· Private foundation
Sam F Weller Family Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
90% of Sam F Weller Family Foundation’s FY2023 grant dollars went to South Dakota Community Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2023 names 9 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year Sam F Weller Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 8 organizations, $155k. 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 2023.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k7 grants · $19k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $136k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST MARY'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH | $35,000 |
| MITCHELL SCHOOL DISTRICT | $27,500 |
| ABBOTT HOUSE | $25,000 |
| DAKOTA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY | $18,000 |
| MITCHELL PICKLEBALL ASSOCIATION | $15,000 |
| MITCHELL KIWANIS CLUB | $15,000 |
| MITCHELL PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE | $5,000 |
| JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT | $4,000 |
| LOVE FEAST OF MITCHELL | $3,000 |
| MITCHELL AREA COMMUNITY THEATRE | $2,500 |
| MITCHELL AREA GARDEN CLUB | $2,000 |
| MITCHELL LIONS FOUNDATION | $2,000 |
| AVERA QUEEN OF PEACE | $500 |
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 (FY18–23, $245k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 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 +48% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.
20 repeat relationships: 9 still active in FY2022, 11 since wound down; 14 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, 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 FY2023, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $212k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- AHABBOTT HOUSE INC5× · 2018–2023 · $209k · revenue +111%
- DWDAKOTA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY4× · 2019–2022 · $68k · revenue +25%
- MAMitchell Aquatic Club4× · 2018–2021 · $50k · revenue +48%
Funded once
- HWHELPING WITH HORSEPOWERone grant, 2020 · $10k
- SOSPECIAL OLYMPICS SOUTH DAKOTA INCgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $10k · revenue +33%
- JPJOHN PAUL II SCHOOLone grant, 2019 · $8k
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.
The organization operates a pre-k through high school educational program accredited by the state of south dakota.
Education, information, and promotion of the appreciation of the sport of rodeo and other equine and livestock activities in the community and surrounding areas of mitchell, south dakota.
Promote economic development in mitchell county
To promote in the economic development of local mitchell county communities
Six bed group home that maintained full occupancy for developmentally challenged adults. took residents on excursions and dining experiences to acclimate them to every day inclusion in society.
Chamber of commerce
Mitchell county safeplace is a non-profit organization working for the elimination of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, stalking, elder abuse, and promoting economic and social empowerment for all
Provide the community with a shooting range and sporting activities
To provide day services to individuals with developmental disabilities as well as education to families and communities of mitchell and baker counties.
To allow youth the opportunity to play baseball.
Assist with fundraising efforts of mitchell area safehouse including investments and asset management.
How this is measured
18 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. 18 of the 46 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 SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ABBOTT HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds DAKOTA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL AREA HOUSING INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL BASEBALL ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds Mitchell Aquatic Club ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL MUSIC BOOSTERS INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL PREHISTORIC INDIAN VILLAGE ↗
- Who funds LIFEQUEST INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL PICKLEBALL ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL AREA SAFEHOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds SPECIAL OLYMPICS SOUTH DAKOTA INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL AREA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL TENNIS ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds MITCHELL UNITED WAY ↗
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: South Dakota Community Foundation · Mitchell Area Charitable Foundation · Avera Health · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation Inc · Larson Foundation · Sanford Group Return · Midcontinent Foundation · The US Charitable Gift Trust · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Sam F Weller Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Sam F Weller Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
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