· Private foundation
Marion Jerome Foundation Inc
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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
97% of Marion Jerome Foundation Inc’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 3 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2024, the last year Marion Jerome Foundation Inc named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $152k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
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.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k14 grants · $59k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $93k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DECORAH DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS | $32,500 |
| BARRON AREA EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC | $20,000 |
| IOWA 4-H FOUNDATON | $10,211 |
| UNIVERSITY OF IOWA HOLDEN CANCER CENTER | $10,000 |
| VESTERHEIM | $10,000 |
| DECORAH COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY | $10,000 |
| TOYS GO ROUND TOY LENDING LIBRARY | $6,000 |
| DECORAH PUBLIC LIBRARY | $6,000 |
| WINNESHIEK COUNTY CELEBRATION OF LIFE | $5,000 |
| DECORAH COMMUNITY FREE CLINIC | $5,000 |
| WINNESHIEK MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| SPECTRUM INDUSTRIES | $5,000 |
| HELPING SERVICES FOR YOUTH | $5,000 |
| CRESTWOOD HIGH SCHOOL DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS | $4,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $51k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 +40% since the first grant, against +31% for those funded once.
30 repeat relationships: 19 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call). Read against FY2024, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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, 66% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $27k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BABARRON AREA EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC9× · 2017–2025 · $144k · revenue +163%
- I4IOWA 4-H FOUNDATION9× · 2017–2025 · $92k · revenue +105%
- DCDECORAH COMM SCHOOL DIST FOUNDATION3× · 2017–2019 · $77k · revenue +335%
Funded once
- GOGUARDIANS OF NORTHEAST IOWA INCgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $3k · revenue +31%
- FUFIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCHone grant, 2017 · $2k
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.
Facilitate economic opportunity, business success, community engagement, prosperity, and quality of life for rural western iowa
Support educational opportunities of students and faculty of the shenandoah community school district
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.
Faciltate a team of industry professionals to bring initiatives, education and awareness to skilled trades in iowa
Empowerment of girls through music
How this is measured
15 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. 15 of the 37 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 FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds BARRON AREA EDUCATION FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA 4-H FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DECORAH COMM SCHOOL DIST FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DECORAH COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY ↗
- Who funds Spectrum Industries ↗
- Who funds WINNESHIEK MEDICAL CENTER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WINNESHIEK COUNTY CELEBRATION OF LIFE INC ↗
- Who funds University of South Florida Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds THUNDER RODE INC ↗
- Who funds ARTHAUS INC ↗
- Who funds DECORAH MUSIC BOOSTERS ↗
- Who funds GUARDIANS OF NORTHEAST IOWA INC ↗
- Who funds DECORAH ATHLETIC BOOSTER CLUB ↗
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: Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Marion Jerome Foundation Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Marion Jerome Foundation Inc. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Marion Jerome’s filings →