· Private foundation
Rena Fee Welch Trust
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CENTRAL COLLEGE | $1,463 |
| IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY | $1,401 |
| INDIAN HILLS COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $1,339 |
| SIMPSON COLLEGE | $1,315 |
| IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY | $857 |
| CORNELL COLLEGE | $759 |
| IOWA CENTRAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $737 |
| TRUMAN STATE UNIVERSITY | $730 |
| WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY | $648 |
| CENTRAL COLLEGE | $636 |
| WILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY | $615 |
| IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY | $613 |
| ELMHURST UNIVERSITY | $587 |
| INDIAN HILLS COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $549 |
| BLACK HAWK EAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $100 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY25–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 6%. 100% of its 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.
16 repeat relationships: 10 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 2 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, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $830 went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- WPWILLIAM PENN UNIVERSITY4× · 2022–2025 · $16k · revenue +13%
- IHINDIAN HILLS COMMUNITY COLLEGE4× · 2022–2025 · $6k · revenue +450%
- EUELMHURST UNIVERSITY4× · 2022–2025 · $6k · revenue +23%
Funded once
- SAST AMBROSE UNIVERSITYgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $7k · revenue +83%
- UOUNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWAone grant, 2022 · $4k
- NHNICHOLAS HASELHUHN CO UNIVERSITYone grant, 2021 · $3k
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.
Offer a college experience including education, housing, & associated programs in lincoln, ne.
On a campus of more than 800 acres along the banks of the upper iowa river in decorah, iowa, luther is a true residential campus, with 96 percent of students living on campus and nearly 95 percent of faculty choosing to live within five…
Saint mary's university of minnesota is a private catholic institution that serves about 3,900 students annually. the university offers a comprehensive, personalized education guided by its lasallian catholic heritage. with a wide array of…
Upper iowa university provides quality educational opportunities accessible through varied delivery methods to inspire success and empower lives.
The organization's mission is to educate students for creative occupations in diverse fields of arts and media.
Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.
Illinois college is a co-educational institution of higher learning in the liberal arts.
Centre college is an educational community dedicated to study in the liberal arts as a means to develop the intellectual, personal, and moral potential of its students.
Dordt university was founded in 1955 and provides christ-centered education for students, alumni, and the broader community.
Catholic, co-educational, liberal arts university educating at post-secondary & graduate level
An academic community dedicated to intellectual and personal growth within a christian environment.
A four-year liberal arts university affiliated with the evangelical lutheran church.
How this is measured
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 44 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.
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.
Open a dossier: Moore Scholarship Trust
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Rena Fee Welch Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Rena Fee Welch Trust. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Rena Fee Welch’s filings →