John William Pope Foundation

Background

The John William Pope Foundation is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based nonprofit that aims to protect and strengthen the free-enterprise system for future generations. The organization makes about $10 million in grants each year to support public policy groups, educational institutions, humanitarian efforts, and the arts. ²

In 1986, John and Joyce Pope founded the John William Pope Foundation as a family grantmaking endeavor with the profits from his business, Variety Wholesalers.  ¹ Joyce Pope was the first president and board chair of the foundation. ³ The foundation’s first grant recipients were schools, colleges, local hospitals, research institutes, and museums.  ³

As of 2025, John William Pope Foundation claimed to have donated more than $250 million to public policy research, education, the arts, and humanitarian causes since its founding in 1986.  ⁴ As of 2026, the foundation’s website said it had given more than $170 million of those donations to nonprofits dedicated to protecting and promoting ideas and programs that advance individual freedom and personal responsibility.  ³

John William Pope

John William Pope joined the Air Force in 1943 during World War II. After the war, he returned and earned a bachelor’s degree in commerce in 1947. ¹

After marrying Joyce Wilkins in 1949, he took over father’s five discount stores in Fuquay Springs. During the 1950s, the two had three children, John Jr., Amanda, and James “Art” Pope. From 1956 and 1971, Variety Wholesalers grew from 14 stores to nearly 50 stores. During the same period, sales grew from just over $1 million to $6 million. During the 1980s, Variety Wholesalers grew to 228 stores.  ¹ Variety Wholesalers owns and operates stores that included Roses, Maxway, Super 10, and Big Lots stores. The company reported more than 600 store locations as of 2026. ⁵

After John William Pope died in 2006, his youngest son, Art, became chairman and CEO of Variety Wholesalers and chairman and president of the Pope Foundation.  ³

James Arthur “Art” Pope

In 1986, Pope asked his son, James Arthur “Art” Pope, to organize the Pope Foundation. Art Pope told National Review’s John J. Miller in 2009 that his father “wanted to protect and preserve the free-enterprise system that had allowed the business to do well.”  ⁶

Art Pope told the New Yorker, “Politically, I would describe myself as conservative, and philosophically I would describe myself as a classical liberal, which you had in John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill.” ⁷

Pope told Miller that while the Pope Foundation supported such poverty-fighting organizations as Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army, “these are short-term, direct measures that treat symptoms.” He argued that the purpose of philanthropy was “teaching a man to fish”—giving him the tools and education to rise out of poverty. He added: “teaching a man to fish presupposes that you have a right to fish and a right to keep the fish you catch. It assumes that you can take your fish to market and sell it, and use the proceeds to buy clothes for your kids. Too many philanthropists don’t even consider that in a just and functioning society, you must have individual liberty with property rights, the rule of law, and limited constitutional government.” ⁶

Pope has served in North Carolina state government, including eight years as a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives and as special counsel to former Governor Jim Martin (R-NC). In 2013, he spent two years as budget director for then-Gov. Pat McCrory (R). Former North Carolina Speaker of the House Richard Morgan (R) said that as a legislator, Pope was “an old-fashioned policy wonk” who would spend hours at a time studying the state’s budget. ⁸ Former North Carolina Governor James G. Martin (R) told the Washington Post in 2014 “there are not many people as influential” as Pope, “ because few people have invested the time and the money that he has on behalf of his state.” ⁹ He has been a member of the board of governors for the University of North Carolina.  ⁴

Pope co-founded the John Locke Foundation, which publishes the Carolina Journal.  ⁴

Pope has been a member of the boards of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, Advancing American Freedom, Economic Policy Innovation Center, NCInnovation, Americans for Prosperity, the John Locke Foundation, Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Jesse Helms Center at Wingate University, the Boy Scouts of America Occoneechee Council, the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership, the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation, the North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law, and the Golden LEAF Foundation.  ⁵

Leadership

As of 2026, John Hood was the president of the John William Pope Foundation. In the 2024 budget year, he earned $285,500. ¹⁰ He became president of the foundation in 2014. Hood was, as of 2026, the author of four books. ¹¹ At that time, Hood was also a member of the board of the John Locke Foundation. His syndicated column regularly appears in more than 50 newspapers across the state. Hood teaches at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. ¹²

As of 2026, Lindsay Hollandsworth was the vice president and communications director at the John William Pope Foundation. In the 2024 budget year, Hollandsworth earned $100,689. ¹⁰

As of 2026, Valerie Pencook was a program director for the foundation. A political science graduate from Campbell University, she joined the foundation in 2024. ¹³

Activities

John Locke Foundation

The Pope Foundation has created several right-of-center organizations. John J. Miller noted in National Review that “in the late 1980s, the Heritage Foundation introduced Pope to the emerging effort to establish free-market think tanks in state capitals.” Art Pope told Miller that Heritage’s drive to create state free market think tanks “led to the birth of the John Locke Foundation.” ⁶

The Locke Foundation has centers devoted to agriculture, education, and “public integrity,” and publishes Carolina Journal, a bimonthly newspaper. The Washington Post noted in 2014 that the foundation was “the state’s premier idea generator on the right.” ¹⁴

Higher Education

The Pope Foundation has long had an interest in reforming higher education. In 2007, the foundation, collaborating with the Marcus and Templeton Foundations, donated a combined $5 million to establish the Center for Excellence in Higher Education, which works with donors to universities to preserve donor intent. ¹⁵

In 2003, the Pope Foundation helped establish the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, which was renamed the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal in 2017. The center has published reports such as “Games Universities Play,” a 2011 study by Martin Morse Wooster about preserving donor intent in gifts to colleges and universities. The center also publishes over 150 opinion pieces a year with an emphasis on resolving problems in higher education in North Carolina. ¹⁶

Grantmaking

According to filings with the Internal Revenue Service, in fiscal year 2024, the John William Pope Foundation gave $15.3 million to 171 organizations. The funding went mostly to North Carolina organizations that advance the ideas of limited government, individual freedom, personal responsibility, and strong communities. ¹⁰

The John William Pope Foundation donated $666,665 to the University of North Carolina Health Foundation in 2024.  ¹⁰

The John William Pope Foundation donated $500,000 to the Economic Policy Innovation Center in 2024.  ¹⁰

The John William Pope Foundation donated $500,000 to Asheville Schools in 2024.  ¹⁰