FundersAlabama

Doris Burwell Foundation

Huntsville, AL · EIN 63-0949621. Reported 75 grants totalling $194,875 to 38 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$1,500median grant
$194,875granted, 2021-2024
38organizations funded
53%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,082,230assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Doris Burwell Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $1,500. Half of everything it gave fell between $1,000 and $2,500; the smallest was $500 and the largest $21,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

Under $1,000
11 grants
$1,000 - $5,000
56 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
4 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
THuntsville, AL$62,250432024
HHuntsville, AL$21,6001132024
Burritt MuseumHuntsville, AL$12,000112021
FHuntsville, AL$10,000532024
GHuntsville, AL$8,250332024
JR League of HuntsvilleHuntsville, AL$7,500332024
MHuntsville, AL$7,500622024
M Louis Salmon LibraryHuntsville, AL$5,000112021
BHuntsville, AL$5,000112022
JHuntsville, AL$5,000332024
First StopHuntsville, AL$4,900222023
Mt Paran CemeteryHuntsville, AL$4,750222023
Free 2 Teach FoundationHuntsville, AL$4,125112021
LHuntsville, AL$3,000332024
Church of the NativityHuntsville, AL$2,500112021
VHvs, AL$2,500112024
AHuntsville, AL$2,500332024
Meals on WheelsHuntsville, AL$2,000112021
RHuntsville, AL$2,000332024
WHuntsville, AL$2,000222024
Madison County Cemetery Rehabilitation AuthorityHuntsville, AL$1,750112021
Sparkman High SchoolHarvest, AL$1,750112023
Good Shepherd United MethodistMadison, AL$1,500112021
Hudson Alpha FoundationHuntsville, AL$1,500112021
Huntsville Hospital FoundationHuntsville, AL$1,500112021
Huntsville Museum of ArtHuntsville, AL$1,500112021
Next Step FarmsHarvest, AL$1,500112021
The Vine Pastoral CareHuntsville, AL$1,500112021
Green Street MarketHuntsville, AL$1,000112021
Monrovia ElementaryHuntsville, AL$1,000112021
Madison Church of ChristMadison, AL$1,000112024
Sons of Amer RevHuntsville, AL$1,000112023
CHuntsville, AL$1,000112022
Huntsville United Methodist ChurchHuntsville, AL$750112023
Smile a While IncHuntsville, AL$750112023
Enable Madison CountyHuntsville, AL$500112023
Monrovia Elementary SchoolHuntsville, AL$500112023
Second Mile DevelopmentHuntsville, AL$500112021

13 of 38 (34%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 53%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 9 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Human Services
3 grants
Health Care
2 grants
Education
2 grants
Mutual Benefit
1 grant
Arts & Culture
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202118$45,125$1,500
202220$53,750$1,125
202319$46,000$1,500
202418$50,000$1,250

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Huntsville, AL
$178K
Harvest, AL
$3K
New Market, AL
$3K
Al, AL
$2K
Madison, AL
$2K
Hvs, AL
$2K
Hsv, AL
$2K
Governors Dr, AL
$1K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville9 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund7 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc5 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program5 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc4 shared recipientsMorgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc4 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $1,500. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Alabama.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Doris Burwell Foundation's own Form 990-PF 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: 200 Russell Street, Huntsville, AL, 35801. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 63-0949621 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.