Toler Foundation

The Toler Foundation is a small, family-governed private foundation run entirely by unpaid volunteer directors from the Phillips and Villere families of New Orleans — there is no program staff, no public grants portal, and no listed application form (application_instructions is blank in IRS filings, and the foundation is flagged as preselected-only). Multiple third-party grant databases independently confirm it does not accept unsolicited proposals. In practice, this is a relationship-driven checkbook foundation: filings show it re-funds roughly the same 20-25 Uptown and Garden District institutions year after year — Episcopal day schools (Trinity, Christ Episcopal, Isidore Newman), the New Orleans charter-school sector (New Schools For New Orleans, Bricolage Academy), Ochsner Clinic Foundation for Alzheimer's and cancer research, and a cluster of civic and human-service groups (Rebuilding Together New Orleans, New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, National WWII Museum). First-time applicants should not expect a cold LOI to succeed. The realistic path in is a personal connection — a board seat, a shared social or civic network, or a warm introduction from an existing grantee — followed by a direct letter or call to the foundation's registered contact (c/o Louis C. Doody Jr., 509 Octavia St Ste B, New Orleans, LA 70115, (504) 525-2985). Because the foundation funds almost exclusively capital campaigns rather than general operating support, organizations should approach it when they have a defined building, renovation, or endowment project underway — not for annual-fund or program-expansion asks. The typical relationship also appears to compound: nearly every top grantee received two grants across the observed multi-year window, suggesting the foundation makes an initial gift and then follows up with a second installment as a capital campaign progresses, rather than committing to multi-year unrestricted funding. Given total annual giving of roughly $435,000-$500,000 spread across 16-22 grants, this is a modest but dependable funder for well-connected Louisiana institutions with an active capital ask, not a foundation that a national or out-of-state nonprofit should target.

Grant size: the IRS-reported typical grant is $3,000-$61,000 with a median of $20,000 and an average of $24,739 (23 grants sampled); the most recent FY2025 filing widens the top end slightly to $70,000 (Carrollton Booster Club) with the same $3,000 floor, per Instrumentl. Across the multi-year grantee dataset (46 grants, $1,138,000 total, all to Louisiana recipients), the single largest relationship is Ochsner Clinic Foundation at $122,000 across two grants for 'Alzheimer's Research and Cancer Institute Funding,' followed by Carrollton Booster Club and Trinity Episcopal School tied at $120,000 each for capital campaigns, and Christ Episcopal School at $86,000. Purpose concentration is stark: of the 23 organizations in the top-recipient list, 21 (91%) are coded 'CAPITAL CAMPAIGN' — the foundation is functionally a bricks-and-mortar funder for schools, churches, and civic institutions, with two outlier program grants (Ochsner's medical research funding and Audubon Nature Institute's 'Kids Zoo to Do' event funding). Geography is 100% Louisiana; the grantee dataset shows all 46 tracked grants going to in-state, overwhelmingly New Orleans-metro recipients. Total giving over the last decade-plus has ranged from a low of $433,476 (2011) to a high of $654,420 (2021), tracking the foundation's asset base and investment returns rather than a deliberate spending strategy — total assets peaked at $8.82M (2020) and have since declined to $6.9M (2023 and 2025 filings), driven by a sharp 2023 net-revenue loss of -$720,637 against continued grants_paid of $450,000. Grants paid (net of overhead) have held in a tighter $360,000-$569,000 band across the full filing history, with the two most recent years ($450,000 FY2023, $435,000-$486,355 FY2025) sitting near the low end of that range — a modest, gradual contraction consistent with declining asset size rather than a change in philosophy.

Toler Foundation sits in a cluster of similarly-sized private foundations (all coded Philanthropy & Grantmaking, all with assets clustered near $6.9M — likely matched by asset band rather than mission similarity). None of the five peers publish an open application process; like Toler, small single-family foundations of this size are almost always invitation-only relationship funders.

What distinguishes Toler within this peer set is its unusually tight geographic and purpose concentration — 100% Louisiana recipients and 91% of top grants coded as capital campaigns — versus peers whose NTEE coding gives no visible geographic anchor. Grant seekers outside greater New Orleans, or seeking general operating rather than capital support, will find Toler a poor fit even among this small-foundation peer group; the better use of this comparison is confirming that Toler's ~$450K-$650K annual payout and $20,000 median grant are typical for a foundation of its asset size, not an outlier.

The most recent available filing (FY2025, per CauseIQ and Instrumentl) shows total giving of $435,000 across 21 grants, with total expenses of $486,355 against modest total revenue of $52,919 — investment income of $189,879 was largely offset by market losses elsewhere in the portfolio, consistent with the asset decline from $7.35M (FY2023) to $6.9M (FY2025). The three largest FY2025 gifts were $70,000 to Carrollton Booster Club, $47,500 to Christ Episcopal Church, and $35,000 to Trinity Episcopal School Endowment Trust II, all capital-campaign support for institutions the foundation has funded in prior years, alongside continued support for New Schools For New Orleans. No leadership changes, new program announcements, or press coverage were found in web searches covering 2025-2026 — the foundation maintains no news presence, social media, or communications function, consistent with its all-volunteer, no-staff governance structure (directors Nathaniel P Phillips Jr as President, St Denis J Villere II and III, Kathleen Louise Doody as Secretary-Treasurer, and Nathaniel P Phillips III, none of whom draw compensation per IRS filings). The one notable research finding is a data-quality flag rather than a foundation development: the domain listed as this foundation's website, tolerfoundation.org, actually belongs to a different, unrelated Toler Foundation based in Southwest Florida that funds veteran and front-line-worker mental health services — grant seekers should not use that site's mission statement, grantee list, or contact form when approaching the New Orleans organization profiled here.

There is no formal application process to optimize — the foundation does not maintain a public LOI form, portal, or published deadline, and its IRS filing explicitly leaves the application-instructions field blank while flagging itself as preselected-only. The single highest-leverage move for an unfamiliar organization is securing an introduction through the foundation's existing network: the Phillips and Villere families are prominent in New Orleans civic and philanthropic circles, and nearly every current grantee (Episcopal schools, Ochsner, the WWII Museum, charter-school intermediaries) is the kind of institution with board or social overlap to those families. Cold outreach should go to the registered contact, c/o Louis C. Doody Jr. at 509 Octavia St Ste B, New Orleans, LA 70115, or by phone at (504) 525-2985, framed as a short letter rather than a full proposal package — this is not a foundation set up to process detailed grant applications. Timing: since grants concentrate around capital campaigns rather than an annual cycle, the best moment to approach is when a capital or endowment campaign is publicly announced and has already secured some lead gifts, not at the idea stage — Toler's pattern of paired/follow-up grants to the same institution suggests it prefers joining a campaign already in motion. A common mistake would be requesting general operating or program funding — 91% of tracked top grants are capital-campaign-coded, so operating-support asks are a mismatch for this funder's demonstrated giving pattern. Language should mirror what the foundation actually funds: cite the specific capital project, its total campaign goal, and how a gift in the $3,000-$70,000 range (median $20,000) would be used, rather than requesting an open-ended amount. Given the 100% Louisiana, overwhelmingly New Orleans-metro grantee footprint, organizations without a Louisiana presence or a Louisiana-connected leadership team should not prioritize this funder.