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Foundation Dossiers

Kentucky · Private foundation

Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$48k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
14
Grants FY2025
15
Organizations funded FY2024
100%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$484
Largest grant, FY2025
$34,878
Organizations funded a year
1 to 15
FY2021 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
4
Total assets, FY2025
$935k
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 100% of the organizations Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn funded were first-time grantees, receiving 100% of its grant dollars.

The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving14$48k0%
FY202415$35k100%
FY20211$30kn/a
80% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Health$62kPublic Benefit$30kReligion$10kHuman Services$7kPublic Safety & Disaster$1kHousing & Shelter$838Other$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
St Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc$60,39820%
Shriners International Rizpah Shriners$83820%
Pennyroyal Hospice Inc$83820%
Sanctuary Inc$83820%

Plus 12 recipients with no EIN on record ($50k), not named here.

Compare Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn with peer funders

About Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn

How much does Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn give?
Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn reported 14 grants totaling $47,953 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 15 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.
What does Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn fund?
By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (55%), Public Benefit (26%), Religion (9%).
Who are Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: St Jude Children's Research Hospital Inc ($60k), Shriners International Rizpah Shriners ($838), Pennyroyal Hospice Inc ($838).
Does Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 100% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Where is Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn based?
Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn is based in KY.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 16 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Melrow and Barbara Wells Fdn’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home