Blue Ridge Energy Members
Lenoir, NC · EIN 56-1793740. Reported 62 grants totalling $717,080 to 41 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, 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. The IRS has no activity classification on file for this one, so we cannot tell you whether it is a community foundation or a single-institution support fund. The recipient list below is the better guide.
- How spread out its giving is. 41 distinct organizations, with 9% 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. 33% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,500 and $12,500; the smallest was $5,322 and the largest $30,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care Inc | Lenoir, NC | $62,500 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Foundation of the Caldwell Community College and Technical | Lenoir, NC | $62,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Ashe Memorial Hospital Inc | Jefferson, NC | $62,258 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Town of Hudson | Hudson, NC | $41,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| The Western Youth Network Inc | Boone, NC | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Caldwell Mem Hospital Foundation | Lenoir, NC | $37,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Alleghany County Rescue Squad | Sparta, NC | $30,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Blue Ridge Conservancy | Boone, NC | $24,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Riverview Community Center | Creston, NC | $22,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Pond Mountain Volunteer Fire and Rescue Inc | Creston, NC | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Wilkes Community College | Wilkesboro, NC | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ashe County Rescue Squad Inc | W Jefferson, NC | $18,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Alleghany Wellness Center Inc | Sparta, NC | $17,500 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Greater Lansing Area Development Committee | Lansing, NC | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Appalachian State University Foundation Inc | Boone, NC | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Caldwell County Yokefellow Inc | Lenoir, NC | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Alleghany County Memorial Hospital Inc | Sparta, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Ashe Really Cares | West Jefferson, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Collettsville Ruritan Club | Collettsville, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Foscoe Grandfather Community Center Inc | Banner Elk, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Friends of the Watauga County Public Library | Boone, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| High Country Caregiver Foundation | Boone, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kings Creek Volunteer Fire Dept | Lenoir, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Laurel Springs Voluntary Fire Department Inc | Laurel Spgs, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina Inc | Winston Salem, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Shelter Home of Cadwell County | Lenoir, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Mitford Museum | Hudson, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Watauga County Immigrant Justice Coalition | Boone, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Western North Carolina Sculpture Center Inc | Lenoir, NC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Blue Ridge Developmental Day | Sparta, NC | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Lenoir Soup Kitchen Inc | Lenoir, NC | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wig Bank of Caldwell County | Lenoir, NC | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Childrens Council of Watauga County Inc | Boone, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fort Defiance Inc | Lenoir, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Freedom Farm Ministries | Boone, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Mountaintrue | Asheville, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Opposing Abuse With Service Information and Shelter Inc | Boone, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Shoes for Kids | W Jefferson, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| W a M Y Community Action Inc | Boone, NC | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Ashe County Farmers Market Inc | W Jefferson, NC | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Blue Ridge Opportunity Commission Inc | N Wilkesboro, NC | $5,322 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
12 of 41 (29%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 26 of 41 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 8 | $113,822 | $12,250 |
| 2022 | 14 | $173,500 | $10,000 |
| 2023 | 9 | $105,000 | $12,500 |
| 2024 | 18 | $185,000 | $9,250 |
| 2025 | 13 | $139,758 | $10,000 |
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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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $10,000 -- 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 North Carolina.
- 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 Blue Ridge Energy Members's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 112, Lenoir, NC, 28645.
EIN 56-1793740 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.