· Private foundation
Bernice E Peterson Scholarship Trust
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| IOWA CENTRAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $9,800 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA | $2,800 |
| BUENA VISTA UNIVERSITY | $2,800 |
| UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH DAKOTA | $1,400 |
| IOWA WESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $1,400 |
| SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY | $1,400 |
| NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE | $1,400 |
| DES MOINES AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $1,400 |
| UPPER IOWA UNIVERSITY | $1,400 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 95% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +12% since the first grant, against +1% for those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
Buena Vista University3× · 2022–2025 · $7k · revenue +12%- MUMORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY2× · 2022–2023 · $4k · revenue +3%
- NCNORTHWESTERN COLLEGE2× · 2023–2025 · $3k · revenue +17%
Funded once
- COCLASS OF 2019one grant, 2019 · $45k
- COCLASS OF 2020one grant, 2020 · $36k
- COCLASS OF 2017one grant, 2017 · $35k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
Union college is a seventh-day adventist community of higher education, inspired by jesus christ, and dedicated to empowering students to learn, serve, and lead.
As an institution of higher education committed to the reformed christian perspective, dordt university equips students, alumni, and the broader community to work effectively toward christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary…
Inspired by lutheran scholarly tradition and the liberal arts, augustana provides an education of enduring worth that challenges the intellect, fosters integrity and integrates faith with learning and service in a diverse world.
Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.
Hilbert college is an independent institution of higher learning that embraces its catholic franciscan heritage and values. students from diverse backgrounds are educated in liberal arts and professional programs to become informed…
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
Cornell college offers an innovative and rigorous learning community where faculty and staff collaborate with students to develop the intellectual curiosity, creativity and moral courage necessary for a lifetime of learning and engaged…
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
Engages, equips and empowers learners to explore their vocations, fulfill their potential and serve the world.
Steadfast in jesus christ as revealed in the holy scriptures, concordia university chicago promotes academic rigor in its liberal arts and professional programs; grounds students in objective truth, integrity, and excellence; and practices…
Founded in 1902, barton college is a four-year, private, liberal arts college located in wilson, n.c. the barton experience focuses on academic excellence within a wide range of professional and liberal arts programs leading to…
True to our christian heritage, we prepare students from diverse religious, cultural, educational and economic backgrounds to live life fully.
How this is measured
9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 29 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Louis J Elbert Trust · Joseph J Sinek Scholarship Trust · Roy J Carver Charitable Trust · United Way Worldwide · Paul & Mary Collins Trust · Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund · Fahrney Education Fdtn Trust · Bestenlehner D and F Educational Tr · Marguerite V Brown · La Amundson Ohana Foundation · Pella Rolscreen Foundation · Mahana-Cong Church Scholar Found
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Bernice E Peterson Scholarship Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Bernice E Peterson Scholarship Trust. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Bernice E Peterson Scholarship’s filings →