Rust Family Foundation

The Rust Family Foundation (EIN 20-4631229, Lumberton, NC) is a young, founder-led family foundation, not a legacy institution. Public IRS records show it existed as a near-dormant vehicle for over a decade — total assets sat between $227 and $1,757 from 2012 through 2023 — before being recapitalized to roughly $4.15M in 2024, immediately after Kenneth and Lisa Rust sold the McDonald's franchise business they operated in southeastern North Carolina for 30+ years. That timeline matters strategically: this is effectively a brand-new major funder still building its grantmaking infrastructure, rules, and track record, even though the underlying legal entity has existed since 2006. Applicants should expect a hands-on, relationship-driven process rather than a mature, form-heavy bureaucracy. Leadership is entirely family and close associates: Kenneth Rust (President, computer engineering background from NC State), Lisa Rust (Director/Grant Facilitator, an ordained minister with a Master's in Faith and Leadership Formation from Campbell University), sons James Rust (law) and Jordan Rust (software engineering) as Directors, and David Elks as Executive Director with divinity training. The foundation states a Christian-faith-rooted mission centered on human dignity and equitable access to food, shelter, healthcare, and education, applied through an explicit 'equity lens.' The foundation's own most recent IRS filing states it 'only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and doesn't accept unsolicited applications' — yet its public website invites and describes a quarterly-reviewed application process. Grant seekers should read this as a hybrid model: the Foundation likely prioritizes organizations already known to the family (Robeson County/southeastern NC nonprofits, faith partners, causes the Rusts have personally encountered) while remaining open to strong cold inquiries that align tightly with its four funding pillars. First-time applicants should lead with a warm connection if one exists — a board member introduction, a shared church or community relationship, or a prior informal conversation with staff — and should expect the Foundation to respond to an initial application with follow-up questions rather than a single up-or-down decision.

Because this specific 990 record shows grants_paid and total_giving as null for FY2024 (the year of recapitalization), and the multi-year history before that shows total_giving ranging from $0 to $12,760 on an entity with under $2,000 in assets, the DB's own grantee/financial history for this exact EIN is not yet informative about typical grant size at the foundation's new scale. Third-party aggregators tracking a similarly named Rust Family Foundation report about $280,300 distributed across 147 grantees in a recent year — an average of roughly $1,900 per grant — but that figure appears to blend data from a separate, older Fairfield, CT-based Rust Family Foundation (EIN 54-1925955, a distinct organization with its own archaeology grants program that the CT trustees retired in 2024) and should be treated as directional context for the 'Rust Family Foundation' name generally, not a confirmed figure for this Lumberton, NC entity. What is confirmed from this foundation's own program pages: the Faith and Vocation Congregational Grants track pays a fixed $5,000 per selected congregation, capped at five congregations per year (max $25,000/year for that track alone), plus in-kind workshop and coaching support. The foundation's income_amount on file is $463,300 with total revenue of $4,455,043 in FY2024 (driven almost entirely by the one-time capitalization event rather than recurring investment income), against total assets of $4,153,285. On a foundation of this size, a 5% minimum distribution requirement under IRS private-foundation rules would imply roughly $200,000+ in required annual qualifying distributions going forward — a useful benchmark for the scale of giving grant seekers should expect once the foundation's payout stabilizes, even though no confirmed 2024/2025 grants list exists yet in this record. Geographically, confirmed grants split between hyper-local (Robeson County, NC — Robeson County Church and Community Center; UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton) and international (Amani Sasa, Kampala, Uganda), indicating the Rusts fund both their home community and causes with personal or faith-network significance rather than a strictly defined service area.

All five peer organizations in this dataset sit within roughly $1,300 of the Rust Family Foundation's $4,160,289 asset base, making them useful scale comparables even though none publish detailed giving data in this record. Unlike the generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification shared by all six, the Rust Family Foundation is unusual for having a public-facing website, named program tracks (Non-Profit and Faith-Based, Faith and Vocation Congregational, Workplace Ministry, Rust Aviation), and documented impact stories — most small family foundations at this asset level operate with no public presence at all, which itself is a strategic signal: applicants can research this funder's preferences in a way that is not possible with most of its true asset-class peers.

The defining recent event is structural, not a single announcement: the Rust Family Foundation was recapitalized in 2024 when Kenneth and Lisa Rust sold the McDonald's franchise business they had operated in southeastern North Carolina for more than 30 years, converting a long-dormant trust (total assets had not exceeded $1,757 in any year from 2012-2023) into a foundation holding roughly $4.15M-$4.16M in assets. This makes 2024-2026 a formative period — the foundation is actively building out its program structure (four funding categories plus a distinct congregational micro-grant track), leadership team (Executive Director David Elks and both Rust sons now hold Director titles), and public communications, including impact write-ups on its website. Documented recent grant activity includes support for the Robeson County Church and Community Center's work under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (housing, medical, and transportation support for students experiencing homelessness), funding that helped UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton launch its Breeches Bouy Addiction Medicine outpatient service via Epic Connect, and an international grant to Amani Sasa for refugee relief in Kampala, Uganda. No fiscal-year 2025 or 2026 grants list, dollar total, or new-hire/leadership-change announcement was found in this research pass beyond what is described above; the most recent verifiable filing-level detail in the DB is the FY2024 990 showing the post-sale asset base. Grant seekers should expect the Foundation's public grant history to expand significantly as its first full grantmaking cycles at the new asset scale are reported.

Because the Foundation's own IRS filing states it prefers preselected/invited organizations while its website describes an open quarterly review, treat a cold application as a real but secondary path — invest first in finding a warm connection (a Robeson County nonprofit, a faith partner, or someone who has worked with Executive Director David Elks or Lisa Rust) before submitting cold. When you do apply, mirror the Foundation's own language: frame your proposal around human dignity, equitable access to basic needs (food, shelter, healthcare, education), and an 'equity lens' that builds or reinforces just systems — this is verbatim language from their about/grants pages, and using it signals you've done the homework. Match your ask to one of the four explicit categories (Non-Profit and Faith-Based Grants, Faith and Vocation Congregational Grants, Workplace Ministry grants, or Rust Aviation grants) rather than submitting a generic request — a mismatched category is an easy early screen-out for a young foundation still defining its own boundaries. If you are a congregation, the Faith and Vocation track is a known, fixed-dollar entry point: up to five congregations per year receive $5,000 plus coaching and workshop participation, a lower-friction ask than a full programmatic grant. Prepare a detailed, itemized budget as part of your submission — a past applicant specifically noted this was a substantive part of the intake, not boilerplate — and expect a back-and-forth: the Foundation has a track record of returning with follow-up questions and suggestions rather than a single yes/no, so build in time and flexibility to revise. Do not propose debt reduction, general operating support, individual assistance, endowment gifts, capital campaigns, or government-agency partnerships — all are explicitly excluded. Given the Foundation's Robeson County/southeastern NC roots (confirmed grants to Robeson County Church and Community Center and UNC Health Southeastern in Lumberton) alongside at least one international grant (Amani Sasa, Uganda), organizations with either a strong local NC presence or a clear faith-network tie to the Rust family's interests appear best positioned; a purely secular, non-local, non-faith-affiliated applicant with no prior relationship should expect a harder path given the 'preselected organizations' language on file with the IRS. Reapplication appears welcomed for ongoing projects, so a modest first ask that builds a track record with the Foundation may be more effective than a large first request.