Funders › Missouri

Berra Family Charitable Foundation

Saint Louis, MO · EIN 81-5371972. Reported 105 grants totalling $1,644,358 to 36 recipients across tax years 2021-2025. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$10,000median grant
$1,644,358granted, 2021-2025
36recipients, as named on its returns
80%of grantees funded again the next year
$88,875assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Berra Family Charitable Foundation did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $10,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $5,000 and $15,000; the smallest was $999 and the largest $250,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

Under $1,000
1 grant
$1,000 - $5,000
19 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
27 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
40 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
11 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 grants
$100,000 and Up
3 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by name and state as they were written on the returns, so an organization entered under two different names appears twice. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which that name received money.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
The National Museum of TransportationSt Louis, MO$267,900442025
Veterans Community ProjectSt Louis, MO$246,099552025
St Louis Children's Hospital FoundationSt Louis, MO$227,500552025
Loyola AcademySt Louis, MO$125,000552025
Boys Hope Girls HopeRichmond Heights, MO$115,000552025
St Joseph's AcademySt Louis, MO$75,000552025
St Patrick CenterSt Louis, MO$75,000552025
Queen of Peace CenterSt Louis, MO$70,500552025
St Louis University High SchoolSt Louis, MO$65,000552025
The BackstoppersSt Louis, MO$55,000552025
Humane Society of MoSt Louis, MO$50,000552025
Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge HospitalMaryland Heights, MO$50,000442025
KIPP St LouisSt Louis, MO$30,000332024
Our Lady of the PillarSt Louis, MO$30,000332025
St Louis Fisher HouseSt Louis, MO$25,000552025
North Side Community SchoolSt Louis, MO$20,000442025
Lift for Life GymSt Louis, MO$15,609332025
Heart HouseSt Louis, MO$15,000332025
Forsyth SchoolSt Louis, MO$12,500442025
Foster & Adoptive Care CoalitionBrentwood, MO$10,000222022
Greater St Louis Honor FlightSt Louis, MO$10,000112021
DoorwaysSt Louis, MO$7,500222025
Angel ArmsSt Louis, MO$5,000112025
Churchill Center and SchoolSt Louis, MO$5,000112024
Norwood Hills Charitable TrustSt Louis, MO$5,000222022
St Louis UniversitySt Louis, MO$5,000112024
The Children's Heart FoundationNorthbrook, IL$5,000222025
Urban League of St LouisSt Louis, MO$5,000112025
Catholic Charitites of Stl Rebuild AcademySt Louis, MO$2,500112025
International Institute of St LouisSt Louis, MO$2,500112021
Lutheran Family and Children's Services of MissouriSaint Louis, MO$2,500112022
National Multiple Sclerosis SocietyCreve Coeur, MO$2,500112021
Food OutreachSt Louis, MO$2,250222025
FamilyforwardSaint Louis, MO$2,000112022
Madison County Fallen OfficersEdwardsville, IL$1,500112025
St Louis Area FoodbankBridgeton, MO$1,000112024

24 of 36 (67%) received money in more than one year over the 5 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 80%, across 4 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is unusually consistent. This measures how often it paid the same organizations again. It says nothing about whether it would consider a new one.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 47 grants where we could match the recipient to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's. The match, made from the name and address on the return, is ours.

Education
16 grants
Youth Development
8 grants
Mental Health
5 grants
Public & Societal Benefit
5 grants
Health Care
4 grants
Food & Nutrition
2 grants
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
2 grants
Human Services
2 grants

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202120$260,000$7,500
202220$569,500$10,000
202319$241,608$10,000
202421$265,100$10,000
202525$308,150$7,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

100% of its giving went to organizations in Missouri. If your organization is based elsewhere, look in the recipient list for grants to your area before writing.

Missouri
$1.6M
Illinois
$6K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.

The Blackbaud Giving Fund24 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund24 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc24 shared recipientsSt Louis Community Foundation Inc20 shared recipientsSt Louis Community Foundation16 shared recipientsUnited Way of Greater St Louis Inc15 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $10,000. A request many times that size asks for something it has rarely or never given.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Missouri.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Berra Family Charitable Foundation's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). Grant figures are from its returns. Matching recipients to registered organizations, their IRS classifications, the retention rate and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations, described in how we build this.

Address of record on the latest return: 3 Clayton Estates Dr, Saint Louis, MO, 63131. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 81-5371972 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.