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Ernst Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Ernst Family 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.

$913k
Granted FY2025still arriving
3
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$525k
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 2025.

Philanthropy$1.9MEducation$1.4MCommunity Improvement$110kHealth$25k
02FY2025 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $3k
  • $250k+2 grants · $910k
$385,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$4.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DRAKE UNIVERSITY$525,000
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE$385,000
UNITED TO LEARN$2,500
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 11%. 63% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ST MARK'S SCHOOL OF TEXAS: $5k → 14%DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $525k → 10%MARQUETTE HIGH SCHOOL: $40k → 10%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $450k → 11%DOWN SYNDROME INNOVATIONS: $15k → 5%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $15k → 11%FINANCIAL HEALTH NETWORK: $75k → 14%UNITED TO LEARN: $3k → 14%DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $525k → 10%MARQUETTE HIGH SCHOOL: $40k → 10%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $400k → 11%DOWN SYNDROME GUILD OF GREATER KANSAS CITY: $10k → 5%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $15k → 11%FINANCIAL HEALTH NETWORK INC: $35k → 14%DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $70k → 10%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $400k → 11%DUKE UNIVERSITY: $10k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $50k → 14%DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $40k → 10%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $385k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $50k → 14%DRAKE UNIVERSITY: $20k → 10%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON COUNTY INC: $230k → 11%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $25k → 14%COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON COUNTY INC: $10k → 11%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.

100%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.6M · 6 repeat orgs$8k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +49% since the first grant, against +2% for those funded once.

6 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

6
1

Total granted

$1.6M
$5k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+49%
+2%

Still filing today

83%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationCommunity ImprovementOther
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

  • DRAKE UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2020–2025 · $1.2M · revenue +15%
  • University of Chicago
    3× · 2020–2023 · $125k · revenue +52%
  • DUKE UNIVERSITY
    3× · 2020–2024 · $40k · revenue +49%

Funded once

  • SM
    ST MARK'S SCHOOL OF TEXAS
    one grant, 2020 · $5k · revenue +2%
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

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.

1
Furman University

The primary mission of furman as a liberal arts institution is to provide a distinctive education in fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, as well as selected professional disciplines.

Education
2
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
3
Dunwoody College of Technology

Dunwoody college changes lives by building opportunities for graduates to have successful careers, to develop into leaders and entrepreneurs, and to engage in "the better performance of life's duties." quote is from the last will and…

Education
4
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
5
University of New Haven

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…

Education
6
Grand View University

Engages, equips and empowers learners to explore their vocations, fulfill their potential and serve the world.

Education
7
Clarkson University

Clarkson university is an independent, nationally recognized technological university whose faculty of teacher-scholars aspires to offer superior instruction and engage in high-quality research and scholarship in engineering, business,…

Education
8
Delaware Valley University

See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…

—
9
Point Park University

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…

—
10
Park University

Park university's mission is to transform lives through accessible, student-centered, quality higher education.

Education
11
George Fox University

George fox university, a christ centered community, prepares students spiritually, academically, and professionally to think with clarity, act with integrity, and serve with passion.

Education
12
Stony Brook Urology University Faculty Practice Corporation

Provide clinical instruction to and supervision of medical school students, interns and residents and, incident thereto, rendering professional services.

Health
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Drake University; the most unlike its peers is Community Foundation of Jackson County. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

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 10 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)
2
Early backer (in before they grew)
9/9
Grantees still filing
7/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $1,635,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUECOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON COUNTY: $240,000 · PhilanthropyCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON COUNTYDRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,180,000 · EducationDRAKE UNIVERSITYUniversity of Chicago: $125,000 · EducationUniversity of Chicago+3 more: $47,500 · EducationFINANCIAL HEALTH NETWORK INC: $110,000 · Community ImprovementMARQUETTE HIGH SCHOOL: $80,000 · OtherDOWN SYNDROME INNOVATIONS: $25,000 · Other
Philanthropy$1,875,000Education$1,352,500Community Improvement$110,000Other$105,000

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 budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER DUBUQUE: $1,635,000 over 4y, 2.5% of budgetDRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,180,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetCOMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON COUNTY: $240,000 over 2y, 9.6% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $125,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetFINANCIAL HEALTH NETWORK INC: $110,000 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetDUKE UNIVERSITY: $40,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetDOWN SYNDROME INNOVATIONS: $25,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetST MARK'S SCHOOL OF TEXAS: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNITED TO LEARN: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% 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.

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.

American Online Givin…Fidelity Investments …
American Online Giving Foundation IncDE7.8× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund

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 Ernst Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Ernst Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%8%15%22%30%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–30%
    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 10 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