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Edson & Margaret Larson Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Edson & Margaret Larson Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$3.2M
Granted FY2025still arriving
9
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$1.3M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$11M
02FY2025 · 9 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $50k–250k3 grants · $285k
  • $250k+6 grants · $2.9M
$275,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$50M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
University of North Dakota Alumni Association and Foundation$1,250,000
Mayville State University Foundation$500,000
University of Jamestown$350,000
Concordia College$300,000
North Dakota State University Foundation$275,000
Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation$250,000
University of Mary$125,000
North Dakota State College of Science and Alumni Foundation$100,000
Valley City State University Foundation$60,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%Concordia College: $350k → 11%Mayville State University Foundation: $500k → 9%Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation: $250k → 9%North Dakota State College of Science and Alumni Foundation: $100k → 10%Minot State University Development Foundation: $150k → 10%University of Mary: $170k → 10%University of Jamestown: $350k → 11%North Dakota State College of Science: $190k → 12%University of North Dakota Alumni Association and Foundation: $1.3M → 13%Concordia College: $300k → 11%Mayville State University Foundation: $400k → 9%Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation: $250k → 9%Minot State University: $150k → 10%University of Mary: $150k → 10%University of Jamestown: $350k → 11%North Dakota State College of Science and Alumni Foundation: $160k → 12%University of North Dakota School of Engineering & Mines: $450k → 13%Concordia College: $180k → 11%Mayville State University Foundation: $400k → 9%Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation: $160k → 9%Minot State University Development Foundation: $126k → 10%University of Mary: $125k → 10%University of Jamestown: $300k → 11%North Dakota State College of Science and Alumni Foundation: $150k → 12%University of North Dakota School of Engineering & Mines: $450k → 13%Concordia College: $130k → 11%Mayville State University Foundation: $200k → 9%Dickinson State University Heritage Foundation: $160k → 9%University of Mary: $120k → 10%University of Jamestown: $200k → 11%University of North Dakota School of Law: $250k → 13%Concordia College: $110k → 11%University of Mary: $120k → 10%University of Jamestown: $105k → 11%University of North Dakota School of Engineering: $225k → 13%Concordia College: $103k → 11%North Dakota State University Foundation: $275k → 12%University of North Dakota School of Medicine: $200k → 13%North Dakota State University: $165k → 12%University of North Dakota School of Medicine: $200k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Medicine: $200k → 13%University of North Dakota College of Business & Public Administration: $200k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Medicine: $200k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Law: $175k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Engineering & Mines: $150k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Engineering & Mines: $150k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Law: $150k → 13%University of North Dakota School of Law: $125k → 13%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$12M · 17 repeat orgs$2.0M to everyone else

17 repeat relationships: 7 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

17
4

Total granted

$12M
$500k

Still filing today

35%
0%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 52% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.5M went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • MS
    MAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
    5× · 2020–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +261%
  • UO
    University of Jamestown
    6× · 2020–2025 · $1.4M · revenue +100%
  • UO
    University of Mary
    6× · 2020–2025 · $725k · revenue +40%

Funded once

  • UO
    University of North Dakota School of Engineering
    one grant, 2020 · $225k
  • MS
    MINOT STATE UNIVERSITY
    one grant, 2021 · $150k
  • MS
    Mayville State University
    one grant, 2021 · $100k
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.

04Its field
04the grantee network

7 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. 7 of the 23 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
3
Early backer (in before they grew)
7/7
Grantees still filing
5/7
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

MAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $1,580,000 · OtherMAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATIONUniversity of North Dakota Alumni Association and Foundation: $1,250,000 · OtherUniversity of North Dakota Alumni Association and FoundationUniversity of North Dakota School of Engineering & Mines: $1,200,000 · OtherUniversity of North Dakota School of Engineering & MinesCONCORDIA COLLEGE CORPORATION: $1,172,500 · OtherCONCORDIA COLLEGE CORPORATIONUniversity of North Dakota School of Medicine: $900,000 · OtherUniversity of North Dakota School of MedicineNorth Dakota State University College of Business: $847,500 · OtherNorth Dakota State University College of BusinessDickinson State University Heritage Foundation: $840,000 · OtherDickinson State University Heritage FoundationUniversity of North Dakota School of Law: $775,000 · OtherUniversity of North Dakota School of LawNorth Dakota State College of Science and Alumni Foundation: $510,000 · OtherUniversity of North Dakota College of Business & Public Administration: $500,000 · OtherNorth Dakota State University: $415,000 · Other+9 more: $1,535,500 · Other+9 moreUniversity of Jamestown: $1,380,000 · EducationUniversity of James…University of Mary: $725,000 · EducationUniversity of MaryNorth Dakota State University Foundation: $275,000 · EducationNorth Dakota State …
Other$11,525,500Education$2,380,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $1,580,000 over 5y, 23% of budgetUniversity of Jamestown: $1,380,000 over 6y, 0.7% of budgetCONCORDIA COLLEGE CORPORATION: $1,172,500 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetUniversity of Mary: $725,000 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetMINOT STATE UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION: $275,500 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetVALLEY CITY STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $255,000 over 5y, 1.7% of budget
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.

  • Who funds MAYVILLE STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds University of Jamestown ↗
  • Who funds CONCORDIA COLLEGE CORPORATION ↗
  • Who funds University of Mary ↗
  • Who funds MINOT STATE UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds North Dakota State University Foundation ↗
  • Who funds VALLEY CITY STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗

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.

North Dakota Communit…Xcel Energy FoundationAmerican Online Givin…Donor Advised Charita…Fidelity Investments …Amazonsmile Foundation
North Dakota Community FoundationND15.6× affinity5 shared granteesties to 5 of 5Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: North Dakota Community Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Edson & Margaret Larson Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Edson & Margaret Larson Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%2%6%14%25%funder's share of their income ↑0%3%5%8%10%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–10%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 23 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home