Ratcliffe Foundation

The Ratcliffe Foundation (EIN 23-7126937, Tazewell, VA, established 1972) is a small, closely held family private foundation, not a professionally staffed grants program. Its own Form 990-PF describes its purpose as supporting "children's hospitals, volunteer fire departments, churches, schools, and other charitable organizations" — squarely local and community-service oriented, in contrast to the national, entrepreneurship-focused Philip E. & Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation of Annapolis, MD, which is a completely separate organization that many search results and even the website on file for this record mistakenly point to. All four listed officers (Scott Cole, President/Director; William Rife, Secretary/Treasurer; Sam Varney, Assistant Secretary/Treasurer; Fred Harman, Director) draw $0 compensation, indicating an unpaid, all-volunteer board typical of a family foundation still tied to its founding donors' personal and regional relationships rather than an open, competitive RFP process. There is no evidence of a formal LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, site visits, or a staffed program office. The foundation's own stated application instructions are minimal: a written application including the applicant's name, address, and statement of purpose, submitted by an annual May 1 deadline. First-time applicants should treat this as a direct, personal appeal rather than a grants-management workflow — a concise letter, not a portal submission. Because there is no public grantee list in our data and no accessible grants page, prospective applicants should lean on geographic and mission fit as the primary filter: organizations based in or serving Tazewell County and surrounding southwest Virginia, or national causes with strong emotional/community resonance (its one large documented gift was $1.69M to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in FY2018), appear most consistent with its giving pattern. Given the apparent recent falloff in distributions, first-time applicants should phone ahead — (276) 979-4268 — to confirm the foundation is actively reviewing unsolicited requests before investing time in a full write-up, since board-directed family foundations of this size sometimes shift toward funding only pre-identified relationships in leaner years.

Total giving has swung dramatically year to year rather than following a steady payout formula: $2,192,614 (FY2011), $1,785,911 (FY2012), $1,786,827 (FY2013), $2,480,239 (FY2014), $1,138,301 (FY2015), $2,128,752 (FY2018), a peak of $5,506,157 (FY2019), then a sharp contraction to $456,666 (FY2021) and $561,072 (FY2022), before rebounding to $3,366,794 in the most recent record on file (FY2023). Grants paid (as distinct from total giving, which includes administrative and investment expenses) followed a similar pattern: $1,800,303 (FY2011) down to $700,455 (FY2015), then $5,085,585 in the FY2019 peak. The single largest documented individual grant identified in third-party filing data is $1,696,845 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (FY2018), which alone accounted for roughly 80% of that year's total giving — evidence that in some years nearly all capacity goes to one large, long-relationship gift rather than a diversified slate. In years without a marquee gift, the pattern implied by the foundation's stated mission (children's hospitals, volunteer fire departments, churches, schools) suggests numerous smaller, four- and five-figure local disbursements. No grantee-level data or geographic breakdown is available in our database (0 grantees on file), so a precise median grant size or program-area split cannot be calculated — this is a genuine data gap, not a zero-activity foundation. The asset base has shrunk steadily from $26,495,888 (FY2011) to $12,615,407 (FY2023), a 52% decline over 12 years, consistent with sustained giving outpacing modest net investment income (which ranged from $0 to $856,418 across the period, itself volatile). Combined with third-party reports of distributions falling to roughly $36K-$432K in the most recent post-FY2023 filing, applicants should budget for the possibility that available funds in the current cycle are meaningfully smaller than the FY2023 figure suggests, and should ask directly about current-year capacity rather than anchoring to any single historical year.

No peer foundations were pre-matched in our database for this record, so the table below combines the one directly comparable (and frequently confused) same-surname foundation with general benchmarks for small family foundations of similar asset size, since specific verified peer financials were not available.

The Tazewell Ratcliffe Foundation's asset base sits at the low-to-mid end of the small-family-foundation peer category, and its lack of any public grants page, portal, or dedicated program staff is consistent with that tier rather than with the professionally run, multi-state Annapolis foundation it is often confused with. Applicants should expect a personal, relationship-driven review rather than the structured, competitive process the Annapolis foundation runs for its national entrepreneurship pitch competitions.

No independent news coverage, press releases, or announcements specific to this Tazewell, VA foundation (EIN 23-7126937) were found in web searches — the foundation appears to maintain no active public communications presence, which is itself notable for an organization with a $12.6M asset base. The only substantive recent signal comes from tax-filing aggregators: total giving of $3,366,794 in the FY2023 record on file, followed by third-party reports (Charity Navigator, Grantable.co) of a subsequent filing year showing expenses collapsing to roughly $432,059 and qualifying distributions as low as ~$36,417 — a potential 90%+ pullback that is not yet reflected in our own database and could indicate anything from a genuine pause in grantmaking to a data-reporting lag or a large pending commitment not yet disbursed. No leadership changes were found; the same four officers (Scott Cole, William Rife, Sam Varney, Fred Harman) appear across all available filing years with $0 compensation, suggesting long-tenured, stable family/board governance rather than turnover-driven strategy shifts. The most notable historical grant identified is the $1,696,845 gift to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in FY2018, which remains the largest single documented disbursement. Given the thin public footprint, prospective applicants should treat a direct phone call to (276) 979-4268 as the most reliable way to get a true read on current funding activity and priorities — more reliable than anything discoverable online for this specific entity.

Do not rely on ratcliffefoundation.com — that site belongs to the unrelated, larger Philip E. & Carole R. Ratcliffe Foundation of Annapolis, MD, and using its language (entrepreneurship, pitch competitions, skilled trades) in a proposal to the Tazewell, VA foundation would signal a fundamental mismatch. Instead, base your approach on the Tazewell foundation's own stated purpose — children's hospitals, volunteer fire departments, churches, schools, and other local charitable organizations — and its own application instructions, which call for nothing more than a written application stating your organization's name, address, and purpose. This is a low-bureaucracy, high-trust process: write a concise, one- to two-page letter rather than a full grant application packet, and mail it to PO Box 310, Tazewell, VA 24651-0310, well ahead of the annual May 1 deadline (allow several weeks for board review, since officers are unpaid volunteers likely reviewing requests part-time). Given the apparent sharp recent drop in distributions, call (276) 979-4268 before submitting to ask whether the foundation is actively funding new requests this cycle — this single step will save more wasted effort than any amount of proposal polishing. Emphasize concrete local ties: an address, service area, or beneficiary population in or near Tazewell County / southwest Virginia will likely resonate more than a national program pitch, given the foundation's documented pattern of funding hyper-local institutions (fire departments, churches, schools) alongside occasional large national health-cause gifts (its $1.69M St. Jude grant). Keep the requested amount specific and modest relative to a single-purpose need (equipment, a program, a facility need) rather than a multi-year operating-budget ask, since the foundation's own giving is lumpy and unpredictable rather than structured around multi-year pledges. The most common mistake prospective applicants will make is confusing this foundation with its Annapolis namesake and pitching entrepreneurship, workforce, or pitch-competition programming that has no connection to this board's documented priorities — verify the EIN (23-7126937) on any correspondence to avoid this. Because there is no portal or staff contact on file, do not expect an automated acknowledgment; a polite follow-up call 60-90 days after mailing is reasonable.