· Private foundation
The Milestone Fund
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.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k9 grants · $39k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $120k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL AL | $35,000 |
| CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| UAB COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER | $20,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER BIR | $20,000 |
| WOODLAWN FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| INDIAN SPRINGS SCHOOL | $10,000 |
| ALTAMONT SCHOOL | $5,000 |
| MIKE SLIVE FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| BIRMINGHAM HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| HISPANIC INTEREST COALITION OF ALAB | $5,000 |
| BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE | $5,000 |
| THE JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM | $2,000 |
| MEDICAL OPINION AND EDUCATION FOUND | $2,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 94% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +23% since the first grant, against +7% for the ones you funded once.
14 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 3 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, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL ALABAMA INC8× · 2018–2025 · $210k · revenue +41%- ACAlabama Children's Hospital Foundation8× · 2018–2025 · $170k · revenue +81%
- WUWOODLAWN UNITED INC8× · 2018–2025 · $85k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- TETHE EYE FOUNDATION INCone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +7% · 37% of their budget
- ELEMMET LIBRARYone grant, 2019 · $5k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $5k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The mission of Children's of Alabama is to provide the finest pediatric health services to all children in an environment that fosters excellence in research and medical education. Children's will be an advocate for all children and work…
To support the university of alabama at birmingham in its scientific and educational mission, including managing and disbursing funds, acquiring real property, and providing operational flexibility.
Operation of a public charter school in Livingston, AL.
The university foundation is organized to assist and aid the board of trustees of the university of alabama in fulfilling its educational, research, and public service programs and activities.
The mission of the Foundation is to mobilize community support and resources for the academic improvement of the Mountain Brook City School System through technological improvement, library enhancement, and professional development.
Provide facilities and support for the alabama high school of mathematics and science
Crestwood day school is a private elementary (k-6th) grade school in alabama.
The williams school builds with each child the foundation for academic, moral and social success. a williams school student embodies confidence, integrity and a love of learning.
Operation of a public charter school in Livingston, AL.
Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…
Landon school is committed to the ethical, intellectual, and personal development of boys. we challenge and inspire them to think deeply, individually, and broadly; to live with respect and honor; and to grow into healthy, well-rounded men…
The jefferson scholars foundation (foundation) provides academic merit-based scholarship, fellowship and professorship support to students and faculty at the university of virginia (uva).
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Alabama Children's Hospital Foundation and the most unlike its peers is The Eye Foundation Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 22 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL ALABAMA INC ↗
- Who funds Alabama Children's Hospital Foundation ↗
- Who funds HIGHLANDS DAY SCHOOL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WOODLAWN UNITED INC ↗
- Who funds INDIAN SPRINGS SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds The Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research ↗
- Who funds BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds Birmingham Historical Society ↗
- Who funds JUNIOR LEAGUE OF BIRMINGHAM INC ↗
- Who funds Wheaton College ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN RESEARCH INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds THE EYE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE ALTAMONT SCHOOL ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Dunn-French Foundation · Mike and Gillian Goodrich Foundation · Hill Crest Foundation Inc · Protective Life Foundation · Altecstyslinger Foundation · The Ronne & Donald Hess Foundation · Jones Family Fund · The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham · Lorol Roden Bowron Rediker Rucker Foundation · Viro Fund · Thomas H Lowder Family Foundation · The Hackney Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization The Milestone Fund funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.