May 16, 1905
Dana Brown is born to John Henry Brown and Martha Jane Prince Brown. He was the 11th of 12 children growing up in a 2 bedroom log cabin in the rural hills of Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. This is where Dana Brown decided he was going to make something of himself.
At age 14 with hardly a dollar to his name, Dana Brown left his home and started building his legacy. He wandered, worked, learned, and survived (frequently) on nothing but his wits.
After 4 years as a railroad worker, a lumberjack, a cowboy, and a hobo, Dana Brown landed in Toledo, Ohio and found his calling: sales for Fuller Brush Company.
After 6 months, Dana was promoted to branch manager.
Dana’s reputation as an excellent salesman began to precede him. A co-worker told his father about Dana’s ability to outsell all the other Fuller Brush men. As luck would have it, the father was the sales manager for Woolson Spice Company. Dana was offered a job. Within 2 years, Dana was running the whole company.
Dana moves to St. Louis, Missouri from Topeka, Kansas to run the coffee department of General Grocery Company, of which Manhattan Coffee Company was a major label.
Within five years, Dana purchased Manhattan Coffee Company and served as its President.
Dana Brown brilliantly makes a connection between Safari travel and a unique approach to sourcing and marketing his coffee products. He begins to make frequent trips to Africa as a part of his innovative sales strategy.
However, when Manhattan Coffee Company is purchased by Caine Coffee in the late 1950s, the new owners don’t want to reimburse Dana for his travels so he decides to establish his own brand.
Dana Brown establishes Dana Brown Private Brands, a place where Dana would find the perfect blend of safari, sales, and success.
Over the next two decades, Dana Brown Private Brands and, more specifically, Safari Coffee would earn Dana a small fortune of over $40 million dollars.
Dana Brown builds his reputation as a well-known St. Louis personality through frequent television appearances representing his Safari Brand coffee.
As quickly and loudly as Dana Brown amassed his considerable fortune and fame as a St. Louis adventurer and business owner, Dana’s quiet generosity was a lesser known narrative playing out only in Dana’s private life.
Dana Brown goes on his last safari.
October 21, 1994
Dana Brown passes away, establishing The Dana Brown Charitable Trust with the Mercantile Trust Company (now U.S. Bank).
Over the last 24 years, The Dana Brown Charitable Trust has honored Dana Brown’s legacy as an extraordinarily successful entrepreneur and philanthropist by providing funding to organizations that reflect Dana’s living passion and commitment to children and animals.
See the impact of Dana Brown’s legacy here.
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What is the deadline for my Letter of Intent?
Letters of Intent (LOI) are due on February 19 for our Spring grant cycle and August 27 for our Fall grant cycle.
Letters of Intent for our Spring grant cycle are accepted between January 1 and February 19.
Letters of Intent for our Fall grant cycle are accepted between July 1 and August 27.
The LOI process will close at 10 pm (CST) on February 19 and August 27.
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Inside Philanthropy
Who's Funding What & Why
What St. Louis Groups Should Know About the Dana Brown Charitable Trust
Alyssa Ochs | April 4, 2020
There are very few philanthropic foundations that focus their exclusive attention on the city of St. Louis, Missouri, despite the fact that it’s a major U.S. metropolitan area and home to around 2.85 million people. That is why we wanted to learn more about the Dana Brown Charitable Trust (DBCT) and its shared journey with the St. Louis community since 1994.
Here’s what St. Louis-area grantseekers should know about the Dana Brown Charitable Trust.
Founder’s Legacy
Dana Brown was the president and CEO of Safari Coffee, but he was much more to the people of St. Louis. Around town, he was known as a warm-hearted adventurer who maintained a deep connection to St. Louis, considering its residents his adopted family even though he grew up in Appalachian Virginia. Brown made it clear before his death in 1994 that he wanted his self-made fortune to enrich the lives of his fellow people in St. Louis.
Specific Topics of Interest
Although St. Louis is the foundation’s sole geographic interest, DBCT splits its focus between the needs of local children and animals. It distributes around $3.6 million each year to benefit these two vulnerable groups.
Grants for children’s needs go toward education, health and welfare, to alleviate suffering and help kids access more opportunities. As a general rule, more grants tend to support helping children each year than animals. Some child-focused recent grantees include the Central Institute for the Deaf, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and the Hawthorn School for Girls.
During his lifetime, Dana Brown was a lover of nature, animals and other cultures, and he shared what he learned from his travels through Safari Coffee commercials and local broadcast television. DBCT’s current grantmaking strategy reflects that interest. Recent animal grants have gone to an endangered wolf center, an assistance dog organization and the St. Louis Zoo.
An Accessible Letter of Intent Process
Fortunately for local grantseekers, DBCT has a straightforward application process for grants, beginning with letters of intent in the spring and fall. It typically accepts spring grant cycle LOIs between December 1 and February 15, and fall grant cycle LOIs between June 1 and August 15. From there, the funder’s grantmaking committee invites selected nonprofits to submit full applications. Grants typically range anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000.
Read more about the Dana Brown Charitable Trust and other Missouri-focused funders in our Upper Midwest and Plains funding guide .
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Dana Brown Collection
The Dana Brown Collection contains original film and audio material, scripts, and correspondence, including Dana Brown’s letters to editors of various publications. Researchers will find a rich source of material in this collection about the cultural history of the mid-to-late-20th century. Brown also kept an environmental record of natural areas throughout Africa and Vietnam.
Dana Brown was born in West Virginia in 1905. The eleventh of twelve children, Brown left home as a teenager and traveled across America. Brown found work in a variety of manual labor jobs on the railroad and as a ranch hand before settling as a Fuller Brush salesman. By 1946 Brown was living in St. Louis and working for the General Grocer Co. In 1950, Manhattan Coffee was established as a division of General Grocer, and Dana Brown became linked with the product that would help earn his fortune.
Brown’s need to travel did not diminish with time and he went on a series of journeys and safaris, trips he documented with film and audio recordings. From 1954 to 1990, Brown went on over 35 trips to destinations such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, Sumatra, India, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Vietnam, and many other places.
As time went on, Brown incorporated footage from his journeys into commercials and nature films. The footage gave viewers a glimpse of amazing landscapes and animals and included a mention of Safari coffee. Manhattan Coffee was eventually bought by Nestle and Brown moved on to sell Safari coffee under his own coffee company.
Brown’s entrepreneurial success enabled his philanthropy and he gave a $10,000 gift to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis in 1985. The Dana Brown Charitable Trust, established October 21, 1994, at Brown’s passing, continues to pursue charitable works.
Access these Materials
Search the Dana Brown Collection on ArchivesSpace
Please contact Andy Uhrich for information on the media holdings for this collection.
Plan Your Visit
Dana Brown’s Life on Safari premieres at Steinberg Dec. 9
Documentary by HEC-TV chronicles adventures of Safari Coffee founder
HEC-TV’s new documentary film Dana Brown’s Life on Safari will premiere at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9, at Steinberg Auditorium in Steinberg Hall on the Danforth Campus.
The premiere is co-sponsored by HEC-TV and Washington University Libraries.
The event is free and open to the public. After the film, there will be a question-and-answer “Meet the Producer” session and a reception. RSVP to HEC-TV at (314) 531-4455.
Dana Brown, a West Virginia native, began his sales career selling door-to-door for the Fuller Brush Co. He settled in St. Louis, eventually founding Safari Coffee and becoming a multimillionaire.
For decades, he made and appeared in his own commercials for his coffee brand, typically filming the ads while traveling around the world. The commercials were similar to nature films, with a mention of Safari Coffee coming at the end.
At the time of his death in 1994, Brown left behind more than 400 film canisters of footage documenting his travels to wild areas in Asia and Africa from the 1960s through the 1980s. These films will be added to the collections of the Film & Media Archive at Washington University Libraries.
For more information on the upcoming premiere, visit library.wustl.edu/units/spec/filmandmedia/news.html .
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Dana Brown Collection
- Print Generating
- Container Inventory
Scope and Contents
The majority of the Dana Brown Collection is currently unprocessed. Currently, only the textiles of the collection are described. The Dana Brown Collection contains original film and audio material, scripts, and correspondence, including Dana Brown’s letters to editors of various publications. Researchers will find a rich source of material in this collection about the cultural history of the mid-to-late-20th century. Brown also kept an environmental record of natural areas throughout Africa and Vietnam. See here for additional Dana Brown Collection materials or contact the Film and Media curator at (314) 935-5495 or [email protected] .
- Creation: undated
- Brown, Dana, 1905 - 1994 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions governing use.
Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies. Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University. If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or [email protected] . (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)
Biographical Note
Dana Brown was born in West Virginia in 1905. The eleventh of twelve children, Brown left home as a teenager and traveled across America. Brown found work in a variety of manual labor jobs on the railroad and as a ranch hand before settling as a Fuller Brush salesman. By 1946 Brown was living in St. Louis and working for the General Grocer Co. In 1950, Manhattan Coffee was established as a division of General Grocer, and Dana Brown became linked with the product that would help earn his fortune. Brown’s need to travel did not diminish with time and he went on a series of journeys and safaris, trips he documented with film and audio recordings. From 1954 to 1990, Brown went on over 35 trips to destinations such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nepal, Sumatra, India, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Vietnam, and many other places. As time went on, Brown incorporated footage from his journeys into commercials and nature films. The footage gave viewers a glimpse of amazing landscapes and animals and included a mention of Safari coffee. Manhattan Coffee was eventually bought by Nestle and Brown moved on to sell Safari coffee under his own coffee company. Brown’s entrepreneurial success enabled his philanthropy and he gave a $10,000 gift to Children’s Hospital in St. Louis in 1985. The Dana Brown Charitable Trust, established October 21, 1994, at Brown’s passing, continues to pursue charitable works.
Language of Materials
Additional description, source of acquisition.
Gift of the Dana Brown Charitable Trust, December 2010.
Related Materials
See here for additional Dana Brown Collection materials or contact the Film and Media curator at (314) 935-5495 or [email protected] .
Processing Information
Processed by Emily Alberts, October 2022.
Finding Aid & Administrative Information
Physical storage information.
- Box: 1 (Textile)
- Box: 2 (Textile)
- Box: 3 (Textile)
Collecting Area Details
Part of the Film & Media Archive Collecting Area
Collection organization
[Name of the Collection], Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections.
Cite Item Description
[Name of the Collection], Washington University Libraries, Department of Special Collections. https://aspace.wustl.edu/repositories/7/resources/992 Accessed October 08, 2024.
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