Blues for Kids
St Louis, MO · EIN 43-1820447. Reported 74 grants totalling $2,179,776 to 48 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Blues for Kids, the IRS classifies it under human services rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE P20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 48 distinct organizations, with 20% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 28% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $13,572. Half of what it reported fell between $9,000 and $29,789; the smallest was $5,109 and the largest $271,733. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Way of Greater St Louis Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $428,104 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| St Louis Blues Alumni Association | Saint Louis, MO | $302,179 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St Louis Legacy Ice Foundation | Saint Louis, MO | $167,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Washington University | St Louis, MO | $127,498 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Friends of Kids With Cancer Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $107,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Duo Dogs Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $84,405 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| St Louis Blues Warriors Inc | Ballwin, MO | $69,262 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation | Saint Louis, MO | $64,900 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Girls on the Run of St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $60,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Best Buddies International Inc | Miami, FL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Navigate Stl Schools | Saint Louis, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ronald Mcdonald House Charities of St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Chads Coalition for Mental Health | St Louis, MO | $47,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gateway Arch Park Foundation | Saint Louis, MO | $37,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| H E R O E S Care Inc | High Ridge, MO | $37,046 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Missouri Amateur Ice Hockey Association-Youth Division | Saint Louis, MO | $34,166 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| St Louis Public Schools Foundation | Saint Louis, MO | $32,500 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lift for Life Academy Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Rick Rush Art Alliance | Northport, AL | $29,789 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Folds of Honor Foundation | Chesterfield, MO | $25,411 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Chesterfield Hockey Association | Chesterfield, MO | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Little Bit Foundation | Maryland Hts, MO | $24,226 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Levy at Enterprise Center | St Louis | $22,997 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St Louis Guns N Hoses Boxing Association | Fenton, MO | $20,203 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| St Louis Hero Network | Saint Louis, MO | $18,011 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Havenhouse St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $16,550 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation | E Saint Louis, IL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Louis Police Foundation | Saint Louis, MO | $15,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Lydias House Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $14,809 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Athletes for Animals Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $14,182 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Maryville University of St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $13,165 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Als Association | St Louis | $12,640 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Operation Shower | Saint Louis, MO | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pride St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $11,020 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| You Can Play | Denver, CO | $11,020 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $10,030 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Archdiocese of St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Kol Rinah | Saint Louis, MO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Earthdance | Saint Louis, MO | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Care and Counseling | St Louis | $8,523 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Provident Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Pure Hockey | St Louis | $6,930 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Lifebridge Partnership | Saint Louis, MO | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Cardinal Ritter College Prep | St Louis, MO | $6,400 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Stray Rescue of St Louis | Saint Louis, MO | $6,201 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri Inc | Saint Louis, MO | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| St Louis Childrens Hospital | Saint Louis, MO | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ranken-Jordan Home for Convalescent Crippled Children | Maryland Hts, MO | $5,109 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
18 of 48 (38%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 38 of 48 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 24 | $660,127 | $12,643 |
| 2022 | 29 | $946,331 | $14,809 |
| 2023 | 14 | $163,625 | $10,240 |
| 2024 | 7 | $409,693 | $50,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
95% of its giving went to organizations in Missouri. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $13,572 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Missouri.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Blues for Kids's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 7 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 1401 Clark Avenue, St Louis, MO, 63103.
EIN 43-1820447 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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