Loomis Family Foundation Inc.

Loomis Family Foundation Inc. is a small, closely held Greensboro, NC family foundation run entirely by two directors — Joseph Burns and Molly Burns — each working roughly 10 hours per week, with no paid program staff. Its Form 990-PF states outright that it 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications for funds.' This is not a funder that reviews cold LOIs or proposals; every recipient in its grant history (43 grants totaling $688,302 in the most recent detailed data, rising to $790,000 in FY2025) reflects a personal or family connection — alma maters (Wake Forest University, Hillsdale College), a home church (Westover Church), youth ministries the family likely attends or supports (Greensboro Young Life, Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and local Greensboro institutions (Greensboro Day School, Greensboro History Museum, Greensboro Urban Ministry). First-time applicants without an existing relationship to the Burns family, their church, or their alma maters should treat unsolicited outreach as very low-probability. The realistic path in is indirect: board or leadership introductions, shared church or school communities in Greensboro/Winston-Salem, or being the kind of small, mission-driven Christian or conservative-education/civic organization the foundation already trusts (e.g., World News Group, Cru, The Ashbrook Center). There is no evidence of a formal LOI-to-proposal-to-site-visit pipeline; grants appear to be renewed annually to known partners with minimal new-organization intake. Organizations that do get a warm introduction should expect an informal, relationship-based ask rather than a competitive RFP process, and should not expect published deadlines, guidelines, or a grants portal.

Across the 43 grants captured in the most recent detailed grant-level data ($688,302 total, average $16,007), the median-sized gift is modest — most grants cluster between $5,000 and $17,000 — while a handful of large, clearly relationship-driven gifts dominate the top of the range: Uncg ($100,000), Wake Forest University Annual Fund ($78,100), Westover Church ($60,500), and Greensboro Young Life ($43,700) together account for over 40% of total giving. The smallest gifts run as low as $250 (Jdrf International) and $1,000 (Verse By Verse Ministries), showing the foundation is comfortable making very small, symbolic gifts alongside its handful of five- and six-figure anchor grants. By geography, North Carolina dominates with 26 of 43 grants (60%), followed by small clusters in Virginia and DC (2 each) and Colorado (2), with single grants scattered across FL, MO, NE, OH, PA, and WY — almost certainly tracking specific institutions (schools, ministries) rather than a stated regional program. There is no program-area breakdown published by the foundation itself; based on purpose codes (all listed simply as 'GENERAL CHARITABLE PURPOSE') and recipient names, an approximate split is: faith/church and faith-based youth ministry (~20% of dollars — Westover Church, Young Life, FCA, Cru, Peak Encounter Ministries), education (~30% — Uncg, Wake Forest, Hillsdale College, Greensboro Day School, Westchester Country Day School, The Ashbrook Center), and local human services/community (~25% — Greensboro Urban Ministry, Salvation Army, Family Service of the Piedmont, Fellowship Hall, Sanctuary House), with the remainder spread across conservation, media (K-LOVE, World News Group), and health causes (Alzheimer's Association, National MS Society). On a trend basis, total giving grew from $688,302 in the most recent detailed grant-level year to $790,000 in FY2025 per the latest 990-PF (a ~15% increase), while total assets have held roughly flat around $8.5M-$8.6M — the foundation is a pass-through vehicle distributing most of its annual investment income and new contributions rather than accumulating endowment.

All five peer funders sit within roughly $4,000 of Loomis's $8.638M asset base, making this a tight cohort of similarly sized small family vehicles rather than a comparison against major institutional foundations. Unlike Rooted Philanthropic, which maintains a public website (rootedphilanthropic.org) suggesting at least some outward-facing presence, Loomis and most of its size-matched peers (Dinan, Anonymous Fund, Heyman-Daigle, Mark Paul Terk) show no public grant guidelines — a pattern typical of family foundations and family trusts under $10M in assets, where a small number of directors distribute funds to personally known organizations rather than run a public program.

The most concrete recent signal is financial: the foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF (fiscal year ending December 2025, reflected in IRS records updated June 3, 2026) shows total revenue of $1,209,546, total expenses of $876,984, and $790,000 in grants paid — up from $688,302 in the last detailed grant-level filing. Net assets stand at $8,638,780, essentially flat year over year, while contributions received in FY2025 were $379,000, indicating the Burns family continues to add fresh capital to the foundation on top of investment returns (FY2023 net investment income was $345,405 on $14.4M of gross revenue, an unusually large contribution year). No leadership changes were found — Joseph Burns and Molly Burns remain the only two directors, each working about 10 hours per week; Joseph Burns now draws roughly $45,000 in officer compensation versus Molly Burns's unpaid role, a shift from the combined $36,000 officer compensation reported for FY2023. No new program announcements, press releases, or public statements were identified for 2025 or 2026 — this is consistent with the foundation's minimal public footprint and 'preselected only' posture. Its listed website (loomischaffee.org) is unrelated to the foundation (it belongs to The Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT), so no foundation-authored news or program updates are retrievable from an owned web channel.

There is no formal application to optimize for here — the foundation's own Form 990-PF disclosure states it accepts no unsolicited applications and gives only to preselected organizations, and no LOI form, portal, deadline, or public guidelines exist anywhere in searchable grant databases (Grantmakers.io, Cause IQ, Grantable, Candid) or on any foundation-owned website. The realistic strategy for a grant seeker is relationship-based, not proposal-based: (1) Map the existing grantee list for a connection point — if your organization is a Christian ministry, a conservative-leaning educational institution, a Greensboro-area human-services nonprofit, or connected to Wake Forest University, UNCG, or Westover Church, you sit inside the foundation's known giving circle and warm introduction is far more viable than cold outreach. (2) Do not send a generic LOI or grant proposal to a general info@ address — none is published, and a cold submission is unlikely to reach Joseph or Molly Burns directly. (3) If you have any board, congregation, alumni, or personal network overlap with the Burns family (Greensboro, NC civic and philanthropic circles), pursue an introduction through that channel rather than a written application. (4) Given the foundation's small size ($8.6M in assets, $790K annual giving) and part-time, all-volunteer leadership (10 hrs/week each), expect any engagement to be lightweight and informal — a conversation or a short personal letter, not a multi-page proposal package. (5) The most common mistake would be treating this like an institutional foundation with a grants program; investing time in a polished formal proposal without a prior relationship is very unlikely to be read. (6) If pursuing a long-shot cold approach, the phone number on file — (336) 314-0385 — is the only public contact point; there is no listed contact name or email.