How much does The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation give?

The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation reported 14 grants totaling $455,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 8 and 45 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (20%), Arts & Culture (16%), Human Services (14%).

Who are The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Robert W Woodruff Arts Center Inc ($215k), Atlanta Community Food Bank Inc ($190k), Shepherd Center Foundation Inc ($185k).

Does The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 88% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Georgia Power Foundation Inc, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc, Atl Fdn-W Peters Main.

Where is The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation based?

The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation is based in GA.

The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation

The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Ray M and Mary E Lee 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.

$455k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$60k

Largest

01What it funds

0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Health$1.1MArts & Culture$880kHuman Services$760kEducation$708kReligion$560kFood & Nutrition$410kHousing & Shelter$375kEnvironment$170kOther$0

02FY2025 · 14 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

$10k–50k10 grants · $245k
$50k–250k4 grants · $210k

$25,000

Median grant

States reached

$20M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
COBB COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC	$60,000
STONEBRIDGE CHURCH INC	$50,000
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF MARIETTA	$50,000
THE TABLE ON DELK INC	$50,000
CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA FO	$25,000
PAUL ANDERSON YOUTH HOME INC	$25,000
ATLANTA YOUTH ACADEMIES INC	$25,000
ALICE LLOYD COLLEGE	$25,000
EAGLE RANCH INC	$25,000
WESLEY WOODS FOUNDATION	$25,000
THE EXTENSION INC	$25,000
SHEPHERD CENTER FOUNDATION	$25,000
WILLIAM'S HOUSE INC	$25,000
PARENTS WITH A PURPOSE INC	$20,000

02The need

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 (FY17–25, $382k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$4.8M · 60 repeat orgs$600k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +51% since the first grant, against +28% for those funded once.

60 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 50 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$4.8M

$530k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%

+28%

Still filing today

75%

36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $70k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthHuman ServicesArts & CulturePhilanthropyEnvironmentOther

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

RW
ROBERT W WOODRUFF ARTS CENTER INC
7× · 2017–2023 · $215k · revenue +51%
AC
ATLANTA COMMUNITY FOOD BANK INC
7× · 2017–2023 · $190k · revenue +74%
EAGLE RANCH INC
8× · 2017–2025 · $180k · revenue +37%

Funded once

ES
Extra Special People Inc
one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue -35%
MM
Marietta Mentoring for Leadership Programgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $50k · revenue +104%
GS
Good Samaritan Health Center-Atlana
one grant, 2020 · $35k

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.

Morehouse School of Medicine

Leading the creation and advancement of health equity we exist to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities, increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce, and address primary health care…

Education

Annandale At Suwanee Inc

To perpetuate a village community to provide progressive life assistance to adults with developmental disabilities so that they can maximize their abilities and maintain their independence in the least restrictive environment.

Health

Goodwill of the Coastal Empire Inc

Our commitment is to provide the individual support, meaningful training and employment services to people to remove barriers and close skill gaps so that individuals build brighter futures.

Employment

Enable of Georgia Inc

Supporting people with special needs to lead fulfilled lives.

Housing & Shelter

Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Inc

The corporation is a voluntary association of individuals and organizations the purposes of which are to upgrade and advance the atlanta metropolitan area in population, commerce and finance; to effect civic and social improvements; to…

—

Spelman College

Spelman college, a historically black college and global leader in the education of women of african descent, is dedicated to the academic excellence of its students.

Education

Medical Center of Central Georgia Inc

To enhance the health status of those we serve in partnership with medical staff and other community organizations by providing wellness services, health education, training, and access to safe high quality health care services.

Health

The Grady Health Foundation Inc

The mission of the grady health foundation is to grow both philanthropic support and broad-based understanding of the critical role that grady health system plays in the metro atlanta region. our focus is to ensure grady health system has…

Philanthropy

The Arc of Southwest Georgia Inc

Our mission is to create life-changing solutions for people with disabilities.

Human Services

Augusta Health Care Inc

The mission of augusta health is to strengthen the health and well-being of all people in our communities.

Health

Acfb Charitable Investments Inc

Acfb charitable investments, inc., is operated exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes and/or activities of atlanta community food bank, inc., a georgia nonprofit corporation.

Food & Nutrition

Acfb Support Organization Inc

Acfb support organization, inc., is operated exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the purposes and/or activities of atlanta community food bank, inc., a georgia nonprofit corporation.

Food & Nutrition

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Atlanta Union Mission Corporation; the most unlike its peers is The Uyc Maritime 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.

04the grantee network

60 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. 60 of the 92 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

59/60

Grantees still filing

45/60

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$2,328,575Human Services$816,000Arts & Culture$685,000Health$672,500Education$550,000Philanthropy$217,600Housing & Shelter$195,000

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.

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.

Georgia Power Foundation IncGA46.8× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Georgia Power Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta Inc · Atl Fdn-W Peters Main · Tr Uw Charles I Branan · The Imlay Foundation Inc · United Way of Greater Atlanta Inc · Tw Marian W Ottley Atlanta Main · Cobb Community Foundation Inc · THDF II Inc DBA The Home Depot Foundation & Homer Fund · Lucia and Mark Wilton Charitable Foundation Inc · Fraser-Parker Foundation · Tuw Thomas H Pitts

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 Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

17report 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 Ray M and Mary E Lee Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Ray M and Mary E Lee 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.

Play a game based on Ray M and Mary E Lee’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