How much does The Ruffin Family Foundation give?

The Ruffin Family Foundation reported 14 grants totaling $230,577 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 25 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Ruffin Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (56%), Health (31%), Human Services (5%).

Who are The Ruffin Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: The Norfolk Academy ($901k), Virginia Gentlemen Foundation Inc ($166k), An Achievable Dream Inc ($157k).

Does The Ruffin Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 47% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Ruffin Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Ruffin Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Hampton Roads Community Foundation, United Way of South Hampton Roads, Sentara Health.

Where is The Ruffin Family Foundation based?

The Ruffin Family Foundation is based in VA.

The Ruffin Family Foundation

The Ruffin Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ruffin Family Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$231k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$100k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$1.2MHealth$641kHuman Services$104kFood & Nutrition$46kCrime & Legal$21kYouth Development$19kPhilanthropy$15kArts & Culture$10kOther$0

02FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k12 grants · $31k
$50k–250k2 grants · $200k

$3,000

Median grant

States reached

$376k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
CLEVELAND CLINIC	$100,000
NORFOLK ACADEMY	$100,000
VB Court Appointed Special Advocates	$5,000
VA Beach Police Foundation	$4,800
American Heart Association	$4,027
An Acheivable Dream	$3,000
FACT	$3,000
Charles Barker's Champions for Kids	$2,500
Fight CF Foundation	$2,000
Individual grant recipient	$2,000
riseVB	$2,000
Virginia Aquarium Foundation	$1,000
VA Gentlemen Foundation	$1,000
World Wide Women Group	$250

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $159k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 10% of The Ruffin Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 72% of the giving stays in VA; by stated purpose, 64%.

The Ruffin Family Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.8M · 26 repeat orgs$251k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +33% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.

26 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.8M

$141k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+33%

+14%

Still filing today

46%

42%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $110k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

HealthHuman ServicesAnimalsPhilanthropyEducationPublic BenefitOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

AA
AN ACHIEVABLE DREAM INC
7× · 2017–2025 · $157k · revenue +234%
AH
American Heart Association Inc
9× · 2017–2025 · $26k · revenue +33%
VB
Virginia Beach Rescue Squad Foundation Inc
3× · 2017–2023 · $6k · revenue +66%

Funded once

TD
THE DISCOVERY LAND COMPANY FOUNDATION
one grant, 2019 · $100k · revenue -83%
CB
CLUB BLUE OF THE HAMPTON ROADS
one grant, 2022 · $5k
IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2024 · $4k

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Virginia Commonwealth University Intellectual Property Foundation

The foundation determines the patentability and obtains patents on virginia commonwealth university (vcu) inventions and markets and licenses such inventions to commerical entities. the foundation's activities promote research efforts at…

Health

The V Foundation

We fund game-changing research and all-star scientists to accelerate victory over cancer and save lives.

Health

Vasculitis Foundation

Building upon the collective strength of the vasculitis community, the vasculitis foundation supports, inspires and empowers individuals with vasculitis and their families through a wide range of education, research, clinical, and…

—

Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

Conquer cancer funds research for every type of cancer to benefit every patient, everywhere. working in collaboration with a global network of top scientists and clinicians, and leading advocacy and research organizations, conquer cancer…

Health

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

To cure cf and provide all people with cf the opportunity to lead long, fulfilling lives by funding research and drug development, partnering with the cf community, and advancing high-quality, specialized care.

Health

City of Hope

City of Hope's mission is to make hope a reality for all touched by cancer and diabetes. PLEASE SEE SCHEDULE O FOR A CONTINUATION OF OUR MISSION

Health

Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation

Pva research foundation inc., a non-profit organization founded in washington, dc in 1976, is controlled by the paralyzed veterans of america ("pva"), a national organization chartered by the u.s. congress on august 11, 1971. pva research…

—

Prostate Cancer Foundation

The prostate cancer foundation (pcf) funds the world's most promising research on the biology and treatment of prostate cancer, accelerating those discoveries into therapies and strategies designed to improve the quality of life and…

Philanthropy

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc

The mission of dfci is to provide expert, compassionate, and equitable care to children, adults, and their families, while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of cancer and related diseases. we train new…

Health

The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Inc

Susan g. komen has an unmatched, comprehensive 360-degree approach to fighting breast cancer across all fronts and supporting millions of people in the u.s. and in countries worldwide. we advocate for policies to protect patients, drive…

Health

The Virginia Hospital Center Foundation

Virginia hospital center foundation is the philanthropic arm of virginia hospital center. virginia hospital center foundation inspires charitable giving to support the tax-exempt purpose of virginia hospital center.

Health

The Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Fdn Group

Susan g. komen 's mission is to save lives by meeting the most critical needs in our communities & investing in breakthrough research to prevent & cure breast cancer.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hope House Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Small Cell Ovarian Cancer Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

40 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 40 of the 84 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

38/40

Grantees still filing

21/40

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$906,000Other$671,902Health$204,285Human Services$165,200Philanthropy$111,000Public Safety & Disaster$4,800Public Benefit$4,600

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Hampton Roads Community FoundationVA33.7× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Hampton Roads Community Foundation · United Way of South Hampton Roads · Sentara Health · C Barker Champions for Charity Inc · The Townsend Family Foundation · Franklin Family Foundation · E C Wareheim Foundation · Chesapeake Bay Wine Classic Foundation · Tidewater Jewish Foundation Inc · The Windward Foundation · Sterzing Charitable Trust · Virginia Beach Billfish Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization The Ruffin Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ruffin Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

7report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

1rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

Play a game based on Ruffin Family’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home