Louetta M Cowden Foundation
Dallas, TX · EIN 43-6052617. Reported 78 grants totalling $3,235,500 to 35 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.
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. Louetta M Cowden 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.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $35,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $20,000 and $50,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mosaic Life Care Foundation | St Joseph, MO | $450,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Charlotte Street Foundation | Kansas City, MO | $290,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Liberty Memorial Association | Kansas City, MO | $250,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Harry S Truman Children's Neurological Center | Independence, MO | $220,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Boys Club of Greater Kansas City | Kansas City, MO | $200,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Kansas City Community Gardens Inc | Kansas City, MO | $190,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Alphapointe | Kansas City, MO | $185,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| National Wwi Museum & Memorial | Kansas City, MO | $175,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Girls Scouts of Ne Kansas & Nw Missouri Inc | Kansas City, MO | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Bridging the Gap Inc | Kansas City, MO | $145,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Metropolitan Arts Council of Greater Kc Dba Artskc | Kansas City, MO | $110,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Kansas City Repertory Theatre Inc | Kansas City, MO | $100,000 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| YMCA of Greater Kansas City | Kansas City, MO | $85,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Operation Breakthrough Inc | Kansas City, MO | $60,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Midwest Innocence Project Inc | Kansas City, MO | $55,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Nelson Gallery Foundation | Kansas City, MO | $55,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Northland Early Education Center | Kansas City, MO | $55,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City | Kansas City, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Plaza Academy | Kansas City, MO | $46,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Assistance League of Kansas City | Gladstone, MO | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Global One Urban Farming | Kansas City, MO | $40,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey | Kansas City, MO | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Farmer's House | Platte City, MO | $40,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Englewood Arts | Independence, MO | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Drumm Center for Children | Independence, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Powell Gardens Inc | Kingsville, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Truman Heartland Community Foundation | Independence, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Jackson County Historical Society | Independence, MO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mid-America Arts Alliance | Kansas City, MO | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Hillcrest Platte County | Riverside, MO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Harry S Truman Library Institute | Kansas City, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Marian Hope Center for Childrens Therapy | Independence, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Williams-Henry Contemporary Dance | Kansas City, MO | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ensemble Iberica Inc | Kansas City, MO | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Base Academy of Music | Kansas City, MO | $5,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
19 of 35 (54%) 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 66%, 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.
- Mosaic Life Care Foundation
SUPPORT CANCER SURVIVORSHIP - Liberty Memorial Association
SUPPORT A SECOND CENTURY: - Charlotte Street Foundation
CREATING A PERMANENT HOME - National Wwi Museum & Memorial
DIGITIZING THE FIRST WORLD - Girls Scouts of Ne Kansas & Nw Missouri Inc
SUPPORT GIRL SCOUT OUTREACH - Nelson Gallery Foundation
MUSEUM SCHOOL & COMMUNITY
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 55 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 13 | $705,000 | $35,000 |
| 2022 | 17 | $668,500 | $25,000 |
| 2023 | 10 | $615,000 | $45,000 |
| 2024 | 17 | $600,000 | $40,000 |
| 2025 | 21 | $647,000 | $25,000 |
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
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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.
How to approach this foundation
- Check you are its size. The median grant is $35,000. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Missouri.
- 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.
- 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 Louetta M Cowden 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: Po Box 653067, Dallas, TX, 75265. 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 43-6052617 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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