How much does The Growmark Foundation give?

The Growmark Foundation reported 188 grants totaling $854,906 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 150 and 177 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2023.

What does The Growmark Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (47%), Food & Nutrition (41%), Human Services (3%).

Who are The Growmark Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2024: Midwest Food Bank Nfp ($268k), University of Illinois Foundation ($216k), Iowa State University Foundation ($142k).

Does The Growmark Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 57% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Growmark Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Growmark Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Illinois Prairie Community Foundation Inc, Parker Kemp Foundation, Commerce Bancshares Foundation.

Where is The Growmark Foundation based?

The Growmark Foundation is based in IL.

The Growmark Foundation

The Growmark Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Growmark Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$855k

Granted FY2024still arriving

188

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$109k

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, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$2.8MFood & Nutrition$2.4MHuman Services$173kEnvironment$112kYouth Development$89kPhilanthropy$66kPublic Safety & Disaster$56kArts & Culture$54kOther$0

02FY2024 · 188 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k168 grants · $282k
$10k–50k15 grants · $252k
$50k–250k5 grants · $322k

$2,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.2M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
HEARTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE	$108,650
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION	$57,500
AGRICULTURE FUTURE OF AMERICA	$55,000
MIDWEST FOOD BANK	$50,400
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOUNDATION	$50,000
WISCONSIN FARM BUREAU FOUNDATION	$35,000
IOWA AGRICULTURE LITERACY FOUNDATIO	$29,500
Global Farmer Network	$25,000
Illinois Ag Leadership Foundation	$21,500
Progressive Agriculture Foundation	$20,000
ILLINOIS FOUNDATION FFA	$16,920
Necas	$13,000
Illinois 4H Foundation	$13,000
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION	$12,773
University Of Illinois	$12,000

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $292k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

85%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$4.9M · 160 repeat orgs$838k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +34% since the first grant, against +11% for those funded once.

160 repeat relationships: 82 still active in FY2024, 78 since wound down; 94 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

160

236

Total granted

$4.9M

$676k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+34%

+11%

Still filing today

49%

36%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 81% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $162k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHealthHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentFood & NutritionArts & CultureOther

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

MF
MIDWEST FOOD BANK NFP
5× · 2020–2024 · $268k · revenue +38%
University of Illinois Foundation
3× · 2020–2024 · $216k · revenue +74%
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION
5× · 2020–2024 · $142k · revenue +49%

Funded once

AF
AGRICULTURE FUTURE OF AMERICA
one grant, 2023 · $110k
IA
ILLINOIS AGRICULTURAL ASSOC TREASU
one grant, 2023 · $60k
AF
AGRICULTURE FURTURE OF AMERICA
one grant, 2020 · $50k

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.

Iowa College Foundation

The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.

—

University of Iowa Facilities Corporation

The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.

—

Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association

To assist and represent the crop production supply and service industry and promote the sound stewardship and utilization of agricultural inputs.

—

Missouri Western State University Foundation Inc

The missouri western state university foundation is a not-for-profit charitable organization that functions solely to support the mission of missouri western state university, as stated in the university's mission statement. the foundation…

—

Michigan Farm Bureau

Michigan farm bureau (mfb) is a member directed agricultural organization whose purpose is to represent, protect, and enhance the business, economic, social, and educational interests of our members located throughout the state of michigan.

—

Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation

To develop knowledgeable and effective leaders to become policy and decision makers for the agricultural industry.

Public Benefit

State University of Iowa Alumni Association

Our mission is to strengthen the university of iowa through alumni engagement. we do this through our communications, alumni programs, and events.

—

Missouri Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture

To assist in providing agricultural related education to all persons and developing agricultural leaders for the future.

Youth Development

State University of Iowa Foundation

The university of iowa center for advancement's mission is to advance the university of iowa through engagement and philanthropy. we serve our alumni and friends in the state and the region, throughout the country, and around the world. we…

Education

Midwest Dairy Association

Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.

—

The Northern Michigan University Foundation

The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.

Education

National Farmers Union Foundation

The national farmers union foundation's (nfuf) mission is to empower people to educate our youth, neighbors, media and policymakers on the social, economic and cooperative contributions of family agriculture.

Food & Nutrition

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Iowa Ffa Foundation Inc; the most unlike its peers is Jersey County Historical Society. 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

206 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 206 of the 495 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

200/206

Grantees still filing

135/206

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$4,215,800Education$614,782Human Services$377,600Youth Development$227,000Food & Nutrition$161,000Environment$95,050Community Improvement$57,000

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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 tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Illinois Prairie Community Foundation IncIL41× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Illinois Prairie Community Foundation Inc · Parker Kemp Foundation · Commerce Bancshares Foundation · Snyder Family Foundation Nfp · Land O'Lakes Foundation · Pella Rolscreen Foundation · Reardon Family Foundation · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Chs Foundation · Jx Gives Back Family Foundation Inc · United Way of McLean County · Otto Baum Company Inc Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

40report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 The Growmark Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Growmark 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.

Play a game based on Growmark’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