The Dana Brown Charitable Trust honors the legacy of St. Louis entrepreneur, philanthropist, and adventurer, Dana Brown. When Dana passed away on October 21, 1994, he established The Dana Brown Charitable Trust at Mercantile Trust Company (now U.S. Bank). For almost 30 years, the Dana Brown Charitable Trust has continued Dana Brown’s personal mission to share his self-made fortunes to enrich the lives of his fellow St. Louisans.
Learn About Our Legacy
The Dana Brown Charitable Trust (DBCT) is proud to announce that a new process has been adopted for reviewing requests during the two grant cycles each year. A group of eight (8) individuals have been recruited to independently review grants for each cycle during the year.
The new committee members have agreed to serve staggered terms. Four (4) members will be assigned to each grant cycle to review LOIs, invite organizations to apply, and allocate awards.
Senior Vice President – U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management Missouri & Arkansas Market Leader and Chair of the Dana Brown Charitable Trust
Consultant at the Rome Group, Chief Development Officer at Center for Human Services - Missouri, former Director of External Relations at Endangered Wolf Center
Chief Financial Officer of Youth in Need, former AB/InBev Financial executive, she has served on several boards and volunteered for many organizations that are child-focused
Former executive director of St. Louis Community Foundation and the Columbus Foundation, Columbus, Ohio. A former college professor at The Ohio State and adjunct professor at Washington University, retired professional
Chief Innovation Officer of a SaaS IoT company, retired Director of Service & Technology at Graybar, St. Louis Workforce Development Board Member, FOCUS Leadership St. Louis 2011-12 program member, his philanthropic work is focused on boards and volunteering with organizations that serve children, youth and collegiate advocacy
Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion (DEAI) Director at the Saint Louis Zoo, worked in academics, is new to St. Louis, and has been on several allocation committees in his academic and professional career
Former Chief Development Officer of St. Patrick’s Center, adjunct professor at UMSL, entire professional career in non-profit leadership roles, retired professional
Currently serves as Vice President of Latino Outreach at the International Institute of St. Louis, a former President & CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis , also worked for Midwest BankCentre and served on an St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, St. Louis Sports Commission and United Way Boards , FOCUS Leadership St. Louis 2011-12 program member.
Former Executive Director, now Emeritus, of University City Childcare Center (UCCC), founder and served as the CEO of the LUME Institute, strong advocate and resource for early childhood education, retired professional
Through collaboration, we can all achieve greater outcomes from our work. The Dana Brown Charitable Trust deeply values the commitment of organizations that find opportunities to unify their missions toward a common goal. In 2023, we contracted independent legal and organizational reviews of our nearly 30 years of grant-making excellence.
The outcomes of this critical work are present in new process directives, which include, but are not limited to, recruiting a DBCT Grant Review Committee, restating the mission statement to better reflect the original trust that Dana Brown outlined before his passing, and launching a collaboration initiative in which we provide the resources and network for grant-seeking organizations to connect and better implement their strategic plans.
Learn MoreThe Dana Brown Charitable Trust views our journey as a philanthropic adventure where the outcome is opportunity. We provide organizations the chance to have a strong positive impact on the St. Louis region specifically for those who are least capable of helping themselves: children and animals.
