· Private foundation
Lee Endowment 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.
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 |
|---|---|
| YSS OF NORTH IOWA | $2,000 |
| NIACC FOUNDATION | $1,266 |
| STEBENS CHILDRENS THEATRE | $1,231 |
| MASON CITY PARKS & REC DE | $413 |
| WINNEBAGO BOY SCOUT COUNCIL | $83 |
| FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $83 |
| SIMPSON COLLEGE | $83 |
| ST ANDREWS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $83 |
| CHRISTMAS CHEER FUND | $40 |
| UNITED WAY OF NORTH CENTRAL IOWA | $40 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $6k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 100% of those 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 +13% since the first grant, against -11% for those funded once.
19 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 1 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, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $413 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- OVOne Vision5× · 2019–2023 · $10k · revenue +13%
- SCSimpson College9× · 2017–2025 · $3k · revenue +30%
- UWUnited Way of North Central Iowa9× · 2017–2025 · $1k · revenue +5%
Funded once
- MCMASON CITY PUBLIC LIBRARYone grant, 2019 · $5k
- CLCLEAR LAKE ARTS CENTERone grant, 2019 · $5k
- TBTLC BROADCASTING CORP-KCMR RADIOone grant, 2017 · $4k
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.
Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.
Through dynamic partnerships, quality family services, advocacy and education, neicac advances community development and improves social and economic conditions for individuals and families with limited resources.
The agency provides transportation services for the elderly, disabled, and general public.
To empower individuals with disabilities to control their lives.
The organization receives, warehouses, and distributes salvageable food items to non-profit tax exempt member agencies to feed the ill, needy, and infants.
The Dubuque Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) will lead tourism destination promotion and development to enhance and expand the Dubuque Area experience.
To advance tourism, assist in new and existing business development and promote economic, professional, cultural and civic interests in the iowa great lakes area.
Unite the caring power of communities to invest in effective solutions to improve people's lives.
To provide leadership in our communities to 1) identify our most pressing human care needs, 2) to work together to direct the time, energy and resources towards addressing those needs to improve our quality of life.
ICCJ assists children in custody disputes through child focused education and legal services. ICCJ provides education and legal services on a reduced fee or at no charge based on the ability to pay.
The mission of the iowa business council is to engage the personal commitment of its executive members in active leadership roles on major initiatives that offer opportuinities to enhance iowa's overall economic vitality.
To promote the development, growth and utilization of childrens advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams to better serve Iowas abused and neglected children and their families.
How this is measured
9 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.
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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 9 of the 30 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.
- Who funds One Vision ↗
- Who funds Elderbridge Agency on Aging ↗
- Who funds STEBENS CHILDREN'S THEATRE ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF GREATER IOWA ↗
- Who funds Simpson College ↗
- Who funds NORTH IOWA TRANSITION CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds United Way of North Central Iowa ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL GARDENS OF NORTH IOWA INC ↗
- Who funds CHRISTMAS CHEER FUND INC ↗
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: Farrer Endowment Foundation · Bertha Stebens Charitable Foundation · First Citizens Bank Charitable Foundation · Stratford Foundation · The David & Phyllis Murphy Charitable Foundation · Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Beth E Reinhart Charitable Trust · Tomson Family Foundation Trust · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Lee Endowment Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Lee Endowment Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Lee Endowment Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Lee Endowment Foundation 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.
Play a game based on Lee Endowment’s filings →