Second Family Foundation Inc.

Second Family Foundation Inc. (EIN 20-5885567, Chapel Hill, NC) is a private operating foundation, not a conventional grantmaker, and grant seekers need to recalibrate expectations accordingly. IRS filings mark `is_operating: true` in every year on record, `grants_paid` is $0 in the two most recent filed years (FY2022, FY2023) and was as low as $800-$1,000 even in the years it reported any cash grants at all (FY2019-FY2020). The foundation instead runs its own direct-service programs — SFWorks (youth employment, ages 14-15) and SFEmerge (education and independent-living support, ages 16-25+) — exclusively for youth connected to Orange County, NC Department of Social Services Child Welfare. There is no grantee list in IRS data (0 total grants recorded) and no matched open public grants in this dataset, both consistent with an organization that does not distribute funds to outside nonprofits.

Governance is tight and family-controlled: Mike Miles (President/Treasurer) and Elston Miles (VP/Secretary) sit alongside directors Wendy Miles Baer, Alexandra Miles Skove, and Andrea Alden Miles — all unpaid — while Edward William Miles draws the sole officer compensation ($27,035 in FY2022, $24,000 in FY2021 and prior). Day-to-day operations are run by Executive Director Holly Kunkel Ainsley, in place since the foundation's 2007 founding, alongside two part-time "SFF Technicians" (2019 and 2021 hires).

For a nonprofit, business, or individual approaching this foundation, the honest strategy is: do not treat it as a grant prospect. Instead, position as (1) a referral partner if you serve foster-care-involved youth in Orange County, (2) an employer partner via the documented SFWorks Employer Partner Interest Form, or (3) a contracted service vendor — the foundation's own budget shows real spend on transportation ($103,229 in the most detailed filing year) and tutoring ($11,104), suggesting it pays outside providers for these services even though it doesn't formally "grant" to them.

Second Family Foundation's financial profile confirms an operating-foundation pattern rather than a grantmaking one. Total assets have grown from $3,830,379 (FY2011) to $12,321,564 (FY2021) to $12,277,658 (FY2023, latest filed 990), with a current on-record figure of $12,881,979 — roughly 3.4x growth over twelve years. Critically, this growth is investment-driven, not donor-driven: contributions received were $0 in FY2023, FY2022, and FY2015, and net investment income ($292,871 in FY2023; $254,582 in FY2021; a spike to $2,130,789 in FY2012) now consistently exceeds new contributions in every recent year. The foundation is effectively spending its own endowment returns on its own programs.

"Total giving" (which for an operating foundation includes direct charitable-activity spending, not cash grants) has ranged from $174,679 (FY2011) to a high of $429,222 (FY2019), averaging roughly $310,000-$355,000 annually over FY2021-FY2023 ($307,255 / $314,683 / $355,300). Actual cash grants paid to outside organizations are negligible: $0 in FY2022 and FY2023, $1,000 in FY2020, $800 in FY2019, and a peak of just $38,474 in FY2012 — none of this rises to the level of a program a nonprofit could realistically apply into.

The most granular program-expense breakdown available (FY2020 filing) shows: transportation/self-development support $103,229, SFWorks (youth employment) $28,209, academic tutoring/incentives $11,104, and SFFit (fitness/character program) $157 — a combined $142,699 against $383,755 in total giving that year, with the remainder likely staff costs, youth incentive payments, and overhead not broken out by line. There is no geographic distribution to analyze beyond Orange County, NC, and no program-area split beyond youth workforce/education services — this is a hyper-local, single-population funder.

Second Family Foundation sits in the middle of this peer set by asset size ($12.9M, versus a $8.7M-$14.7M range), but it is distinguishable from a typical peer comparison because its own giving is entirely self-directed program spending rather than third-party grants — a pattern also plausible for peers like Leir Retreat Center (which, similar to SFF, appears to run a physical program/retreat rather than a grants line, based on its name and site). Grant seekers should not assume asset size here predicts grant availability, since neither this foundation nor the sampled peers have verified open, competitive grant programs in this dataset.

No dated news, press releases, or announcements specific to 2025 or 2026 were found for Second Family Foundation via web search or its own website — the organization does not maintain a news or blog section, and its online presence (official site, Candid/Foundation Directory, GuideStar, ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Cause IQ, NC Center for Nonprofits) consists of static organizational and filing data rather than dated updates. The most recent verified financial filing in this dataset is FY2023 (filed presumably in 2024), showing $12,277,658 in assets and $355,300 in total giving.

What is confirmed as current (per direct website verification): the foundation actively operates SFWorks and SFEmerge, maintains a partner network of 70+ local Orange County employers spanning food service, retail, agriculture, recreation, and nonprofit sectors, and runs an active vehicle-donation partnership with Wheels4Hope to help participants obtain their first car. It also references collaboration with Orange County Living Wage initiatives. Leadership has been stable for years: Executive Director Holly Kunkel Ainsley has led the organization since its 2007 founding, with Lead SFF Technician Vickie Feaster Fornville (joined 2019) and SFF Technician Shiala Baldwin (joined 2021) rounding out program staff — no leadership turnover was found in current web sources. Grant seekers should treat this as a stable, low-visibility, single-mission operating foundation rather than one undergoing any strategic pivot.

Because Second Family Foundation is an operating foundation with no external grants program (`application_process`, `application_deadline`, and `application_form_url` are all null in IRS/enrichment data, and `application_instructions` is explicitly recorded as "__none__"), conventional grant-writing advice does not apply here. The realistic engagement paths, based on the foundation's own website, are:

• For employers: submit the "SFWorks Employer Partner Interest Form" at secondfamilyfoundation.org/for-employers/, or email Executive Director Holly Kunkel Ainsley directly at hkunkel@secondfamilyfoundation.org. This is the only documented external-partner intake channel.
• For nonprofit service providers (transportation, tutoring, mental health, workforce development) operating in Orange County, NC: the foundation's own filings show real spend in exactly these categories ($103,229 on transportation support and $11,104 on tutoring in the most detailed filing year), suggesting it contracts with or pays outside vendors even without a formal grants program. A direct, relationship-based outreach to the Executive Director proposing a paid-service or in-kind partnership is more viable than a grant proposal.
• For individuals: youth cannot self-refer. Access requires nomination through an Orange County DSS Child Welfare caseworker, followed by an SFF-conducted interview before program acceptance.
• Common mistake to avoid: submitting an unsolicited LOI or grant proposal as if this were a standard family foundation. There is no evidence in IRS filings, Candid/Foundation Directory data (last updated 2022 per search results), or the foundation's own site that any such review process exists — proposals sent this way are very unlikely to reach a decision-maker.
• Alignment language, if pursuing a partnership: reference the foundation's "7 Tenets" framework (honesty, self-improvement, service to others) and its "pay it forward" philosophy rooted in Big Brothers Big Sisters and UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work research — language the foundation itself uses to describe its identity.
• Timing: no deadline or cycle is published; given the foundation's small, family-run structure, direct outreach is likely reviewed informally rather than on a fixed calendar.