· Private foundation
The Melvin Family 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
72% of The Melvin Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Mayo Clinic, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 2 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k8 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $45k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
- $250k+1 grant · $270k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MAYO CLINIC | $269,758 |
| YAF YOUNG AMERICAS FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| ST COLUMCILLE CATHOLIC CHURCH | $25,000 |
| HIGH SCHOOL OF ST THOMAS MORE | $10,000 |
| EAA 288 | $10,000 |
| JUDICIAL WATCH | $5,000 |
| WILLOW BREEZE HOSPICE HOUSE | $2,500 |
| BILL AND BONNIE ROGERS SCHOLARSHIP FUND | $1,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $500 |
| Individual grant recipient | $500 |
| CHECKROW COMM CHURCH - VELMA FERGUSON MEMORIAL | $500 |
| WESLEY VILLAGE - MAXINE HUDSON MEMORIAL | $500 |
| JFL SULLIVANHEATHER EDWARDS MEMORIAL | $200 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–21, $1k) land where the poverty rate runs at 17%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 51% of The Melvin Family Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +9% since the first grant, against 0% for those funded once.
5 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $106k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- ACARTHUR CHRISTIAN SCHOOL2× · 2022–2024 · $260k · revenue +20%
- MCMONMOUTH COLLEGE2× · 2019–2020 · $90k · revenue +9%
- SCST COLUMCILE CHURCH2× · 2021–2022 · $26k
Funded once
- YAYoung America's Foundationgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $83k · revenue +49%
- CCHOICESone grant, 2021 · $50k
- TCTHE CROSS FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2021 · $50k · revenue +195% · 66% of their budget
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.
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.
Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher education learning providing a four-year educational program leading to the baccalaureate degree. illinois college is a community committed to the highest standards of scholarship…
Asbury university equips students, through academic excellence and spiritual vitality, for lifelong learning, leadership, and service to the professions, society, the family and the church, preparing them to engage their cultures and…
The catholic education foundation is dedicated to the growth and vitality of catholic education in the archdiocese of louisville. the foundation advances its mission primarily through tuition assistance grants to families who cannot afford…
Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.
Christianity Today is a global community inspired by evangelical conviction to advance the stories and ideas of the kingdom of God. Our mission is to elevate the storytellers and sages of the global church.
We, at ch, humbly join together to bring christ's healing mission and the mission of mercy of the catholic church expressed in catholic health care to our communities.
As a christian university, we provide education and research opportunities preparing global leaders to partner with local communities.
Education
Columbia college provides educational opportunities that develop students' capacity for critical thought and expression, life-long learning, acceptance of personal responsibilty, and commitment to service and social justice.
The university of sioux falls, a christian university in the liberal arts tradition, educates students in the humanities, sciences and professions. the traditional motto of the university is culture for service, that is, we seek to foster…
The mission of the organization (ccr) shall be to work with individuals, communities, courts, and other institutions to manage and resolve conflict.
Saint anselm is a catholic, benedictine college providing all of its students a distinctive liberal arts education that incorporates opportunities for professional and career preparation. it does so in a learning community that encourages…
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 55 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 MAYO CLINIC ↗
- Who funds ARTHUR CHRISTIAN SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds MONMOUTH COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Young America's Foundation ↗
- Who funds THE CROSS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER OF EASTERN ILLINOIS ↗
- Who funds GARY EMEL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WIREPOINTS CORP ↗
- Who funds Sullivan Community Education Foundation ↗
- Who funds JUDICIAL WATCH INC ↗
- Who funds CATO INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds EASTER SEALS DUPAGE & THE FOX VALLEY REGION ↗
- Who funds DON MOYER BOYS & GIRLS CLUB ↗
- Who funds CHARITY GLOBAL INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP NEW HOPE INC ↗
- Who funds GRAHAM HOSPITAL FOUNDATION INCORPORATED ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Melvin Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Melvin Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Melvin Family’s filings →