Thomas Frist: Donor Grants

SOURCE OF WEALTH: Hospital Corp. of America

FUNDING AREAS: Arts & Culture, Nashville Community

OVERVIEW: Thomas First moves philanthropy through the Frist Foundation, which is dedicated to sustaining and improving the quality of life in Nashville, Tennessee. His son Billy Frist chairs the foundation. Much of the foundation's recent funding has been directed to the Frist Art Museum and Nashville Zoo. In 2018, the Foundation has also focused on agencies serving vulnerable people.

BACKGROUND: Thomas Frist Jr. graduated from Vanderbilt University and received his M.D. from Washington University. He was an Air Force flight surgeon. In 1968, he founded Hospital Corp. of America (HCA) with his father. HCA owns and operates some 180 hospitals and close to 120 surgical centers in some two dozen U.S. states and London.

ISSUES:

FRIST FOUNDATION: Established in 1982, the Frist Foundation is dedicated to sustaining and improving the quality of life in Nashville, Tennessee. As one of the larger foundations in Tennessee, it has been a philanthropic leader, serving as initiator, convener and catalyst among donors and nonprofit organizations. Since 2001, much of the foundation's funding has been directed to the Frist Art Museum, where Frist is a director emeritus. In 2015, the Nashville Zoo began receiving similar strong support. Even more recently, in 2018, the foundation continued a special focus on agencies serving vulnerable people, and in “supporting efforts by nonprofit organizations to develop new sources of earned revenue and improve their managerial and technological infrastructure.”

Grantees have included Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Family And Children's Service, Teach for America, The Salvation Army, YMCA of Middle Tennessee, Center for Nonprofit Management, University of Virginia, and United Way of Metropolitan Nashville.

OTHER: Frist also moves philanthropy through the Patricia C. & Thomas F. Frist Jr. Foundation, whose grantmaking has been sporadic, and its status is unclear following Patricia’s death in January 2021. A recent large grant went to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville.

LOOKING FORWARD: Expect the family to stick with its established interest areas.

CONTACT:

The Frist Foundation
3100 West End Avenue, Suite 1200
Nashville, Tennessee 37203-1348
Telephone: (615) 292-3868
askfrist@fristfoundation.org