Rolander Family Foundation

Rolander Family Foundation is a small, closely held family foundation run entirely by Rolander and Leroy family members: President Stephen B. Rolander, Vice President Nancy R. Leroy, Secretary Stephen C. Leroy (the only compensated officer, at $3,000/year), and five unpaid directors — William B. Leroy, W. Scott Leroy, C. Arthur Rolander III, Tracy V. Howe, and Mary Elizabeth Picher. There is no program staff, no grants management platform, and — as of this research — no functioning website (rolander.org resolves to a generic hosting placeholder). The foundation's own IRS filing describes its entire application process as 'a letter containing information regarding the request,' confirming this is an informal, letter-based, relationship-oriented funder rather than one running a competitive RFP process.

The grantee pattern reinforces this: of the top 50 recipients in the data, the large majority received grants in 3 or 4 separate years (e.g., The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, $96,000 across 4 grants; Petey Greene Prisoner Assistance Program, $75,000 across 4 grants; City Kids Wilderness Project, $70,000 across 4 grants), indicating the foundation renews relationships year over year rather than rotating through new organizations. Still, turnover exists — industry research citing the foundation's filings notes 8-15 new recipients added in recent years — so unsolicited first-time letters are not automatically futile, just competing against an established, loyal base.

First-time applicants should treat this as a modest, geographically-anchored funder: most dollars go to organizations serving North Carolina (67 of 138 sampled grants), with secondary concentrations in Washington D.C. (16) and Colorado (12), likely tracking where family members live or have ties. A first ask should be small (the typical grant is $5,000-$9,000), specific, and framed around direct service — food security, youth programs, housing, or community assistance — rather than research, capital campaigns, or national advocacy. Because there is no online application, applicants should mail or call rather than search for a portal.

Total giving has stayed in a narrow band for over a decade, tracking investment income rather than any campaign or endowment growth: $277,085 (2011), a peak of $349,820 (2014), $309,184 (2019), a pandemic-era dip to $305,175 (2020), $319,835 (2021), $352,834 (2022), $281,029 (2023), and — per web-sourced 990 data not yet in the internal database — $323,200 across 33 awards (2024) and $343,430-$353,349 across 37 awards (2025), the highest grant count observed. Assets have similarly held flat, from $5.88M (2011) to $5.56M (2023) to roughly $5.6M (2025), with zero contributions received in any recent year — this is a closed, self-perpetuating family corpus, not one seeking new donors.

The typical single grant is small: DB-derived typical grant size shows a median of $5,000, average of $8,862, and range of $1,000-$25,000 (31-grant sample); web-sourced 2025 data cites a wider observed range of $1,500-$47,500. Across the full 138-grant/$1,211,730 sample used for this report, the average award is $8,781.

By purpose, the portfolio is dominated by 'Public Assistance' — the label attached to nearly every top-50 grantee, including food banks, youth programs, housing nonprofits, and refugee/disaster-relief groups. Smaller carve-outs go to religion ($50,000 to Episcopal Diocese of NC across 3 grants), research (a single $25,000 grant to the Thurston Research Center at UNC School of Medicine), and education (Ryerson University $15,000; Tomken Middle School $4,800 across 2 grants).

Geographically, of 138 sampled grants: North Carolina leads with 67 (48.6%), followed by Washington D.C. with 16 (11.6%), Colorado with 12 (8.7%), Connecticut and New Jersey with 7 each, Virginia with 6, New York with 5, Maryland with 4, California with 3, and Pennsylvania with 2 — a footprint consistent with a family-connected rather than a purely local NC funder.

Rolander sits in a tight cluster of small family foundations and trusts matched by asset size (all near $5.6M) and NTEE classification (Philanthropy & Grantmaking). None of these five peers has a public website on file, and none discloses a formal application process — Rolander is actually the most transparent of the group by virtue of its IRS-disclosed letter-based instructions.

All six organizations occupy the same small-family-trust tier ($5.5-5.8M in assets) with no professional grants staff, meaning outreach strategy should be nearly identical across the peer set: a short written inquiry addressed to a named officer, not a portal search. Rolander's advantage for applicants is that its IRS filing at least confirms a letter is the correct format and names a contact (Stephen B. Rolander) and phone number, where the listed peers offer no public entry point at all.

No press coverage, leadership changes, or program announcements for 2025-2026 turned up in web search — consistent with a family foundation that has no communications function and, currently, no working website. The most concrete recent signal is financial: the foundation's FY2025 Form 990-PF (filed 2026-05-15) reported $353,349 in charitable disbursements, its highest since 2022's $352,834, spread across 37 grants — also the highest grant count in the observed 2011-2025 window (prior years ranged 30-33 awards). This suggests a modest, gradual broadening of the grantee list rather than a strategic overhaul.

Leadership has been stable: Stephen B. Rolander (President) and Nancy R. Leroy (Vice President) appear consistently across filings alongside Secretary Stephen C. Leroy and directors William B. Leroy, W. Scott Leroy, C. Arthur Rolander III, Tracy V. Howe, and Mary Elizabeth Picher — no reported departures or additions in the data available.

The one notable operational finding from this research is that rolander.org, the foundation's website of record, currently displays only a generic One.com hosting placeholder rather than any foundation content. Applicants should not expect to find funding guidelines, an online form, or a deadline calendar there, and should not assume the domain reflects the foundation's true public posture — it may simply be a lapsed or rebuilding site. Direct phone contact at (919) 696-8045 is the more reliable channel until the site is restored.

There is no online application, LOI form, or grant portal — the foundation's own IRS filing states the entire process is 'a letter containing information regarding the request.' Applicants should mail (or call ahead to confirm submission method) a concise letter to '% Stephen B. Rolander' at 1405 Feathery Ln, Wake Forest, NC 27587, or call (919) 696-8045 with questions before writing.

Because rolander.org is currently non-functional (a hosting placeholder page, not foundation content), do not spend time searching it for deadlines or forms — none exist there today. There is no disclosed application deadline or stated funding cycle, so timing should follow the calendar/fiscal year; given that disbursement counts have held to roughly 33-37 grants annually, treat this as a limited number of slots and submit early rather than late in the year.

Keep the ask modest and specific: the median grant is $5,000, the average is $8,781-$8,862, and the typical range is $1,000-$25,000 (with a small number of legacy relationships, like the $96,000 cumulative to Colonial Williamsburg, reaching higher over multiple years). A first-time request well above $25,000 is unlikely to match the foundation's normal pattern.

Align the request with 'public assistance' — food security, housing, youth development, or direct human-services delivery — since that purpose code covers the large majority of the top-50 grantee list; education, religious, and research grants exist but are a small minority. Geographic fit matters: roughly half of sampled dollars go to North Carolina organizations (especially Wake Forest, Chatham County, Durham, and Raleigh-area groups), with secondary concentrations in Washington D.C. and Colorado — a national appeal with no NC/DC/CO service connection is working against the visible pattern.

The most common mistake would be treating this like a large institutional funder: sending a lengthy formal proposal, expecting a portal confirmation, or assuming a strict RFP cycle. Instead, write a short, plain letter, name a specific program and dollar figure, and if funded, follow up the next year with a brief outcomes letter — most top grantees receive support in 2-4 separate years, indicating renewal is earned through simple, direct relationship maintenance rather than resubmission through any formal channel.