The Birmingham short list

This week, something a little different: a deep dive into one market — mine. Two weeks ago I read one Birmingham nonprofit's filings — Sidewalk, the film center downtown — and wrote down the foundations that had funded it. Alabama Power. Susan Mott Webb. Hugh Kaul. Robert R. Meyer. Goodrich. I assumed that list was particular to Sidewalk. It isn't. Those five wrote just over a thousand grants to Birmingham-area nonprofits in the last four years. Sidewalk's funder list is the city's funder list.

So the first thing worth knowing is that the list is short. About $174 million of foundation money reached Birmingham between 2022 and 2025, and half of it came from twenty-five funders. In August I wrote that the funders who give closest to home never show up on a national prospect list — well, here they are, and you could learn all their names in an afternoon.

The second is how to rank them, because the obvious way is wrong. The Lucille S. Beeson trust gave Birmingham $9.4 million over those four years, slightly more than the Alabama Power Foundation did. Beeson wrote seventeen checks, at a median of $470,000. Alabama Power wrote 381, at a median of $10,000. Sorted by money, they're twins. Sorted by whether you could plausibly be one of their grantees, they aren't remotely the same funder — and that second question is the one you're actually asking. Rank your list by how often a foundation gives, not how much.

There's more here than one note holds. I've barely looked at the nine hundred and seventy-nine smaller funders sitting behind the two dozen in the figure, and I'd like to know who they are — so expect more Birmingham in the weeks ahead. I'd also guess most cities look something like this: a short list doing the steady work, a couple of big names that flatter the totals. If you're somewhere else and curious how your own market compares, reply and tell me where. I'll go read it.