Lords Foundation Inc.

The Lord's Foundation, Inc. is not a conventional philanthropy — it is an explicitly evangelical vehicle created in 2003 by Jacksonville attorney Charlie (Charles Daughtry) Towers Jr., who described it as built 'not as a philanthropic or humanitarian foundation... but strictly as a foundation to further Christ's work as described in the New Testament.' That framing should govern how any applicant approaches the funder. At least 70% of the roughly $310,000-$390,000 given annually is committed to eight recurring 'legacy organizations' — based on the top-50 grantee list, these almost certainly include International Cooperating Ministries ($157,750 across 5 years), First Presbyterian Church ($150,000), Mercy Ships International ($150,000), East-West Ministries ($140,000), Salvation Army of Jacksonville ($128,000), Hope International ($113,000), Map International ($105,000), and the Jesus Film Project/Campus Crusade for Christ ($85,000). These reflect Towers' personal affiliations (he was a First Presbyterian elder, a Mercy Ships board member, and known as 'Mr. Salvation Army'), so new applicants should not expect to displace them. The remaining roughly 10-30% of the budget — and specifically the 10% ceiling on non-Christian agencies — is where a new, mission-aligned organization has a real, if narrow, opening. First-time applicants should not expect an LOI-to-full-proposal-to-site-visit cultivation arc; the foundation has no staff, no online portal, and no public RFP. The relationship is initiated entirely by a written letter to the trustees (unpaid volunteers: Chairman Bennett E Brown, Vice Chairman Albert J Toole, Secretary Louise C Hardage, Treasurer Sarah Ragsdale, and Trustee Katy W Towers), and success depends on clear alignment with the Matthew 25 mandate — feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, visiting prisoners, spreading the Gospel — rather than a polished grant-writing package. Organizations with a direct Jacksonville or Northeast Florida service footprint and an explicit Christian identity or gospel-adjacent program (prison ministry, rescue missions, medical missions, seminary training) are the realistic fit; secular direct-service nonprofits should expect, at best, a modest grant in the $5,000-$10,000 range similar to United Way of Northeast Florida ($72,750 cumulative) or Volunteers in Medicine ($6,000 cumulative).

Across the tracked grantee history (314 grants, $1,523,000 total, averaging $4,850 per grant), funding is heavily concentrated at the top: the eight largest recipients (International Cooperating Ministries, First Presbyterian Church, Mercy Ships, East-West Ministries, Salvation Army of Jacksonville, Hope International, Map International, and the Jesus Film Project) collectively account for roughly $1,028,750 — about two-thirds of all tracked dollars — consistent with the reported 70% legacy-organization commitment. Below that tier, grants drop off sharply: mid-tier recipients like United Way of Northeast Florida ($72,750 over 5 years, ~$14,550/year) and Prisoners of Christ ($26,000 over 5 years, ~$5,200/year) receive meaningful but secondary support, while the long tail of roughly 40+ organizations (Gateway, First Coast Women's Services, Downtown Ecumenical Services Council, Rethreaded, Focus on the Family, Jews for Jesus, various seminaries) each receive $5,000-$14,000 cumulative across 5 years of filings — typically $1,000-$2,800 per year. On an annual Form 990 basis, total giving has been remarkably stable: $522,910 (2011), $393,729 (2020), $417,018 (2021), $302,843 (2022), $388,565 (2023), and $339,506 (2024) — a mature, non-growing payout pattern funded almost entirely by investment income ($336,135 net investment income against $402,707 total revenue in 2023) rather than new contributions (just $1,100 received in 2023). Total assets have held in the $6.2M-$7.3M range since 2019, meaning the endowment is neither shrinking nor being aggressively grown. Geographically, Florida dominates (176 of 314 tracked grants), with secondary clusters in Texas (20), Georgia (20), Pennsylvania (15), California (15), North Carolina (14), Colorado (11), Virginia (11), Arizona (5), and Mississippi (5) — reflecting ministry partners' multi-state or international operations rather than a deliberate geographic expansion strategy.

Lord's Foundation sits at the small end of this peer set by assets (roughly 75-80% of the median peer's $8.38M) but is unusual for having a hard, publicly documented theological mandate rather than an open-ended "philanthropy & grantmaking" classification shared by all five peers. Unlike most peers, which lack any public web presence, Lord's Foundation maintains a functioning site (0f364e2.wcomhost.com) that states its founder's intent and eligibility rule (established 501(c)(3) only) in plain language, making it comparatively more transparent about who it will and won't fund despite having no application portal.

The most concrete recent activity is financial: fiscal year 2024 giving reached $339,506 across 63 grants (per Instrumentl's 990 report), continuing a recovery from the 2022 dip to $302,843, with total assets climbing to approximately $7.27M. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or public statements were found for 2025-2026 — the trustee roster (Chairman Bennett E Brown, Vice Chairman Albert J Toole, Secretary Louise C Hardage, Treasurer Sarah Ragsdale, Trustee Katy W Towers) has remained stable across the most recent filings reviewed, and all serve without compensation. There is no evidence of a strategic review, new RFP cycle, or public grant announcement in 2025 or 2026; the foundation does not appear to issue press releases or maintain active social media. Founder Charles Daughtry Towers Jr. died in 2015, and the foundation has continued operating under his original theological mandate without any signal of mission drift since. Grant seekers should treat the absence of news as normal for this funder rather than a sign of instability — it is a quiet, founder-legacy vehicle, not an actively communicating institutional funder. The most actionable recent-activity signal for applicants is the steady increase in total payout over the last two fiscal years, which suggests modestly more room for new or secondary grantees than in 2022.

There is no online application, LOI portal, or published RFP — engagement starts and often ends with a written letter addressed to the trustees at 118 E Monroe St, Jacksonville, FL 32202. The foundation's own instructions (confirmed via IRS filing) require the letter to state, explicitly: (1) the requesting organization's name, address, and tax-exempt status; (2) why the funding is specifically needed; (3) exactly how the funds will be used; (4) the benefit derived from the funding; and (5) how the recipient will account for the funds afterward. Skipping any one of these five elements is the most common reason a request would stall, since there is no staff to follow up and request missing information. Community sources point to a July 15 submission target — build outreach around that date rather than assuming a rolling process, since the volunteer trustee board likely reviews requests in batches tied to their fiscal year. Because the foundation is explicitly built around Matthew 25 language (feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, visiting the imprisoned, spreading the Gospel), applicants should mirror that language directly in the request rather than using generic nonprofit-impact framing — a secular "community wellbeing" pitch is far less likely to land than one framed around scriptural service categories. Given that 70%+ of funds go to eight recurring Christian ministries with founder Charlie Towers' personal ties (First Presbyterian Church, Salvation Army, Mercy Ships, Prisoners of Christ, and others), new secular or non-Christian applicants should set expectations at a modest $1,000-$5,000 ask rather than requesting a transformative grant, and should lead with concrete, auditable use-of-funds language given the explicit accountability requirement. Because contact details found for the foundation vary across sources (the DB record's listed site and email do not match the foundation's actual operating website, 0f364e2.wcomhost.com), applicants should verify current mailing and email contact directly before sending a request rather than relying on any single directory listing.