Rodman Foundation

Rodman Foundation is a small, closed, family-run private foundation with no public application process — its own platform record lists application_instructions as blank and the foundation as accepting only preselected grantees. It is governed exclusively by four Titcomb family members (Frederick W. Titcomb, President; Bruce L. Titcomb, Vice President; Daniel C. Titcomb, Secretary; E. Rodman Titcomb Jr., Treasurer), each drawing a flat $5,000 annual trustee fee — a governance structure with no program staff and, evidently, little capacity to review unsolicited proposals. The domain listed as its website, rodmanfoundation.com, resolves to a parked Cloudflare placeholder page, not an active foundation site, and neither Instrumentl nor Cause IQ show any live grant opportunities or deadlines. Cold applications to this funder are very unlikely to succeed. Grantmaking instead follows clear personal and legacy ties: Williams College received $115,000 across six gifts explicitly tied to a "Class of 1970 50th Reunion" fund, strongly suggesting a Titcomb is a Williams Class of 1970 alumnus; the University of Puget Sound received $83,500 across 13 gifts through the "Julie C. Titcomb Scholarship Fund," named for a former director who died in 2010; and the Science Museum of Minnesota received $39,000 via the "Edward R. Titcomb Endowed Fund," honoring a former chair who died in 2011. St. Paul Academy and Summit School ($65,000, 10 gifts) and several Palm Beach/Coachella Valley arts organizations round out the top recipients, consistent with the family's Twin Cities base and a winter residence in South Florida. For organizations without an existing family connection, the realistic path is a personal introduction — through the Williams College or University of Puget Sound alumni networks, St. Paul Academy families, or Seattle/Twin Cities/Palm Beach nonprofit circles — followed by a low-key phone inquiry to the Saint Paul office (651-228-0935) rather than a formal written proposal. First-time applicants should expect an informal, personal relationship-building process, not a portal, LOI, or review committee, and should not expect any online presence to explain how or when the foundation makes decisions.

Across the years captured in this platform's data, Rodman Foundation's annual giving has ranged from a low of $233,968 (2013) to a high of $403,117 (2022), most recently reported at $355,140 (2023) with FY2024 disbursements of $357,558 per its latest 990-PF (filed 11/4/2025). Total assets have held steady in the $4.3M-$6.1M band for over a decade, peaking near $6.1M in 2019 and standing at $5,616,264 as of FY2024 — recent years (2023: -$234,548 net income; 2024: -$45,798) show distributions modestly outpacing investment returns. The foundation's own typical-grant-size metadata puts the range at $500-$30,000 with a median of just $2,000 and an average of $3,730 across 74 tracked grants — indicating the bulk of its giving is small, general-support checks to dozens of organizations. Layered on top of that base is a small set of anchor institutions receiving much larger cumulative, multi-year support: Williams College ($115,000/6 grants), University of Puget Sound ($83,500/13 grants), Seattle Aquarium Society ($66,000/6 grants), St. Paul Academy and Summit School ($65,000/10 grants), Coachella Valley Repertory ($60,500/10 grants), and Path With Art ($52,000/5 grants). Across the full grantee dataset (228 grants, $938,000 cumulative, avg $4,114), the near-universal purpose code is "GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT" — the foundation strongly prefers unrestricted annual-fund giving over restricted program or capital grants, aside from a handful of named capital-campaign gifts (Seattle Aquarium's "One Ocean One Future" campaign, Path With Art's "Art Home" campaign, St. Paul Academy's "Building Futures" campaign). Geographically, grant counts break down as Washington 71 (31%), Minnesota 43 (19%), Florida 33 (14%), California 24 (11%), Colorado 11 (5%), Illinois 10, New York 9, Massachusetts 7, DC 6, and North Carolina 3 — a footprint that maps directly onto the family's Seattle-area, Twin Cities, and South Florida/Southwest ties rather than any stated mission geography.

Rodman Foundation sits at the smaller, quieter end of this comparison set: unlike Rodman for Kids — a much larger operating public charity with a real, dated application cycle and public communications — the Saint Paul foundation has no website, no published cycle, and no visible review process, closer in structure to the other small, closed family funders (Don Rodman, Andrew & Lisa Rodman) that share its surname but not its lineage. Applicants should treat the shared "Rodman" name as a trap for misdirected outreach rather than a signal of similar process; EIN 23-7025570 is the only reliable identifier for this specific funder.

The most recent public record is the FY2024 Form 990-PF, filed November 4, 2025, reporting $357,558 in charitable disbursements against $5,616,264 in total assets and a $45,798 net operating deficit for the year — a continuation of the modest asset erosion seen in FY2023 (-$234,548 net income). No news coverage, press releases, or announcements referencing new programs, leadership changes, or strategic shifts were found for 2025-2026; the four Titcomb family directors (Frederick W. Titcomb, President; Bruce L. Titcomb, Vice President; Daniel C. Titcomb, Secretary; E. Rodman Titcomb Jr., Treasurer) appear unchanged across the filing history reviewed, each still drawing the same flat $5,000 annual trustee compensation. Two former directors are recorded as deceased — Edward R. Titcomb (d. 2011, former Chair) and Julie C. Titcomb (d. 2010) — and the foundation continues to channel gifts through named funds honoring them (the Edward R. Titcomb Endowed Fund at the Science Museum of Minnesota; the Julie C. Titcomb Scholarship Fund at the University of Puget Sound), suggesting the current giving pattern is in part a continuation of commitments from the founding generation rather than an actively evolving strategy. The domain registered to the foundation's name, rodmanfoundation.com, currently serves only a Cloudflare/registrar parking page, reinforcing that this is a low-visibility, non-marketing funder whose only reliable public signal is its annual IRS filing.

There is no formal application process to describe: the foundation's own data marks application_instructions as blank and the foundation as accepting preselected grantees only, and independent trackers (Instrumentl, Cause IQ) confirm zero live opportunities and no published deadline. With just four family trustees and no program staff, treat this as a personal-relationship funder, not a proposal-review one. Practical guidance: (1) Do not send a cold, generic proposal packet — with no staff to triage submissions, an unsolicited mailing is likely to go unread; a brief, specific phone inquiry to (651) 228-0935 or a short letter to 30 7th St E Ste 2000, Saint Paul, MN 55101 is more realistic than a formal application. (2) Lead with any genuine personal or institutional connection — Williams College (especially Class of 1970 ties), University of Puget Sound alumni or scholarship connections, St. Paul Academy and Summit School families, or nonprofits in the Seattle, Twin Cities, or Palm Beach/Coachella Valley areas — since every top-tier recipient in the data traces back to one of these ties. (3) Ask for general operating or annual-fund support rather than a restricted project or new program; the overwhelming majority of historical grants are coded simply "GENERAL OPERATING SUPPORT," so a request that mirrors this framing is more likely to match how the foundation already gives. (4) Calibrate the ask to their real range — median grant $2,000, average $3,730, ceiling around $30,000 for a typical annual gift (the $50K-115K totals to anchor institutions reflect 5-13 repeated grants over multiple years, not single large checks). A first approach asking for $2,000-$10,000 is far more plausible than a five- or six-figure single-year request. (5) Signal interest in an ongoing relationship, not a one-time transaction — the pattern of 3, 6, 10, or 13 repeat grants to favored organizations suggests the foundation rewards multi-year consistency once a connection is established. (6) Be patient and low-pressure; given the modest, informal governance (each trustee paid only $5,000/year), expect a slow, personal response rather than a structured decision timeline, and do not expect acknowledgment of a submission if no relationship already exists.