How much does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee give?

The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee reported 18 grants totaling $250,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 22 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.

Who are The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Railroading Heritage of Midwest America Inc ($66k), Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Development Corporation ($65k), Friends of Sp4449 Inc ($47k).

Does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 39% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Candelaria Fund, Bnsf Railway Foundation, The Rebensdorf Family Foundation.

Foundation Dossiers

Kansas · Private foundation

The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$250k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 18
Grants FY2025: 18
Organizations funded FY2024: 39%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $15,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $27,000
Organizations funded a year: 18 to 22; FY2021 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 12
Total assets, FY2025: $6.6M
Applications: Takes unsolicited applications; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 39% of the organizations The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee funded were first-time grantees, receiving 37% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 63% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $92k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & 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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	18	$250k	44%
FY2024	18	$250k	39%
FY2023	19	$250k	53%
FY2022	22	$350k	82%
FY2021	22	$325k	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Arts & Culture$1.3MPublic Benefit$65kHuman Services$28kEnvironment$22kRecreation & Sports$22kEmployment$15k

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2021 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Railroading Heritage of Midwest America Inc	$66,000	3	0%
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Development Corporation	$65,000	2	2%
Friends of Sp4449 Inc	$47,000	3	52%
United Railroad Historical Society of NJ Inc	$44,500	3	2%
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society Inc	$40,000	3	1%
Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad Association	$40,000	3	4%
Midwest Railway Preservation Society Inc	$40,000	3	5%
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Inc	$40,000	2	0%
Pacific Railroad Preservation Association Incorporated	$39,500	2	45%
Illinois Railway Museum Inc	$36,000	3	1%

Show all 54 grantees

All grantees of The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Railroading Heritage of Midwest America Inc	$66,000	3	0%
Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Development Corporation	$65,000	2	2%
Friends of Sp4449 Inc	$47,000	3	52%
United Railroad Historical Society of NJ Inc	$44,500	3	2%
Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society Inc	$40,000	3	1%
Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad Association	$40,000	3	4%
Midwest Railway Preservation Society Inc	$40,000	3	5%
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Inc	$40,000	2	0%
Pacific Railroad Preservation Association Incorporated	$39,500	2	45%
Illinois Railway Museum Inc	$36,000	3	1%
Engine 557 Restoration Company	$36,000	1	27%
Kentucky Railway Museum Inc	$35,000	2	2%
Railroad Museum of New England Inc	$33,500	2	11%
Pacific Locomotive Association Inc Niles Canyon Railway	$31,000	1	2%
Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust	$30,000	2	0%
Lake Superior Railroad Musuem	$30,000	2	1%
Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation	$29,000	3	0%
Friends of Ga State Parks & Histori	$27,500	2	1%
San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society Inc	$25,000	2	21%
Mid-Continent Railway Historical Society Inc	$25,000	2	2%
Railway Restoration Project 113	$25,000	1	n/a
Black River Railroad Historical Trust Inc	$23,000	2	3%
Austin Steam Train Association	$21,000	2	1%
Gulf Coast Chapter National Railway Historical Society Inc	$21,000	1	n/a
Watauga Valley Railroad Historical Society & Museum	$20,000	2	4%
Iron Mountain Railway	$17,100	2	8%
Michigan State Trust for Railway Pr	$16,000	2	1%
Ebt Foundation Inc	$15,500	1	1%
Cuyahoga Valley Preservation and Scenic Railway Association	$15,000	1	0%
Nickel Plate Heritage Railroad Inc	$15,000	1	1%
The Iron Horse Society at Steamtown Inc	$15,000	1	n/a
Sumpter Valley Railroad Restoration Inc	$15,000	1	7%
Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation	$15,000	1	5%
Tri-State Railway Historical Soc Inc	$15,000	1	n/a
Pacific Railroad Society	$15,000	1	40%
Roanoke Chapt Natl RR Hist Society	$15,000	1	10%
Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad	$12,000	1	5%
Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum Inc	$12,000	1	2%
Danbury Railway Museum Inc	$12,000	1	4%
Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum	$11,500	1	6%
East Troy Railroad Museum Inc	$11,000	2	2%
Railroaders Heritage Corporation	$11,000	1	1%
B&O Railroad Museum Inc	$10,000	1	0%
Fox River Trolley Association Inc	$10,000	1	n/a
Southern Michigan Railroad Society Inc	$10,000	1	13%
Adirondack Railway Preservation Society Inc	$10,000	1	0%
New Mexico Steam Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society	$10,000	1	3%
Downeast Rail Heritage Preservation Trust Inc	$9,000	1	4%
National Railway Historical Society Washington D	$8,800	1	3%
National Railroad Museum Inc	$8,500	1	0%
Northwest Railway Museum	$7,500	1	n/a
Branford Electric Railway Assoc Inc	$6,000	1	1%
New York Museum of Transportation	$5,000	1	6%
Smoky Hill Railway & Historical	$1,000	1	1%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 11 recipients with no EIN on record ($221k), not named here.

The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 4 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 48 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 48.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

The Candelaria FundCA17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Candelaria Fund · Bnsf Railway Foundation · The Rebensdorf Family Foundation · Tom E Dailey Foundation Inc · Xcel Energy Foundation · Union Pacific Foundation · Ibm International Foundation · Ge Aerospace Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust

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.

Compare The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee with peer funders

About The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee

How much does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee give?: The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee reported 18 grants totaling $250,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 22 organizations a year over FY2021 to FY2024.
What does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee fund?: By grant dollars over FY2021 to FY2025, its largest causes are Arts & Culture (89%), Public Benefit (5%), Human Services (2%).
Who are The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2021 to FY2025: Railroading Heritage of Midwest America Inc ($66k), Western Maryland Scenic Railroad Development Corporation ($65k), Friends of Sp4449 Inc ($47k).
Does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 39% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee accept unsolicited applications?: Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Candelaria Fund, Bnsf Railway Foundation, The Rebensdorf Family Foundation.
Where is The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee based?: The Rail Heritage Trust First Option Bank Trustee is based in KS.