Assets of the Leon Levine Foundation of Charlotte have increased to $2 billion after the April 2023 death of the namesake co-founder, who built the Family Dollar retail chain that was acquired by Dollar Tree for $9.2 billion in 2015.
The Charlotte Business Journal reported the news earlier today.
The expansion means the foundation will be able to pay out grants of $100 million annually, triple the $34.6 million paid in its 2023 fiscal year. It has previously reported total assets of nearly $700 million.
The foundation awarded $101.7 million in the 2025 fiscal year, paying out $57.9 million, the Business Journal reported. Some of the awards are made for multiple years, which is why the numbers are different. The foundation paid out $42.2 million in grants last year.
The foundation has donated $590 million since its formation in 1980, including about $80 million to Atrium Health, the state’s largest hospital operator. The focus is entirely on North Carolina and South Carolina and helping “underserved Carolinians and Jewish Carolinians,” foundation CEO Tom Lawrence told the Business Journal.
Levine’s wife, Sandra, is chair emerita.
“The sun is rising on a new era for The Leon Levine Foundation: one marked by legacy with urgency,” Lawrence said in a release. “Leon Levine charged us with the opportunity and responsibility to lead boldly, act with urgency and drive transformational change.”
Leon Levine grew up in Rockingham in Richmond County and started Family Dollar in Charlotte in 1959. He gradually built the business into a leading discount store chain where most items sold for less than $10.
Chesapeake, Virginia-based Dollar Tree, which had a $1 per item model, struggled to integrate the Charlotte-based company into its operations. It sold Family Dollar earlier this year for about $1 billion, a fraction of its investment in the business. The buyers were private equity groups Brigade Capital Management and Macellum Capital Management. At the time of the sale, Family Dollar had about 8,000 stores.
Levine’s estate includes a provision calling for the foundation to close 50 years after his death, which would be 2073. That is unusual for foundations, which tend to operate in perpetuity. Federal law requires private foundations to donate at least 5% a year for philanthropy.
Since Levine’s death at age 85, the foundation has more than doubled its staff to 30, while its board has grown from five to nine members. The chair is former Carolinas Healthcare System CEO Michael Tarwater.
With $2 billion in assets, the foundation is the second-largest private foundation in North Carolina, and among the 10 largest in the Southeast, the foundation said. The Charlotte-based Foundation For The Carolinas oversees assets of about $4.5 billion.
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