costs, ran $616,925-$813,161). Assets peaked at $11.3 million in FY2021 on strong $841,999 net investment income, then fell to $9.1 million (FY2022) and $9.6 million (FY2023) as investment income cooled to $186,144 before rebounding to $423,564 — giving tracks market performance rather than a fixed payout formula, so award budgets should be expected to fluctuate 15-20% year over year with the endowment.

Across the 75 disclosed grants totaling $3,215,548, the average award is $42,874; the foundation's own typical-grant-size data (its 14 most recent tracked awards) shows a tighter, more recent range of $5,715-$82,000 with a $41,847 median and $41,115 average — essentially matching the five-year historical average, suggesting grant sizing has stayed consistent even as total giving has softened. Budget a realistic ask in the $20,000-$80,000 band; single-cycle requests above $100,000 are outliers in this dataset.

By category, behavioral health and addiction recovery is the single largest use of funds: Springs Of Life Recovery Center ($540,557 across 5 grants), Bridges To Recovery ($122,000 across 3 grants), and Community Health of East Tennessee's drug-court program ($270,973 across 5 grants) total roughly $933,530 — about 29% of all disclosed giving. Public-safety/EMS infrastructure (City of LaFollette Fire Department $492,212, Campbell County Rural Fire Service $94,738, Town of Jacksboro Fire Department $89,033, LaFollette Rescue Squad $46,703, Caryville Fire Department $45,957) totals $768,643, or about 24%. Senior services (Campbell County Senior Citizens $284,638, East Tennessee Human Resources Agency $120,000) add $404,638 (12.6%), and children's/school health (Campbell County Board of Education $300,244, Campbell County Children's Center $206,302, CASA of Campbell County $80,000) add $586,546 (18.2%). Food security and homelessness/crisis services split most of the remainder (roughly $427,000 combined, about 13%). 100% of the foundation's 75 disclosed grants went to Tennessee-based recipients, and effectively all of them to Campbell County specifically — there is no evidence of giving outside this single county.

Despite near-identical asset bases across all six foundations (within roughly 0.3% of each other, likely a coincidental clustering in the underlying dataset rather than a meaningful peer set by mission), LaFollette stands out as the only one with a published application process, a fixed deadline calendar, and a clearly defined issue focus. The other five peers are catalogued generically under 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' with no disclosed program area in available records, and only Wellsprings Family Foundation maintains a public website — meaning most applicants to those peers would likely need a personal board connection just to be considered. That makes LaFollette comparatively accessible: a well-matched Campbell County nonprofit can apply cold, on a known quarterly cycle, with a real chance of consideration — an option effectively unavailable at four of the five listed peers.

Public reporting on the foundation itself is sparse — as a small, single-county hospital-conversion foundation with no dedicated communications function, it does not generate regular press coverage of its own. The most recent verifiable data point is its FY2023 Form 990-PF, filed with the IRS on September 3, 2025 per ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer records, reporting $9.6 million in assets and $661,705 in total giving. Local radio coverage in the foundation's service area confirmed in early 2026 that Campbell County's Meals on Wheels senior nutrition program continues to be funded through a LaFollette Medical Foundation grant, consistent with the foundation's five-consecutive-year support of Campbell County Senior Citizens ($284,638 total across 5 grants) — evidence that the renewal-first funding pattern identified in this foundation's history is continuing into the current cycle.

No leadership changes were identified in available records. The most recent officer slate includes President Traci Chambers, Treasurer Micheal E. Walden, Secretary Stacey Wood-Heatherly, and directors including Dr. Richard Burdeaux, Wayne Kitts, Jim Farris Jr., and Debra Nelson; other names in the foundation's historical filings (Dr. James Farris as prior president/chairman, Brenda Robards, Mayor Mike Stanfield) appear to reflect earlier years' board composition. Applicants should confirm the current officer roster directly with the foundation secretary before submitting, since no updated public board listing beyond IRS filings was located. No major program announcements, new initiatives, or notable one-time large grants beyond the routine quarterly cycle were identified for 2025-2026.

Timing is everything: the board meets only four times a year, on the third Tuesday of February, May, August, and November, and applications are due the week before, on the second Tuesday of the same month. Miss that window and the next opportunity is three months out — build the ask into a fiscal-year calendar rather than applying reactively.

Attendance is mandatory, not optional: per the foundation's own website, 'a representative from each applying organization is required to attend the board meeting when their request is presented.' Treat this as an in-person pitch, not a paperwork drop. Prepare a short, specific verbal summary of local impact and be ready to answer board questions live, since review appears to happen in the room rather than through a separate staffed committee process.

Both required documents live only on the foundation's website (lafollettemedicalfoundation.org) as PDF downloads: the Grant Application form itself and a separate Distribution Guidelines document. Read the Distribution Guidelines closely before drafting — it almost certainly contains restrictions (caps, matching requirements, excluded uses) that are not summarized anywhere in the foundation's public IRS filings.

Do not apply as a private foundation or a fiscal-sponsorship pass-through without public-instrumentality status — the eligibility language explicitly requires 501(c)(3) public-charity status or public-instrumentality status (which is how city fire departments and the county school board, both top recipients, qualify).

Geography is a hard filter, not a tiebreaker: every one of the 75 disclosed grants went to a Campbell County, TN-based or -serving organization. A statewide or regional Tennessee health nonprofit without a specific, describable Campbell County program will not be competitive regardless of mission fit.

Lead with numbers, not narrative: funded purposes in the foundation's own records are terse and metric-driven — 'HOME DELIVERED MEALS FOR ELIGIBLE SENIORS,' 'FIRE PROTECTION FOR CAMPBELL COUNTY,' 'INFLUENZA VACCINATION PROGRAM.' Mirror that specificity: state exactly how many residents, patients, or students the grant will serve.

Size the first ask modestly — $5,000-$40,000, at or below the $41,847 median — and expect to reapply each cycle. The five-year grant history shows favored partners return in nearly every one of the disclosed annual cycles, suggesting grant renewal, not first-time size, is the real path to the larger $80,000+ awards. A common mistake to avoid: framing a request as general operating support without a Campbell County-specific health or wellness hook. Every large grantee ties its ask to a named local program — recovery beds, meal routes, vaccination clinics, a specific fire truck or rescue-equipment purchase — rather than an unrestricted request.