Kentucky · Private foundation
W L Lyons Brown 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.
- $34M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 21
- Grants FY2025
- 133
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 19%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $12,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $11,380,633
- Organizations funded a year
- 117 to 142
- FY2020 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 10
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 19% of the organizations W L Lyons Brown Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 19% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $773k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 21 | $34M | 43% |
| FY2024 | 133 | $4.1M | 19% |
| FY2023 | 142 | $4.5M | 27% |
| FY2022 | 130 | $4.6M | 26% |
| FY2021 | 142 | $4.8M | 33% |
| FY2020 | 117 | $4.1M | n/a |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where its grants go
Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.
Which US states its grants reach
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Msb Cockayne Fund Inc | $11,380,633 | 1 | n/a |
| Skylight Woods Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx | $5,653,382 | 1 | n/a |
| Limestone Family Foundation Inc | $5,527,278 | 1 | 86% |
| The Owsley Brown III Philanthropic Found | $3,769,149 | 1 | n/a |
| The Brooke Brown Barzun Philanthropic Foundation Inc | $3,759,149 | 1 | n/a |
| Sociable Weaver Foundation Inc | $3,684,861 | 1 | n/a |
| Kentucky College of Art Design | $1,877,511 | 4 | 25% |
| Louisville Collegiate School | $867,786 | 4 | 2% |
| The Protestant Episcopal High School in Virginia | $815,000 | 5 | 1% |
| The Berry Center Inc | $586,750 | 6 | 9% |
Show all 220 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 51 recipients with no EIN on record ($3.6M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
W L Lyons Brown Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 3 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 200 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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: The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc · Limestone Family Foundation Inc · Sociable Weaver Foundation Inc · The Gheens Foundation Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Depository Inc · Snowy Owl Foundation Inc · The Brooke Brown Barzun Philanthropic Foundation Inc · LG&E and Ku Foundation Inc · Owsley Brown II Family Foundation Inc · Ina B Bond Ashbourne Charitable Fund Inc · Msb Cockayne Fund Inc · The Community Foundation of Louisville Corporate Depository Inc
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to W L Lyons Brown Foundation?
Find your warmest path to W L Lyons Brown 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.
About W L Lyons Brown Foundation
- How much does W L Lyons Brown Foundation give?
- W L Lyons Brown Foundation reported 21 grants totaling $34,141,952 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 117 and 142 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
- What does W L Lyons Brown Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Philanthropy (62%), Education (12%), Environment (8%).
- Who are W L Lyons Brown Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Msb Cockayne Fund Inc ($11M), Skylight Woods Foundation Inc Xxx-Xx-Xxxx ($5.7M), Limestone Family Foundation Inc ($5.5M).
- Does W L Lyons Brown Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 19% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does W L Lyons Brown 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 W L Lyons Brown Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Community Foundation of Louisville Inc, Limestone Family Foundation Inc, Sociable Weaver Foundation Inc.
- Where is W L Lyons Brown Foundation based?
- W L Lyons Brown Foundation is based in KY.
Play a game based on W L Lyons Brown’s filings →