Virginia Outdoor Adventure Inc.

Virginia Outdoor Adventure Inc. (VOA), founded by Kelly and Linda Thorp in Virginia Beach and formally organized in 2016-2017, is best understood as a small, closely-held family operating foundation rather than a conventional open grantmaker. The bulk of its annual giving - $322,162 in program expenses in its most recent detailed filing - funds VOA's own low/no-cost outdoor trips (sailing in the Bahamas and U.S. Virgin Islands, James River canoe camping) for roughly 229 youth aged 21 and under, delivered directly through partnerships with Hampton Roads and northeast North Carolina youth groups. Only a small residual goes out as grants to independent 501(c)(3)s: nine documented grants to outside nonprofits total roughly $20,680, ranging from $500 to $10,000, plus one much larger $320,000 transfer (two grants) into a National Philanthropic Trust donor-advised fund that functions as internal family philanthropic infrastructure rather than a program grant. There is no public LOI process, RFP, or online portal - the foundation's own database record lists application_instructions as none. First-time applicants should treat VOA as a relationship-driven, invitation-leaning funder: past recipients (Boy Scout Troop #5376, Boy Scouts of America Tidewater Council, Ocean View Little League Challenger Baseball, Safe House Project, Connect With A Wish, Town Center Kiwanis Club) share either a direct scouting/youth-outdoor connection to the Thorps or a Hampton Roads geographic footprint. Leadership is compact: Kelly R. Thorp (President), Linda J. Thorp (Vice President, unpaid), and Tina Ridgeway (Treasurer/Executive Director, $100,000-$115,000 compensation), meaning a phone call or short email to this small team - not a formal submission - is the realistic entry point. Organizations should keep initial asks modest (under $10,000), tightly aligned to youth outdoor programming or the adjacent causes the family has already funded, and be prepared for an informal, multi-touch cultivation process rather than a defined review cycle.

VOA's finances show a foundation whose "total giving" line is dominated by its own program operations, with outside grants a volatile, secondary activity. Total assets have ranged $6.4M-$8.1M over FY2021-FY2023 ($8,107,804 in 2021; $6,384,414 in 2022; $6,717,967 in 2023; $6,921,841 per the most recent asset figure), while total giving (which includes direct program costs) swung from $272,689 (2021) to $552,769 (2022) to $486,726 (2023). Actual grants paid to outside organizations, however, were far smaller and highly erratic: just $2,000 in 2021, a spike to $169,340 in 2022, dropping to $13,500 in 2023, and only $2,500 documented in FY2024 (a Town Center Kiwanis Club scholarship match) - there is no stable annual grants budget to plan around. Across the 11 grants captured in the platform's grantee history (total $340,680, average $30,971), that average is misleading: two grants worth $320,000 combined went to a National Philanthropic Trust donor-advised fund, not a program nonprofit. Excluding that transfer, the real distribution to nonprofit grantees is approximately $20,680 across nine grants, averaging roughly $2,300 and ranging $500-$10,000 - Safe House Project received the largest cumulative amount ($10,000 across two grants for trafficking-survivor support), followed by Connect With A Wish ($6,000, foster/kinship families), Boy Scouts of America Tidewater Council ($2,000, program supplies), Boy Scout Troop #5376 ($1,680, camper scholarships), and Ocean View Little League Challenger Baseball ($1,000, adaptive sports equipment). Geographically, 9 of 11 grants stayed in Virginia with 2 in Pennsylvania - there is no evidence of giving outside that narrow Mid-Atlantic footprint. Officer compensation ($173,400-$195,000 combined across the President and Treasurer/Executive Director roles in 2022-2023) consumes a meaningful share of the $250K-$550K reported in annual giving, underscoring that this is a working operating foundation, not a passive grants pool.

VOA sits squarely mid-pack on assets ($6.9M) among these five Human Services-classified peers, all clustered between $6.4M and $7.2M. What differentiates it is transparency and process: unlike most peers, which have no published website or documented giving pattern in this dataset, VOA maintains an active public site and a small but traceable grant history, and its close scouting-community peer (the Rasmuson BSA endowment in Alaska) suggests scouting-affiliated causes may travel well with this cohort. None of the five peers show evidence of a formal open application process, reinforcing that funders in this asset tier and cause area typically operate as relationship-based family vehicles rather than publicly competitive grant programs.

The most recent documented grant activity is a $2,500 award to the Town Center Kiwanis Club as a Bayside High School scholarship match, reported in VOA's FY2024 financial summary (total revenue $254,201; total expenses $478,636; 2 staff). That single grant was the only clearly itemized outside disbursement identified for 2024, down from $13,500 in grants paid in 2023 and a $169,340 peak in 2022 - a marked pullback in third-party grantmaking. No news coverage, leadership transitions, or new program announcements specific to Virginia Outdoor Adventure Inc. surfaced in 2025-2026 web searches; the organization maintains a low public profile and is easily confused in search results with the much larger, unrelated Virginia Outdoors Foundation (a state-focused land conservation nonprofit that awarded nearly $6 million in grants in 2025 - a different entity entirely). Leadership has been stable since founding: Kelly R. Thorp (President) and Linda J. Thorp (Vice President) remain the organization's namesakes and founders, with Tina Ridgeway serving as Treasurer/Executive Director at $100,000-$115,000 in reported compensation. As of the most recent public snapshot, VOA continues running its signature direct-service trips - Bahamas and U.S. Virgin Islands sailing expeditions and James River canoe camping - for youth partnered through Hampton Roads and northeast North Carolina youth groups, consistent with its founding mission since 2016-2017.

There is no formal application, LOI, or online portal for Virginia Outdoor Adventure Inc. - the organization's own operating record explicitly lists no application instructions, so success here depends on direct, informal outreach rather than a competitive submission. Call 757-574-7104 or email info@virginiaoutdooradventure.org and ask to speak with the small leadership team (Kelly Thorp, President; Tina Ridgeway, Treasurer/Executive Director) rather than submitting a cold, lengthy proposal. Keep the ask small and specific: documented outside grants have ranged $500-$10,000, with $2,500 being a recent typical amount (2024's Kiwanis scholarship match) - requests in the low thousands, tied to a concrete need (camper scholarships, program supplies, adaptive equipment), fit the pattern far better than a multi-year general-operating pitch. Lead with alignment language drawn directly from their mission: emphasize "character development for youth," "challenging outdoor activities," and service to those "21 or younger," or, if outside outdoor recreation, connect to the Human Services sub-causes they've funded before (trafficking-survivor support, foster/kinship care, disability-inclusive youth sports). A warm introduction through Hampton Roads/Virginia Beach scouting networks (Boy Scouts of America Tidewater Council, local troops) is the single strongest lever identified in their grant history - two of nine outside grants went to scouting units directly. The most common mistake would be treating VOA like a large, formally-staffed foundation with a defined RFP cycle; it is a two-person operating charity whose primary charitable activity is running its own trips, and unsolicited large asks (above $10,000) have no precedent in its filings. Because grants paid to outside organizations vary sharply year to year ($2,000 to $169,340 across three recent years), timing outreach for early in the foundation's fiscal planning window and following up patiently - rather than expecting a fast decision - is realistic. Offering an in-kind or co-programming angle (e.g., partnering on an outing rather than requesting a check) may also open doors given VOA's own direct-service orientation.