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The Featheringill Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Featheringill Foundation

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.

$130k
Granted FY2025still arriving
15
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$44k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$318kArts & Culture$298kReligion$94kEnvironment$57kHealth$40kCommunity Improvement$30kEmployment$18kHuman Services$18kOther$0
02FY2025 · 15 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k10 grants · $10k
  • $10k–50k5 grants · $120k
$1,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$2.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ST LUKES CHURCH$44,200
MTN BROOK SCHOOLS FOUNDATION$34,000
BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF ART$21,500
BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S THEATRE$10,000
LINLY HEFLIN UNIT$10,000
VANDERBILT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING$2,000
KIWANIS FOUNDATION$1,500
INDEPENDENT PRES CHURCH$1,000
HUMANE SOCIETY$1,000
JUNIOR LEAGUE$1,000
Individual grant recipient$1,000
SAMARITAN'S PURSE$1,000
JIMMIE HALE MISSION$1,000
PATHWAYS$500
CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY$300
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 (FY21–25, $21k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%PNEUMA GALLERY: $18k → 16%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY: $300 → 16%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY: $300 → 16%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY: $300 → 16%CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY: $300 → 16%PATHWAYS: $500 → 16%PATHWAYS: $500 → 16%PATHWAYS: $500 → 16%PATHWAYS: $500 → 16%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.

77%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$830k · 26 repeat orgs$244k to everyone else

26 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2025, 18 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

26
20

Total granted

$830k
$161k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+9%
+37%

Still filing today

58%
25%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 36% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $84k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementYouth DevelopmentEnvironmentOther
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

  • BC
    BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S THEATRE INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $88k · revenue +25%
  • KC
    KIWANIS CLUB OF BIRMINGHAM
    3× · 2019–2024 · $17k · revenue +8%
  • SP
    SAMARITAN'S PURSE
    4× · 2021–2025 · $11k · revenue +60%

Funded once

  • FL
    FRESHWATER LAND TRUSTgraduated
    one grant, 2021 · $46k · revenue +37%
  • VF
    VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC
    one grant, 2019 · $22k · revenue -59%
  • CC
    CROHN'S COLITIS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2017 · $20k
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
Birmingham Promise Inc

Birmingham Promise supports and prepares every Birmingham City School student in achieving economic security, mobility, and prosperity by providing connections to high-quality work experiences and last-dollar tuition scholarships

Education
2
Boston Architectural College

The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.

—
3
Birmingham Corps

Birmingham corps' mission is to drive fair workforce opportunities and accelerate social change by recruiting, training, and retaining people in birmingham.

Employment
4
The Birmingham Foundation
—
5
Breakthrough Birmingham

Breakthrough Birmingham works with highly motivated, traditionally underrepresented students in Alabama to achieve post-secondary success while empowering aspiring leaders to become the next generation of educators and advocates.

Education
6
The Richmond Ballet

Through all of its programs, richmond ballet strives to expand access to dance for the benefit of the entire community. at the heart of the organization's mission, to awaken, uplift, and unite human spirits, is the conviction that the…

Arts & Culture
7
Hands On Birmingham Inc

Hands on birmingham was established in 1998 with the goal of making volunteering accessible to everyone. in 2019, it started doing business as united way hands on (uwho). uwho's mission is to connect people to meaningful volunteer…

Community Improvement
8
Birmingham Bar Foundation

To support, promote, and encourage activities for the furtherance of justice and legal education, including but not limited to the education of primary and secondary students, as well as the general public to promote a greater…

Philanthropy
9
Birmingham Volunteer Lawyers Program Inc

To provide free legal services to low-income citizens of jefferson county

Crime & Legal
10
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
11
The Harvard Club of Alabama
Education
12
Legal Aid Society of Birmingham

The Organization is a nonprofit community defender providing legal assistance through court appointment to children and other indigent persons.

Crime & Legal
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Stair of Birmingham; the most unlike its peers is Tune Up. 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

20 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. 20 of the 53 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
20/20
Grantees still filing
13/20
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF ART: $213,951 · OtherBIRMINGHAM MUSEUM OF ARTINDEPENDENT PRESYBTERIAN CHURCH: $57,050 · OtherINDEPENDENT PRESYBTERIAN CHURCHUAB: $51,000 · OtherUABBIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE: $50,000 · OtherBIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGEST LUKES CHURCH: $44,200 · OtherST LUKES CHURCHIndividual grant recipient: $40,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientVANDERBILT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING: $36,801 · OtherCRESTLINE SCHOOL PTO: $34,000 · OtherMTN BROOK SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $34,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $24,500 · Other+28 more: $130,317 · Other+28 moreVanderbilt University: $100,000 · EducationVanderbilt Unive…LINLY HEFLIN UNIT INC: $32,200 · EducationLINLY HEFLIN UNI…RANDOLPH COLLEGE INC: $10,500 · EducationRANDOLPH COLLEGE…STAIR OF BIRMINGHAM: $8,000 · Education+1 more: $1,000 · EducationBIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S THEATRE INC: $88,150 · Arts & CultureBIRMINGHAM…THE STATE OF ALABAMA BALLET INC: $10,450 · Arts & CultureTHE STATE …FRESHWATER LAND TRUST: $46,000 · EnvironmentVENTURE FOR AMERICA INC: $21,900 · Community ImprovementJUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INC: $8,000 · Community ImprovementTune Up: $18,000 · Human ServicesPATHWAYS INC: $2,000 · Human ServicesCHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY OF ALABAMA: $1,200 · Human ServicesBUILD UP: $10,000 · Youth DevelopmentBridgeways Inc: $1,000 · Youth Development
Other$715,819Education$151,700Arts & Culture$98,600Environment$46,000Community Improvement$29,900Human Services$21,200Youth Development$11,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetVanderbilt University: $100,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S THEATRE INC: $88,150 over 9y, 2.4% of budgetBIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE: $50,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFRESHWATER LAND TRUST: $46,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetLINLY HEFLIN UNIT INC: $32,200 over 9y, 1.8% of budgetVENTURE FOR AMERICA INC: $21,900 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetKIWANIS CLUB OF BIRMINGHAM: $17,000 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetSAMARITAN'S PURSE: $10,817 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetRANDOLPH COLLEGE INC: $10,500 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE STATE OF ALABAMA BALLET INC: $10,450 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetBUILD UP: $10,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetJUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INC: $8,000 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetSTAIR OF BIRMINGHAM: $8,000 over 4y, 0.6% of budgetDOWNTOWN JIMMIE HALE MISSION: $3,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetBALLET GUILD OF BIRMINGHAM: $2,300 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetPATHWAYS INC: $2,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetTHE GREATER BIRMINGHAM HUMANE SOCIETY INC: $2,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY OF ALABAMA: $1,200 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetBridgeways Inc: $1,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSTEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: $1,000 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.

  • Who funds Vanderbilt University ↗
  • Who funds BIRMINGHAM CHILDREN'S THEATRE INC ↗
  • Who funds BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds FRESHWATER LAND TRUST ↗
  • Who funds LINLY HEFLIN UNIT INC ↗
  • Who funds VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC ↗
  • Who funds KIWANIS CLUB OF BIRMINGHAM ↗
  • Who funds SAMARITAN'S PURSE ↗
  • Who funds RANDOLPH COLLEGE INC ↗
  • Who funds THE STATE OF ALABAMA BALLET INC ↗
  • Who funds BUILD UP ↗
  • Who funds JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INC ↗
  • Who funds STAIR OF BIRMINGHAM ↗
  • Who funds DOWNTOWN JIMMIE HALE MISSION ↗
  • Who funds BALLET GUILD OF BIRMINGHAM ↗
  • Who funds PATHWAYS INC ↗
  • Who funds THE GREATER BIRMINGHAM HUMANE SOCIETY INC ↗
  • Who funds CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY OF ALABAMA ↗

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.

The Community Foundat…Robert R Meyer Founda…Alabama Power Foundat…Dunn-French FoundationThe Daniel Foundation…Susan Mott Webb Chari…Hill Crest Foundation…Mike and Gillian Good…Protective Life Found…Altecstyslinger Found…The Hugh Kaul Foundat…The Hackney Foundation
The Community Foundation of Greater BirminghamAL33.7× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham · Robert R Meyer Foundation · Alabama Power Foundation Inc · Dunn-French Foundation · The Daniel Foundation of Alabama · Susan Mott Webb Charitable Trust · Hill Crest Foundation Inc · Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation · Protective Life Foundation · Altecstyslinger Foundation · The Hugh Kaul Foundation · The Hackney Foundation

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 Featheringill Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Featheringill Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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.

    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 53 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 Featheringill’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