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Step Foundation at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Step Foundation

Enrich life in nemaha county, kansas by encouraging philanthropy to develop a permanent endowment that will respond to changing needs and serve as a resource for economic, education, health, cultural and recreational opportunities.

$287k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$33k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0197% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Recreation & Sports$335kReligion$119kHealth$68kEnvironment$33kPublic Safety & Disaster$26kFood & Nutrition$25kEducation$13kArts & Culture$12kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 11 grants below total $233,218, the rows itemized in this filing. The $286,726 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $53,508 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k1 grant · $9k
  • $10k–50k10 grants · $224k
$22,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$3.1M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE$33,029
CITY OF CORNING$29,710
SENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS$29,000
CENTRALIA FIRE DEPARTMENT$25,703
ST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL$25,450
USD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL$22,000
CENTRALIA BALL ASSOCIATION$17,455
CITY OF CENTRALIA$16,294
MEALS ON WHEELS NEMAHA CNTY$15,515
NEMAHA VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL$10,000
BEST LIFE COMMUNITY SERVICES$9,062
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 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 1% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 10%USD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL: $22k → 7%SENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: $90k → 9%USD 380 VERMILLION: $5k → 11%ST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $59k → 9%SPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE: $33k → 9%NEMAHA VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: $30k → 9%SENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: $29k → 9%ST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $25k → 9%USD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL: $20k → 9%SPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE: $17k → 9%MEALS ON WHEELS NEMAHA CNTY: $16k → 9%CITY OF SENECA: $15k → 9%SPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE: $13k → 9%CITY OF SENECA: $13k → 9%SENECA GOLF CLUB INC: $10k → 9%NEMAHA VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: $10k → 9%NEMAHA VALLEY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL: $10k → 9%AMERICAN LEGION AUXILLARY: $10k → 9%MEALS ON WHEELS NEMAHA COUNTY: $9k → 9%BEST LIFE COMMUNITY SERVICES: $9k → 9%CITY OF SENECA: $8k → 9%NEMAHA COUNTY TRAINING CENTER: $8k → 9%SENECA BOY SCOUT TROOP 71: $7k → 9%NEMAHA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $7k → 9%SENECA COMMUNITY TV: $5k → 9%CITY OF WETMORE: $6k → 9%SACRED HEART PARISH: $15k → 9%BAILEYVILLE CEMETERY: $10k → 9%B&B BALL ASSOCIATION: $6k → 9%CENTRALIA BALL ASSOCIATION: $28k → 9%CENTRALIA FIRE DEPARTMENT: $26k → 9%CENTRALIA BALL ASSOCIATION: $17k → 9%CITY OF CENTRALIA: $16k → 9%CITY OF CORNING: $30k → 9%CENTRALIA COMMUNITY LIBRARY: $8k → 9%CITY OF CORNING: $8k → 9%CENTRALIA PRIDE ASSOCIATION: $6k → 9%APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN HOME: $10k → 9%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.
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.

65%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$435k · 7 repeat orgs$231k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +100% since the first grant, against +49% for those funded once.

7 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

7
16

Total granted

$435k
$143k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+100%
+49%

Still filing today

14%
19%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 62% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $89k went to new ones.

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

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
HealthRecreation & SportsOther
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

  • SK
    SENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
    2× · 2024–2025 · $119k
  • SP
    ST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL
    2× · 2024–2025 · $84k
  • SC
    SPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE
    3× · 2021–2025 · $63k

Funded once

  • U1
    USD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL
    one grant, 2019 · $20k
  • SH
    SACRED HEART PARISH
    one grant, 2022 · $15k
  • AC
    APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN HOMEgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +49%
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
04the grantee network

5 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. 5 of the 28 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/5
Grantees still filing
4/5
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: $118,561 · OtherSENECA KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUSST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOL: $83,950 · OtherST PETER & PAUL CATHOLIC SCHOOLSPRING CREEK GOLF COURSE: $63,429 · OtherSPRING CREEK GOLF COURSECENTRALIA BALL ASSOCIATION: $45,594 · OtherCENTRALIA BALL ASSOCIATIONCITY OF CORNING: $37,210 · OtherCITY OF CORNINGIndividual grant recipient: $35,692 · OtherIndividual grant recipientCENTRALIA FIRE DEPARTMENT: $25,703 · OtherUSD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL: $22,000 · OtherUSD 115 NEMAHA CENTRAL: $20,000 · Other+16 more: $143,648 · Other+16 moreNemaha Valley Community Hospital: $50,350 · HealthNemaha Val…APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN HOME: $10,000 · HealthAPOSTOLIC …SENECA GOLF CLUB INC: $10,000 · Recreation & Sports
Other$595,787Health$60,350Recreation & Sports$10,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetNemaha Valley Community Hospital: $50,350 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetAPOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN HOME: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetSENECA GOLF CLUB INC: $10,000 over 1y, 2.2% of budgetNEMAHA COUNTY TRAINING CENTER INC: $8,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

  • Who funds Nemaha Valley Community Hospital ↗
  • Who funds APOSTOLIC CHRISTIAN HOME ↗
  • Who funds SENECA GOLF CLUB INC ↗
  • Who funds NEMAHA COUNTY TRAINING CENTER INC ↗
  • Who funds NEMAHA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Step Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Step Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    1report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Step Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Step 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.

    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 28 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 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

    Play a game based on Step’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home