Ranger Foundation

Ranger Foundation is a small, unstaffed family foundation run entirely by three uncompensated officer-directors — Howard S. Holmes (President/Secretary/Treasurer), Howard S. Holmes II (Vice President), and Kathryn W. Holmes (Vice President) — with no program officers, no compensated staff, and no formal review committee evident in its filings. Its own domain, rangerfoundation.org, has lapsed and now redirects to a GoDaddy "domain for sale" page, and internal data flags the foundation as preselected-only with no published application instructions. This is the classic profile of a closely-held family foundation that gives through personal relationships and repeat commitments rather than open RFPs or unsolicited proposals.

The grant history bears this out: 34 recorded grants total $1,645,000 spread across just 21 unique organizations, and several recur two to four times each — St Louis Center for Exceptional Children & Adults (3 grants, $300,000), UMRC Porter Hills Foundation (3 grants, $250,000, tied to the "Howard Holmes Endowment"), Children's Healing Center in Grand Rapids (3 grants, $150,000), and Chelsea Area Community Foundation (4 grants, $75,000). Notably, "St Louis Center for Exceptional Children & Adults" and "St Louis Center" appear as separate line items but likely represent the same underlying Chelsea-area residential-services nonprofit tracked under two name variants — combined, that single relationship accounts for roughly $450,000, over a quarter of all tracked giving, making it the foundation's clearest signature commitment.

Geography is tight: 33 of 34 grants (97%) went to Michigan organizations, almost all clustered in Washtenaw and Jackson counties (Chelsea, Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Brooklyn) — the Holmes family's home turf. A first-time applicant without a Washtenaw County service footprint, or without a connection to organizations the family already trusts, faces long odds through a cold approach. The most realistic path in is indirect: build a relationship with, or seek routing through, one of the community foundations Ranger already funds (Chelsea Area Community Foundation, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation), and align the request with a program area the family has funded repeatedly — disability/developmental services, eldercare, children's health, animal welfare, or local public safety.

Assets have grown steadily from $2.55M in FY2012 to $5.68M at their FY2021 peak, settling at $5,618,683 in the most recent FY2024 filing — essentially flat versus FY2023's $5,442,955. Total giving climbed from $133,375 (FY2012) to a decade-high $482,554 (FY2023, with $425,000 in grants formally paid that year), after dipping to $323,272 in the pandemic-affected FY2020. FY2024 revenue was $557,252, though itemized FY2024 grants data was not yet available in public filings at research time. Recent complete years show annual giving in the roughly $270,000-$480,000 band, funded almost entirely by net investment income ($188,859 in FY2023) rather than new contributions — the foundation received no new contributions in FY2020-FY2023.

Across the 34 grants captured in the grantee dataset, the average award is $48,382 and total tracked giving is $1,645,000. Individual grant amounts range from $5,000 (Concordia University, Fisher House Michigan, Safehouse Center) up to $125,000 in a single grant (Main Street Park Alliance). By dollar concentration, the top three relationships — St Louis Center for Exceptional Children & Adults ($300,000, 18.2% of tracked giving), UMRC Porter Hills Foundation ($250,000, 15.2%), and Children's Healing Center ($150,000, 9.1%) — account for 43% of all tracked dollars; folding in the likely-duplicate "St Louis Center" entry ($150,000) pushes the St Louis Center relationship alone to roughly 27% of total giving.

By cause area, the pattern splits into: disability/human services (St Louis Center, ~$450,000 combined), senior living/eldercare (UMRC Porter Hills + UMRC Heritage Foundation, ~$400,000), children's health (Children's Healing Center + North Star Reach camp, ~$200,000), civic/community-foundation infrastructure (Main Street Park Alliance, Chelsea Area Community Foundation, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, ~$230,000 combined), and smaller allocations to public safety (Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office, Chelsea Area Fire Authority, ~$70,000 combined), animal welfare (~$75,000), and education (University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, Concordia University, ~$100,000). Geographically, 33 of 34 grants (97%) stayed in Michigan, with a single California grant as the only out-of-state exception.

The five DB-matched peers share Ranger Foundation's exact asset band (~$5.6-5.7M) and IRS "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" NTEE classification, but that classification describes their legal form as private foundations rather than a shared giving focus — none publish a website, so their actual program areas and annual giving totals are not independently verifiable from public sources.

These are asset-matched peers rather than mission-matched ones — each is a similarly sized, closely-held family foundation with no public web presence, which is itself the pattern worth noting: at this asset scale, most private foundations operate quietly through known relationships rather than public grant programs. Ranger Foundation stands out only in that its grant history is unusually well documented (specific recipients, purposes, and recurring gifts) compared with peers whose actual giving activity is not visible without pulling their individual Form 990-PFs directly.

No 2025-2026 news coverage specific to this Ranger Foundation (EIN 38-3499187, Brooklyn, Michigan) was found. Web searches surfaced only unrelated organizations that happen to share the "Ranger Foundation" name — a California relief fund for state park rangers, the National Ranger Memorial Foundation supporting Army Ranger families, and Rangers FC's Scottish football charity — none connected to the Holmes family's Michigan foundation. The foundation's own web presence has lapsed: rangerfoundation.org now redirects to a GoDaddy "domain for sale" parking page, confirming it is not actively maintaining a public-facing program site.

Absent press coverage, the most current verifiable signal is the IRS Form 990-PF record itself. The most recent complete filing year, FY2023, recorded $482,554 in total giving against $425,000 in grants formally paid — the highest single-year giving total in the more-than-a-decade of available filings, surpassing the prior high of $455,409 in FY2019. The FY2024 filing shows total assets of $5,618,683 (essentially flat versus FY2023's $5,442,955) and total revenue of $557,252, though itemized FY2024 grant-level data was not yet fully available in public records at the time of this research.

No leadership changes are evident: the same three uncompensated Holmes family officer-directors — Howard S. Holmes, Howard S. Holmes II, and Kathryn W. Holmes — appear consistently across the filing years reviewed. Grant seekers should treat Ranger Foundation as a quiet, low-visibility funder that does not issue public announcements or maintain an active website, and should verify current giving capacity directly rather than assuming continuity from FY2023 levels.

There is no functioning online application: rangerfoundation.org is an expired domain now parked for sale, and the foundation's own data lists no application form, no published deadline, and flags giving as preselected/invitation-based. Cold portal submissions are not a viable channel here — plan for direct, relationship-based outreach instead.

The listed contact is "% Erik Serr," 246 Riviera Dr, Brooklyn, MI 49230, phone (248) 267-3207 — very likely a family office, accountant, or attorney serving as registered agent rather than a program officer. A brief, specific letter or phone call asking how the foundation prefers to receive inquiries is a more realistic first step than a full unsolicited proposal.

The strongest indirect path is through the two community foundations Ranger already funds — Chelsea Area Community Foundation (4 grants, $75,000) and Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (1 grant, $30,000, capital campaign). Both operate open grant programs of their own and may be able to facilitate an introduction, or your organization may already be eligible through their existing pipelines.

Geographic fit is close to a hard requirement: 97% of tracked grants (33 of 34) went to Washtenaw and Jackson County, Michigan organizations. Absent a documented personal connection (as the single California grant suggests is possible), lead with local Michigan service delivery, not a national program.

Match the ask to a demonstrated cause area: disability/developmental services (mirroring St Louis Center, the foundation's largest and most repeated commitment at roughly $450,000 combined), senior living/eldercare (UMRC Porter Hills Foundation, UMRC Heritage Foundation), children's health and medical camps (Children's Healing Center, North Star Reach), animal welfare, or local public safety/first-responder equipment (Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office, Chelsea Area Fire Authority).

Request a named, discrete purpose rather than general operating support on a first ask — nearly every historical grant purpose is specific: "Howard Holmes Endowment," "Capital Campaign," "Challenge Grant." Anchor the amount within the demonstrated range: $5,000 for a modest single-purpose gift up to $125,000 for a capital-scale request, with $48,382 as the historical average across 34 grants. Finally, expect this to be a multi-year cultivation relationship, not a one-time solicitation — repeat funding (2-4 grants) to the same organizations over time is the clearest pattern in the data.