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Oregon · Private foundation

George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn

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.

$133k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
12
Grants FY2025
11
Organizations funded FY2024
64%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$5,500
Largest grant, FY2025
$41,900
Organizations funded a year
11 to 33
FY2018 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
3
Total assets, FY2025
$2.0M
Applications
Preselected organizations only
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 64% of the organizations George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn funded were first-time grantees, receiving 37% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $61k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthEducationRecreation & SportsArts & CultureOther
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.
The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving12$133k17%
FY202411$162k64%
FY202315$139k87%
FY202219$159k11%
FY202116$135k19%
FY202023$127k26%
FY201923$124k26%
FY201833$139kn/a
90% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Education$595kCommunity Improvement$167kArts & Culture$108kRecreation & Sports$45kPublic Safety & Disaster$41kFood & Nutrition$29kHealth$19kPublic Benefit$12kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

WA
ID
MT
MI
OR
WY
CA
UT

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2018 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Utah State University$35,0003n/a
North Powder Community Partners$32,5004n/a
Eastern Oregon Museum$28,500417%
Eastern Oregon Regional Theater Inc$20,80048%
Shriners Hospitals for Children$14,00040%
Corban University$12,00020%
Cross the Divide$11,50032%
Baker Soccer United$10,0002n/a
Historic Baker City Charitable Fund Ltd$7,5001100%
Friends Of The Oregon Trail Regional Museum Inc$5,00017%
Show all 13 grantees
All grantees of George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Utah State University$35,0003n/a
North Powder Community Partners$32,5004n/a
Eastern Oregon Museum$28,500417%
Eastern Oregon Regional Theater Inc$20,80048%
Shriners Hospitals for Children$14,00040%
Corban University$12,00020%
Cross the Divide$11,50032%
Baker Soccer United$10,0002n/a
Historic Baker City Charitable Fund Ltd$7,5001100%
Friends Of The Oregon Trail Regional Museum Inc$5,00017%
Cal Poly Corporation$4,00010%
Lewis-Clark State College$4,0001n/a
Northwest College$3,5001n/a

Plus 59 recipients with no EIN on record ($929k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 1 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 8 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

25%50%75%100%$10k$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEastern Oregon Museum: $28,500 over 4y, 17% of budgetEastern Oregon Regional Theater Inc: $20,800 over 4y, 8.4% of budgetShriners Hospitals for Children: $14,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCorban University: $12,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCross the Divide: $11,500 over 3y, 2.4% of budgetHistoric Baker City Charitable Fund Ltd: $7,500 over 1y, 100% of budgetFriends Of The Oregon Trail Regional Museum Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 7.2% of budgetCal Poly Corporation: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured
Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 8.

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.

Leo Adler TrustIL20× affinity7 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Leo Adler Trust · The Oregon Community Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · 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.

Compare George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn?

Find your warmest path to George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

About George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn

How much does George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn give?
George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn reported 12 grants totaling $133,400 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 11 and 33 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
What does George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn fund?
By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (53%), Community Improvement (15%), Arts & Culture (10%).
Who are George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: Utah State University ($35k), North Powder Community Partners ($33k), Eastern Oregon Museum ($29k).
Does George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 64% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Which funders back the same organizations as George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Leo Adler Trust, The Oregon Community Foundation, Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc.
Where is George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn based?
George&Marion Buerkel Oscar&Ella Zoellner Fdn is based in OR.

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 72 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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