Funders › Alabama

Doris Burwell Foundation

Huntsville, AL · EIN 63-0949621. Reported 94 grants totalling $251,375 to 40 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$1,500median grant
$251,375granted, 2021-2025
40recipients, as named on its returns
60%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,175,913assets, 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
14 grants
$1,000 - $5,000
70 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
5 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
5 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
THuntsville, AL$66,950542025
HHuntsville, AL$26,6001442025
VHvs, AL$24,000322025
FHuntsville, AL$15,800742025
Burritt MuseumHuntsville, AL$12,000112021
MHuntsville, AL$10,000732025
GHuntsville, AL$9,250442025
JR League of HuntsvilleHuntsville, AL$8,500442025
1Huntsville, AL$6,000112025
M Louis Salmon LibraryHuntsville, AL$5,000112021
BHuntsville, AL$5,000112022
JHuntsville, AL$5,000332024
LHuntsville, AL$5,000442025
First StopHuntsville, AL$4,900222023
Mt Paran CemeteryHuntsville, AL$4,750222023
WHuntsville, AL$4,500432025
Free 2 Teach FoundationHuntsville, AL$4,125112021
Madison Church of ChristMadison, AL$3,250222025
RHuntsville, AL$2,750442025
Church of the NativityHuntsville, AL$2,500112021
AHuntsville, AL$2,500332024
Meals on WheelsHuntsville, AL$2,000112021
CHuntsville, AL$2,000222025
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
Sons of Amer RevHuntsville, AL$1,000112023
Huntsville United Methodist ChurchHuntsville, AL$750112023
Smile a While IncHuntsville, AL$750112023
Enable Madison CountyHuntsville, AL$500112023
Monrovia Elementary SchoolHuntsville, AL$500112023
SHuntsville, AL$500112025
Second Mile DevelopmentHuntsville, AL$500112021

16 of 40 (40%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 60%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is about typical. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 9 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.

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
202519$56,500$1,500

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
$229K
New Market, AL
$6K
Madison, AL
$5K
Al, AL
$4K
Harvest, AL
$3K
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 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.

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. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
  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 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.

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.

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