Retail Advancement Fund
Richmond, VA · EIN 84-3933913. Reported 40 grants totalling $528,205 to 28 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Retail Advancement Fund, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S30) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 28 distinct organizations, with 10% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 40% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,266. Half of what it reported fell between $7,764 and $16,489; the smallest was $5,085 and the largest $43,327. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spotty Dog Ice Cream | Richmond, VA | $53,751 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Glean LLC | Richmond, VA | $45,016 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Carolina Bbq | Henrico, VA | $43,327 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Jade Salon | Richmond, VA | $34,991 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Baresoul Yoga | Richmond, VA | $25,018 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Urban Set Bride | Richmond, VA | $23,526 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Bonos Carribean Cuisine | Richmond, VA | $22,923 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| 8 12 Church Hill | Richmond, VA | $22,860 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ms Girlee's Kitchen LLC | Richmond, VA | $21,086 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Second Bottle Wine & Snack Shop | Richmond, VA | $19,934 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Great Work Rva | Richmond, VA | $18,570 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ocean World Seafood Market | Richmond, VA | $17,111 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Its Wheel Simple | Richmond, VA | $16,532 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Manchester Groom Saloon LLC | Richmond, VA | $15,845 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lafox Hair Designs | Richmond, VA | $15,465 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Favour Cookie Co | Richmond, VA | $14,949 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Green Olive Eatery | Richmond, VA | $14,400 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Dolce Pizza & Grill | Richmond, VA | $14,214 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kitchen on Wellington | Richmond, VA | $13,510 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| C Alexander's Cleaners | Richmond, VA | $13,104 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Fat Rabbit | Richmond, VA | $10,488 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Soul N Vinegar | Richmond, VA | $10,045 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Tonya's Kitchen | Richmond, VA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ez Body & Auto Repair Service LLC | Richmond, VA | $7,622 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Pomona Plants | North Chesterfield, VA | $7,453 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Dear Neighbor | Richmond, VA | $5,800 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Walnut Alley LLC | Richmond, VA | $5,580 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Sweet Temptations By Therese LLC | Richmond, VA | $5,085 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
9 of 28 (32%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Carolina Bbq
FOR REPAIRS AND PURCHASE ASSETS - Glean LLC
TO PURCHASE ASSETS INCLUDING SOFTWARE - Favour Cookie Co
TO PURCHASE ASSETS, WEBSITE DESIGN AND LEGAL EXPENSES - Pomona Plants
TO PURCHASE ASSETS AND ADVERTISEMENT
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 | $159,932 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 10 | $116,752 | $10,441 |
| 2023 | 11 | $151,397 | $10,488 |
| 2024 | 8 | $100,124 | $12,107 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
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How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,266 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Virginia.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Retail Advancement Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 5101 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA, 23230.
EIN 84-3933913 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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