Right Track Foundation Inc.

Right Track Foundation Inc. is a small, family-operated private foundation run entirely by the Drunsic family of Manchester Center, Vermont — William J. Drunsic (President), Stephen E. Drunsic (Treasurer), and Linda B. Drunsic (Secretary), all uncompensated. Ruled a 501(c)(3) private foundation in September 2021 and seeded with a $6.865 million contribution in FY2019, it functions less like an open grantmaking institution and more like a family philanthropic vehicle for causes William Drunsic is personally engaged in as a Manchester business owner and civic figure. The IRS data field flags giving as preselected-only, with no application form, no portal, and no published deadline — consistent with what the 43 traced grants show: every recipient is either a Manchester/Southern Vermont civic institution (Town of Manchester, Northshire Community Center, Northshire Day School, Burr and Burton Academy, Long Trail School, Fusion Soccer, the Wilson House recovery home, United Counseling Service) or one of two Kenya-focused causes (Kenya Drylands Education Fund, The Tali Fund girls' shelter). There is no evidence of a single grant to an organization without a pre-existing relationship to the Drunsic family or the town of Manchester. For first-time applicants, the realistic path in is not a cold LOI — it is visibility inside Manchester's civic ecosystem: the foundation has funded the Manchester Business Association's events-manager position (approved by the Select Board January 7, 2026) and pledged $3.5 million toward the Northshire Community Field House at Dana M. Thompson Memorial Park, both projects where Drunsic was already a named local stakeholder before foundation dollars moved. The relationship progression that IRS data suggests is: an initial project-specific gift (often under $50,000) to an organization already visible to the family, followed by repeat annual support if the relationship holds — Northshire Community Center, Town of Manchester, and Kenya Drylands Education Fund have each received 4-5 separate grants. Organizations outside Bennington County, Vermont, or outside the Kenya drylands education/girls'-welfare niche should not expect a hearing. The single highest-leverage move for a prospective grantee is a warm introduction through a Manchester-based board member, town official, or an existing grantee (e.g., Northshire Community Center or Burr and Burton Academy) rather than any written proposal.

Total giving has been volatile and tied to investment returns rather than a fixed payout formula: $0 in FY2019 (the year of the $6.865M founding contribution, before the endowment was invested), $562,800 in FY2020, a peak $1,231,600 in FY2021 (net investment income that year hit $725,154), and $807,516 in FY2022 as net investment income fell to $54,409. Assets have held in a narrow $6.09M-$7.18M band across FY2020-2022, and additional outside contributions have been minimal since the founding gift ($66,000 in FY2022, $0 in FY2020-2021) — this reads as a closed-corpus family fund rather than one actively fundraising. Across the 43 grants IRS filings and grantee data trace ($3,024,858 total, averaging $70,346 per grant), giving splits into two dominant channels: Vermont recipients account for roughly 50% of dollars ($1,502,887 across 12 organizations, 35 of 43 individual grants) and Kenya-focused education/welfare causes account for another 42% ($1,284,471 combined for Kenya Drylands Education Fund and The Tali Fund), with the remaining ~8% scattered across one-off gifts in New York (Rensselaer Newman Foundation, Castle Alpha Tau Foundation — both tied to Troy/RPI), Tennessee (Nashville Steam Preservation Society, $75,000), and single grants elsewhere. By recipient, the median cumulative grant relationship is $40,000 and the range runs from a single $5,000 gift (Old Castle Theatre Company) to $1,159,471 delivered across four grants to Kenya Drylands Education Fund — the single largest funding relationship by a wide margin, more than double the second-largest (Northshire Community Center, $594,000 across four grants). The foundation's own 990 line-item data (typical_grant_size) shows a per-check median of $25,000 and average of $101,198 across 11 disbursements, range $5,000-$350,746 — a wider spread than the recipient-level view, consistent with occasional large capital disbursements (e.g., portions of the $3.5M Field House pledge) layered on top of a base of smaller five-figure operating gifts. Program mix by purpose: recreation/community infrastructure (Northshire Community Center, Town of Manchester, Northshire Civic Center, Manchester Riverwalk) is the largest category by dollars; education (Kenya Drylands Education Fund, Northshire Day School, Long Trail School, Burr and Burton Academy, Rensselaer Newman Foundation) is second; health/human services (Wilson House recovery, United Counseling Service mental health, Flanders Fields veterans recovery, Vietnam Veterans of America) and historic preservation/arts (Nashville Steam Preservation Society, Castle Alpha Tau Foundation, Old Castle Theatre Company) round out the portfolio at smaller dollar levels.

These five peers were matched purely on asset size (all within roughly $3,400 of Right Track's $6.48M in total assets) rather than geography or program focus, and public 990 aggregators did not surface annual-giving or application-process detail for any of them at the depth available for Right Track. What the match does confirm is that Right Track sits squarely in the smallest tier of active private foundations — a single-family, sub-$7M-asset vehicle typical of a first-generation family foundation still run by its founders rather than a staffed institution. Foundations at this asset size overwhelmingly give by relationship rather than open competition, which is consistent with Right Track's preselected-only posture; grant seekers should not expect any of these peers, Right Track included, to operate a public RFP.

The most concrete recent activity is the foundation's role in funding a new, permanent events-manager position for the Manchester Business Association, approved by the Manchester Select Board on January 7, 2026 as part of the town's FY2026 budget — the Town of Manchester added $25,000 in expenditure (offset by roughly $12,500 in projected new revenue), with the remaining salary and benefits split between the MBA and Right Track Foundation, again under Bill Drunsic's leadership. This is the clearest signal that the foundation's local giving has shifted toward funding operating capacity for Manchester's civic/business infrastructure rather than only capital projects. Beyond that, the foundation's largest known public commitment remains the $3.5 million pledge toward the $14 million Northshire Community Field House at Dana M. Thompson Memorial Park, first reported in Manchester Journal and Bennington Banner coverage of the Development Review Board process on February 23, 2022; the foundation had already covered architecture and consulting soft costs and guaranteed a balanced operating budget for the facility's first five years. No news, leadership changes, or new program announcements were found dated between that 2022 project and the January 2026 events-manager story — this is a low-visibility, non-press-seeking foundation, and the absence of coverage should be read as normal for its size and closed operating model rather than as a signal of inactivity. The three officers (William, Stephen, and Linda Drunsic) have held their roles without change across all IRS filings reviewed.

There is no formal application process — the foundation's own IRS data marks application_instructions as none and flags giving as preselected only, and no LOI form, portal, or grants page could be found anywhere in web research (the righttrackfoundation.org domain on file belongs to an unrelated Kansas nonprofit, not this funder). Do not submit a cold proposal expecting a response; there is no evidence any unsolicited application has ever been funded among the 43 traced grants. The realistic strategy is relationship-first: organizations that have received Right Track support are concentrated in two very specific niches — (1) Manchester/Bennington County, Vermont civic, recreational, educational, and human-service institutions where William Drunsic has a personal or business stake (the Manchester Business Association, Northshire Community Center, Town of Manchester, Burr and Burton Academy), and (2) Kenya drylands education and girls' welfare causes (Kenya Drylands Education Fund, The Tali Fund) that appear to reflect a personal family interest rather than a general open category. If your organization falls into neither bucket, funding is very unlikely regardless of proposal quality. For organizations that do fit, the strongest approach is a warm introduction through a current Manchester town official, a board member of an existing grantee (e.g., Northshire Community Center or the Manchester Business Association), or direct civic engagement (attending Select Board meetings, partnering with the Town of Manchester on a shared project) rather than a written cold pitch. When a relationship does exist, be prepared for the foundation to fund in stages — an initial project-specific gift in the $5,000-$50,000 range, followed by larger repeat support (Town of Manchester and Northshire Community Center each received 4-5 separate grants over time) once the relationship and project delivery are proven. Frame any ask around tangible local outcomes (recreation access, youth programs, workforce/business vitality, addiction recovery, historic preservation) rather than generic capacity-building language — every funded purpose in the IRS data is concrete and place- or population-specific. The administrative contact on file is % Christine Scarlotta, PO Box 795, Manchester Center, VT 05255-0795, (802) 362-1516 — appropriate for an existing grantee's reporting or renewal conversation, not a channel for first-time unsolicited inquiries.