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The Dunavant Foundation at a glance

· Public charity

The Dunavant Foundation

The primary exempt purpose of the organization is to assist the community foundation of greater memphis, inc.

$157k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2023 to 2025.

Education$12MAnimals$2.9MEnvironment$2.5MReligion$2.3MHealth$1.5MArts & Culture$871kInternational$520kScience & Tech$500kOther$0
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k4 grants · $57k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $100k
$25,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ST MICHAEL CATHOLIC CHURCH$50,000
THE COTTON MUSEUM INC$50,000
ARTSMEMPHIS$25,000
THE FIRST TEE OF TENNESSEE IN MEMPHIS$12,000
DELTA WATERFOWL FOUNDATION$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION$10,000
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY23–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 93% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%NATIONAL WILD TURKEY: $100k → 16%MCCALLIE SCHOOL: $3.1M → 12%CHRIST COVENANT REFORMED CHURCH: $2.0M → 17%NATURE CONSERVANCY INC (NATL): $1.0M → 7%DUCKS UNLIMITED INC: $1.5M → 17%CHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC: $735k → 17%SLINGSHOT MEMPHIS: $520k → 17%CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS: $500k → 17%ST MICHAEL CATHOLIC CHURCH: $200k → 17%ST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL): $500k → 17%MEMPHIS ZOO INC: $800k → 17%ST MICHAEL CATHOLIC CHURCH: $50k → 17%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS: $10k → 17%THE COTTON MUSEUM INC: $50k → 17%PRESBYTERIAN DAY SCHOOL: $500k → 17%JUNIOR LEAGUE OF MEMPHIS INC: $250k → 17%BINGHAMPTON CHRISTIAN ACADEMY: $100k → 17%THE FIRST TEE OF TENNESSEE IN MEMPHIS: $100k → 17%THE FIRST TEE OF TENNESSEE IN MEMPHIS: $12k → 17%DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS: $146k → 17%SALVATION ARMY (MEMPHIS AND THE MID-SOUTH): $25k → 17%MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL: $3.1M → 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.

36%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$8.1M · 5 repeat orgs$15M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against +10% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
17

Total granted

$8.1M
$15M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%
+10%

Still filing today

80%
88%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 68% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $50k went to new ones.

50%100%’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’23’24’25
Arts & CultureEducationHealthAnimalsEnvironmentFood & NutritionOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION
    3× · 2023–2025 · $5.6M · revenue +39%
  • DW
    Delta Waterfowl Foundation
    2× · 2023–2025 · $2.0M · revenue +1%
  • TG
    TENNESSEE GOLF FOUNDATION
    2× · 2023–2025 · $112k · revenue +30%

Funded once

  • TM
    THE MCCALLIE SCHOOL
    one grant, 2023 · $3.1M · revenue +6%
  • MU
    MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOLgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $3.1M · revenue +31%
  • CC
    CHRIST COVENANT REFORMED CHURCH
    one grant, 2023 · $2.0M
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
Nashville Zoo Inc

In fulfillment of our mission to inspire a culture of understanding and discovery of our natural world through conservation, innovation and leadership, our goal is to build a first class zoo for middle tennessee and to develop a facility…

Animals
2
The Land Trust for Tennessee Inc

To conserve the unique character of tennessee's natural and historic landscapes and sites for future generations.

Environment
3
Nashville Public Radio

Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of American Finance

Finance impacts everyone. as a socially relevant organization, the museum of american finance seeks to improve understanding of the influence of financial institutions and capital markets on the u.s. and global economies, and on…

—
5
Methodist Foundation of Mississippi Inc

The foundation exists to cultivate and administer current and deferred gifts for the benefit of ms united methodist related institutions, agencies, local churches, and other ministries for charitable purposes and support and to educate…

Religion
6
Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce

To serve our members and partners by improving the quality of life through regional economic prosperity.

—
7
Vanderbilt University

See Disclosure Above.

Education
8
Memphis Botanic Garden Foundation Inc

The memphis botanic garden exists to enhance lives by connecting people with nature to increase awareness and appreciation of our environment.

Environment
9
Houston Museum of Natural Science

The mission of the Houston Museum of Natural Science shall be to preserve and advance the general knowledge of natural science; to enhance in individuals the knowledge of and delight in natural science and related subjects; and to maintain…

Arts & Culture
10
Houston Botanic Garden

To enrich life through discovery, education, and the conservation of plants and the natural environment.

Environment
11
Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—
12
Theatre Memphis

To produce plays and encourage the arts by performance and educational programs.

Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Binghampton Christian Academy Inc. 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

22 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. 22 of the 25 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
22/22
Grantees still filing
15/22
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION: $5,570,000 · EducationUNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATIONTHE MCCALLIE SCHOOL: $3,100,000 · EducationTHE MCCALLIE SCHOOLMEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL: $3,100,000 · EducationMEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOLPRESBYTERIAN DAY SCHOOL: $500,000 · EducationCHRIST COVENANT REFORMED CHURCH: $2,000,000 · OtherCHRIST COVENANT REF…THE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $1,000,000 · OtherTHE NATURE CONSERVA…DIOCESE OF MEMPHIS ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: $250,000 · OtherDIOCESE OF MEMPHIS …THE COTTON FOUNDATION: $500,000 · OtherTHE COTTON FOUNDATI…Junior League of Memphis: $250,000 · OtherJunior League of Me…+2 more: $125,000 · OtherDelta Waterfowl Foundation: $2,010,000 · AnimalsDelta Waterfo…Memphis Zoological Society: $800,000 · AnimalsMemphis Zoolo…Ducks Unlimited Inc: $1,500,000 · EnvironmentNATIONAL WILD TURKEY FEDERATION INC: $100,000 · EnvironmentCHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC: $735,000 · HealthST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $500,000 · HealthLe Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation: $300,000 · HealthTHE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS INC: $500,000 · Arts & CultureARTSMEMPHIS: $175,000 · Arts & CultureDixon Gallery and Gardens: $145,500 · Arts & CultureTENNESSEE GOLF FOUNDATION: $112,000 · Arts & CultureCOTTON MUSEUM INC: $50,000 · Arts & CultureSLINGSHOT MEMPHIS INC: $520,000 · Philanthropy+1 more: $10,000 · Philanthropy
Education$12,270,000Other$4,125,000Animals$2,810,000Environment$1,600,000Health$1,535,000Arts & Culture$982,500Philanthropy$530,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetUNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS FOUNDATION: $5,570,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetTHE MCCALLIE SCHOOL: $3,100,000 over 1y, 4.9% of budgetMEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL: $3,100,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetDelta Waterfowl Foundation: $2,010,000 over 2y, 8.5% of budgetDucks Unlimited Inc: $1,500,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetTHE NATURE CONSERVANCY: $1,000,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMemphis Zoological Society: $800,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetCHURCH HEALTH CENTER OF MEMPHIS INC: $735,000 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetSLINGSHOT MEMPHIS INC: $520,000 over 1y, 24% of budgetPRESBYTERIAN DAY SCHOOL: $500,000 over 1y, 3.8% of budgetST JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL INC: $500,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE COTTON FOUNDATION: $500,000 over 1y, 34% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS INC: $500,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetLe Bonheur Children's Hospital Foundation: $300,000 over 1y, 1.2% of budgetJunior League of Memphis: $250,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetARTSMEMPHIS: $175,000 over 2y, 4.6% of budgetDixon Gallery and Gardens: $145,500 over 1y, 2.4% of budgetTENNESSEE GOLF FOUNDATION: $112,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetNATIONAL WILD TURKEY FEDERATION INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetBinghampton Christian Academy Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 3.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MEMPHIS INC: $10,000 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.

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.

Community Foundation …Christian Community F…Deborah D Tipton Char…Thomas Garrott Founda…The Kemmons Wilson Fa…Scheidt Family Founda…Wiseheart Foundation …United Way of the Mid…Jewish Foundation of …Raymond James Charita…The Pfizer Foundation…Natl Christian Charit…
Community Foundation of Greater Memphis IncTN31× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Greater Memphis Inc · Christian Community Foundation of Memphis · Deborah D Tipton Charitable Foundation · Thomas Garrott Foundation · The Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation · Scheidt Family Foundation Inc · Wiseheart Foundation Inc · United Way of the Mid South · Jewish Foundation of Memphis · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn 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 The Dunavant Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Dunavant Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%10%23%40%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    9report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
    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 The Dunavant Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to The Dunavant Foundation 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 25 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 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 Dunavant’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