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· Private foundation

Samuel N Bemis Scholarship Fund

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$68k
Granted FY2025still arriving
1
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$68k
Largest
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$584k
02FY2025 · 1 grant

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$67,523
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.3M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES$67,523
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 94% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%TUFTS UNIVERSITY: $5k → 8%CLARK UNIVERSITY: $5k → 11%SMITH COLLEGE: $5k → 12%SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE: $5k → 17%GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV: $5k → 14%BROWN UNIVERSITY: $5k → 14%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $77k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $5k → 14%JOHNSON STATE COLLEGE: $5k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $5k → 10%BRATTLEBORO UNION: $27k → 11%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $5k → 10%BATES COLLEGE: $3k → 13%CLARK UNIVERSITY: $5k → 11%SMITH COLLEGE: $5k → 12%SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE: $5k → 17%GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV: $5k → 14%BROWN UNIVERSITY: $5k → 14%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $68k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $5k → 14%NORTHERN VERMONT UNIVERSITY AT JOHNSON: $5k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $5k → 10%BRATTLEBORO UNION: $24k → 11%DARTMOUTH COLLEGE: $5k → 10%SPRINGFIELD COLLEGE: $5k → 17%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $62k → 15%UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: $5k → 14%NORTHERN VERMONT UNIVERSITY AT JOHNSON: $5k → 9%UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $3k → 10%BRATTLEBORO UNION: $17k → 11%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $60k → 15%BRATTLEBORO UNION H S: $10k → 11%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $60k → 15%OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $59k → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

ME
VT
NH
IL
MA
OH
RI
DC
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$539k · 9 repeat orgs$23k to everyone else

9 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
4

Total granted

$539k
$23k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+31%
+50%

Still filing today

67%
50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • TO
    THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES
    6× · 2020–2025 · $385k · revenue +31%
  • University of Chicago
    3× · 2017–2019 · $16k · revenue +56%
  • TT
    THE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE
    2× · 2018–2019 · $11k · revenue +31%

Funded once

  • BU
    BRATTLEBORO UNION H S
    one grant, 2022 · $10k
  • CC
    COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF VERMONT - MONTPELIER
    one grant, 2017 · $5k
  • Trustees of Tufts Collegegraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +50%
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.

04Its field

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.

1
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The mission of mit is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

Education
2
Western New England University

Western new england university, a comprehensive private institution with a tradition of excellence in teaching and scholarship and a commitment to service, awards undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in various departments from…

Education
3
Lehigh University

The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…

Education
4
William Marsh Rice University

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to path breaking research, unsurpassed teaching, and contributions to the betterment of our world. It seeks to fulfill this…

Education
5
Dickinson College

Dickinson college provides a useful, innovative and interdisciplinary education in the liberal arts and sciences to prepare students to lead rich and fulfilling lives of engaged global citizenship

Education
6
Trustees of Boston College

Mission strengthened by more than a century and a half of dedication to academic excellence, boston college commits itself to the highest standards of teaching and research in undergraduate, graduate and professional programs and to the…

Education
7
The Trustees of Grinnell College

To educate students in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.when grinnell college framed its charter in the iowa territory of the united states in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for…

Education
8
President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education
9
Whittier College

Whittier College is a residential four-year liberal arts institution that prepares students from diverse backgrounds to excel in a complex global society. Through challenging, interactive courses, taught by accomplished professors,…

Education
10
Trustees of Boston University

Organization's mission: boston university is an international, comprehensive, private research university, committed to educating students to be reflective, resourceful individuals ready to live, adapt, and lead in an interconnected world.…

—
11
Endicott College

Endicott college offers students a vibrant academic environment that remains true to its founding principle of integrating professional and liberal arts with experiential learning. for more information see schedule o.

Education
12
Lewis & Clark College

Lewis & clark is a premier private higher education institution offering an exceptional education in an inclusive environment. by fostering critical thinking, innovation, creativity, civic engagement, and leadership, both inside and…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Trustees of Tufts College; the most unlike its peers is President and Trustees of Bates College. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

10 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. 10 of the 15 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
9/10
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

THE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $384,698 · EducationTHE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGESUniversity of Chicago: $16,248 · Education+7 more: $65,835 · Education+7 moreIndividual grant recipient: $67,346 · OtherIndividual grant rec…UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT: $13,662 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF VERMON…NORTHERN VERMONT UNIVERSITY AT JOHNSON: $10,180 · OtherNORTHERN VERMONT UNI…BRATTLEBORO UNION H S: $10,000 · OtherBRATTLEBORO UNION H …COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF VERMONT - MONTPELIER: $5,090 · OtherBROWN UNIVERSITY: $10,736 · Community Improvement
Education$466,781Other$106,278Community Improvement$10,736

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetTHE OHIO FOUNDATION OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES: $384,698 over 6y, 1.8% of budgetUniversity of Chicago: $16,248 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetSPRINGFIELD COLLEGE: $15,270 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Dartmouth College: $10,832 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE TRUSTEES OF THE SMITH COLLEGE: $10,736 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetBROWN UNIVERSITY: $10,736 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTRUSTEES OF CLARK UNIVERSITY: $10,720 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetThe George Washington University: $10,260 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTrustees of Tufts College: $5,075 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF BATES COLLEGE: $2,942 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Samuel N Bemis Scholarship Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Samuel N Bemis Scholarship Fund. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from government →median 2%
  • Trustees of Tufts College: 11% of income from government
  • Trustees of Clark University: 2% of income from government
  • The Trustees of the Smith College: 0% of income from government
  • Springfield College: 0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

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 15 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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