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Speer Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

Speer Charitable Trust

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.

$2.9M
Granted FY2025still arriving
45
Grants FY2025still arriving
6
States reached
$755k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0192% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Religion$3.1MEducation$2.7MHuman Services$2.1MHealth$1.2MFood & Nutrition$917kCommunity Improvement$460kEnvironment$445kYouth Development$413kOther$0
02FY2025 · 45 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k14 grants · $32k
  • $10k–50k15 grants · $346k
  • $50k–250k14 grants · $1.4M
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.2M
$25,000
Median grant
6
States reached
$52M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ST PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL$755,000
ST JUDE$400,000
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY$208,000
CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE$200,500
MID-SOUTH FOOD BANK$162,000
ST BENEDICT AT AUBURNDALE$124,000
HOLY ROSARY CATHOLIC CHURCH$110,000
HARWOOD CENTER$101,000
MIFA$80,000
CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF MEMPHIS$75,000
TN WILDLIFE FOUNDATION$75,000
ALLIANCE HEALTHCARE SERVICES$75,000
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION$51,100
ST MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH OF BOSTON$50,000
AVE MARIA HOME$50,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $1.5M) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE: $201k → 17%CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE: $100k → 17%CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE: $100k → 17%A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION: $65k → 17%A STEP AHEAD FOUNDTION: $50k → 17%A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION: $50k → 17%A STEP AHEAD FOUNDTION: $35k → 17%A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION: $35k → 17%AVE MARIA HOME: $250k → 17%AVE MARIA HOME: $50k → 17%AVE MARIA HOME: $50k → 17%YOUTH VILLAGES: $250k → 17%YOUTH VILLAGES: $150k → 17%YOUTH VILLAGES: $100k → 17%CALVARY RESCUE MISSION: $5k → 17%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

98%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$15M · 60 repeat orgs$278k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +6% since the first grant, against -8% for those funded once.

60 repeat relationships: 39 still active in FY2025, 21 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

60
23

Total granted

$15M
$157k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+6%
-8%

Still filing today

45%
30%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $122k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Human ServicesEducationHealthHousing & ShelterArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • MF
    MID-SOUTH FOOD BANK
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +7%
  • HC
    HARWOOD CENTER INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $824k · revenue +12%
  • YOUTH VILLAGES INC
    3× · 2020–2022 · $500k · revenue +101%

Funded once

  • SC
    SHELBY COUNTY VETERANS CO
    one grant, 2021 · $50k
  • DL
    DENEUVILLE LEARNING CENTER FOR WOMEN
    one grant, 2023 · $25k
  • IC
    IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
    one grant, 2020 · $15k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
One Family Memphis
Human Services
2
Children's Foundation of Memphis
Health
3
Memphis Recovery Centers Inc

Memphis recovery centers, inc. (mrc) provides compassionate treatment services for youth and adults suffering from substance addiction and co-occurring disorders, utilizing professional methods to improve spiritual, physical, emotional,…

Health
4
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis Inc

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis, Inc. sees a world where every family has what they need to ensure the best health outcomes for their children. They provide essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and…

Health
5
Methodist Medical Center

Methodist Medical Center provides quality healthcare, in alignment with Covenant Health's mission to serve the community by improving the quality of life through better health regardless of a patient's ability to pay.

Health
6
Grace House of Memphis Tennessee

To provide substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation programs to women in-and-around the memphis tennessee area.

—
7
Mental Health Cooperative Inc

Mental health cooperative inc. (mhc) provides integrated health services that include behavioral health care, primary health care, addiction services, and community-based care management. mhc also provides emergency psychiatric services…

Health
8
Methodist Healthcare-Memphis Hospitals

Methodist le bonheur healthcare, in partnership with its medical staffs, will collaborate with patients and their families to be the leader in providing high quality, cost-effective patient-and family-centered care. services will be…

Health
9
Life Choices of Memphis Inc

Exists to educate and empower women to choose and cherish life.

Health
10
The Grace Foundation of Memphis Inc
Philanthropy
11
Methodist Children's Home

Methodist children's home equips children, youth, and families to flourish by offering hope through christian-centered relationships, services, and support.

Human Services
12
Memphis Tomorrow

Memphis tomorrow is an association of ceos of memphis' largest businesses working to promote opportunity and quality of life for all memphians through collective action and public-private partnerships.

Community Improvement
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Porter-Leath; the most unlike its peers is Cancer Card Xchange. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

35 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 35 of the 89 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
35/35
Grantees still filing
18/35
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ST JUDE: $2,350,200 · OtherST JUDEST PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $1,305,350 · OtherST PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOLHARWOOD CENTER INC: $824,000 · OtherHARWOOD CENTER INCCATHOLIC CHARITIES: $806,500 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIESMEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDENS: $470,000 · Other+65 more: $4,141,825 · Other+65 moreCHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY: $1,161,500 · EducationCHRISTIAN BR…UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION: $306,100 · EducationUNIVERSITY O…MADONNA LEARNING CENTER INCORPORATED: $185,000 · EducationMADONNA LEAR…+1 more: $45,000 · EducationYOUTH VILLAGES INC: $500,000 · Human ServicesYOUTH VILLA…CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE INC: $400,500 · Human ServicesCATHOLIC CH…AVE MARIA HOME INC: $350,000 · Human ServicesAVE MARIA H…A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC: $235,000 · Human ServicesA STEP AHEA…+2 more: $45,000 · Human ServicesMID-SOUTH FOOD BANK: $1,078,000 · Food & NutritionMIFA CORPORATION: $540,000 · Community ImprovementMEMPHIS UNION MISSON: $210,000 · Housing & ShelterROOM IN THE INN - MEMPHIS: $175,000 · Housing & ShelterDOROTHY DAY HOUSE OF HOSPITALITY: $50,000 · Housing & ShelterCHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC: $275,200 · HealthCANCER CARD XCHANGE: $85,300 · Health+2 more: $1,100 · Health
Other$9,897,875Education$1,697,600Human Services$1,530,500Food & Nutrition$1,078,000Community Improvement$540,000Housing & Shelter$435,000Health$361,600

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetCHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY: $1,161,500 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetMID-SOUTH FOOD BANK: $1,078,000 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetHARWOOD CENTER INC: $824,000 over 6y, 12% of budgetMIFA CORPORATION: $540,000 over 6y, 68% of budgetYOUTH VILLAGES INC: $500,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetCATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE INC: $400,500 over 3y, 2.3% of budgetAVE MARIA HOME INC: $350,000 over 3y, 1.4% of budgetJIFF INC: $327,500 over 6y, 6.6% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION: $306,100 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetCHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC: $275,200 over 6y, 0.3% of budgetA STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC: $235,000 over 5y, 3.1% of budgetMEMPHIS UNION MISSON: $210,000 over 6y, 0.9% of budgetMADONNA LEARNING CENTER INCORPORATED: $185,000 over 6y, 2.9% of budgetROOM IN THE INN - MEMPHIS: $175,000 over 4y, 3.6% of budgetALLIANCE HEALTHCARE SERVICES: $150,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSchoolSeed Foundation: $150,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetPORTER-LEATH: $136,000 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetBIRTHRIGHT OF MEMPHIS INC: $125,100 over 5y, 5.1% of budgetBOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA INC 558 CHICKASAW COUNCIL: $120,275 over 6y, 1.6% of budgetCANCER CARD XCHANGE: $85,300 over 6y, 38% of budgetMID-SOUTH PUBLIC COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATION: $65,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetDOROTHY DAY HOUSE OF HOSPITALITY: $50,000 over 2y, 2.7% of budgetCARPENTER ART GARDEN: $45,000 over 3y, 3.1% of budgetOrphanos Foundation: $40,000 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetCONCORD ACADEMY INC: $31,000 over 4y, 1.2% of budgetWEST CANCER FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetNEW BALLET ENSEMBLE INC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetCALVARY RESCUE MISSION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHumane Society of Memphis & Shelby County: $5,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetANGEL STREET INC: $5,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetDixon Gallery and Gardens: $1,150 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLife Focus Center Inc: $600 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMethodist Healthcare Foundation: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOOPERATIVE FOR ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF EVERYWHERE INC: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetREEL LIFE INTERNATIONAL INC: $100 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds MID-SOUTH FOOD BANK ↗
  • Who funds HARWOOD CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds MIFA CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds YOUTH VILLAGES INC ↗
  • Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF WEST TENNESSEE INC ↗
  • Who funds AVE MARIA HOME INC ↗
  • Who funds JIFF INC ↗
  • Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds CHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC ↗
  • Who funds A STEP AHEAD FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds MEMPHIS UNION MISSON ↗
  • Who funds MADONNA LEARNING CENTER INCORPORATED ↗
  • Who funds ROOM IN THE INN - MEMPHIS ↗
  • Who funds ALLIANCE HEALTHCARE SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds SchoolSeed Foundation ↗
  • Who funds PORTER-LEATH ↗
  • Who funds BIRTHRIGHT OF MEMPHIS INC ↗
  • Who funds BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA INC 558 CHICKASAW COUNCIL ↗
  • Who funds CANCER CARD XCHANGE ↗

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Christian Community F…Community Foundation …The Kemmons Wilson Fa…United Way of the Mid…Thomas W Briggs Found…The Day FoundationThe Assisi Foundation…Lichterman Loewenberg…Gadomski Family Found…Belz FoundationJr Hyde III Family Fo…Elvis Presley Charita…
Christian Community Foundation of MemphisTN50.2× affinity23 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Christian Community Foundation of Memphis · Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · The Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation · United Way of the Mid South · Thomas W Briggs Foundation Inc · The Day Foundation · The Assisi Foundation of Memphis Inc · Lichterman Loewenberg Foundation · Gadomski Family Foundation · Belz Foundation · Jr Hyde III Family Foundation · Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation Inc

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Speer Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Speer Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%5%19%42%75%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    1get no government money at all
    10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Speer Charitable Trust?

    Find your warmest path to Speer Charitable Trust through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    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 89 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 Speer’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