How much does The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation give?

The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation reported 71 grants totaling $2,015,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 50 and 66 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (17%), Health (17%), Human Services (16%).

Who are The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: University of Mary ($783k), Bismarck Cancer Center Foundation ($550k), Gateway to Science Center Inc ($530k).

Does The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 15% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

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

Which funders back the same organizations as The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include North Dakota Community Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Caring Foundation, Midcontinent Foundation.

Where is The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation based?

The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation is based in ND.

The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation

The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$2.0M

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$250k

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$2.2MHealth$2.1MHuman Services$2.0MArts & Culture$1.7MFood & Nutrition$1.1MYouth Development$819kScience & Tech$540kHousing & Shelter$494kOther$0

02FY2025 · 71 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k16 grants · $96k
$10k–50k42 grants · $665k
$50k–250k11 grants · $755k
$250k+2 grants · $500k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$25M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
MOUNTRAIL COUNTY MEDICAL CNTR INC	$250,000
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES	$250,000
BISMARCK STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION	$150,000
CENTRAL DAKOTA HUMANE SOCIETY	$120,000
HOPE MANOR FOUNDATION	$75,000
WILLISTON STATE COLLEGE FOUNDATION	$60,000
BISMARCK CANCER CENTER FOUNDATION	$50,000
UNIVERSITY OF JAMESTOWN	$50,000
WESTERN ND HONOR FLIGHT	$50,000
THEODORE ROOSEVELT MEDORA FDN	$50,000
GREAT PLAINS FOOD BANK	$50,000
STATE HISTORICAL SOC OF ND FDN	$50,000
UNIVERITY OF MARY	$50,000
MISSOURI SLOPE AREAWIDE UNITED WAY	$40,000
318 PROJECT	$40,000

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 (FY18–25, $695k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 13% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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.

93%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$12M · 112 repeat orgs$875k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against -6% for those funded once.

112 repeat relationships: 53 still active in FY2025, 59 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

112

Total granted

$12M

$393k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%

-6%

Still filing today

54%

38%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $482k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationHealthYouth DevelopmentFood & NutritionOther

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

UO
University of Mary
9× · 2017–2025 · $783k · revenue +61%
BC
BISMARCK CANCER CENTER FOUNDATION
4× · 2021–2025 · $550k · revenue +1%
GT
GATEWAY TO SCIENCE CENTER INC
7× · 2017–2023 · $530k · revenue +170%

Funded once

CS
CHI ST ALEXIUS HEALTH FOUNDATION
one grant, 2018 · $75k
BC
BISMARCK-MANDAN CHAMBER FDN-BELLE M
one grant, 2019 · $40k
OP
O P E R A INCgraduated
one grant, 2024 · $25k · revenue +133%

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.

North Dakota Natural Resources Trust

—

Catholic Charities North Dakota

Guided by our values, Catholic Charities North Dakota serves people in need and advocates for the common good of all.

—

Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce

The dickinson area chamber of commerce will provide leadership to promote a progressive business environment.

—

Nd Association of Counties

NDACo provides leadership and services to foster effective and efficient government for the good of all counties.

—

Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce

The greater north dakota chamber of commerce works on behalf of our members to advocate for a positive business climate.

—

Credit Union Association of the Dakotas

The association works to promote member credit unions as being safe and sound institutions for insured deposits, responsible lending, and the best place for consumers to receive financial services.

—

North Dakota News Cooperative

Arts & Culture

Odd Fellows and Rebekah Home of North Dakota Inc

It is the mission of the Odd Fellows Home to be a "Place Where Somebody Cares." This has been the motto off Odd Fellows Home since the 1925 dedication. The Odd Fellows Home's mission is to provide a comfortable and pleasant atmosphere as…

Housing & Shelter

Dream Center Bismarck

Our mission is to connect people to a community of support by offering free resources and services that address immediate and long-term needs. Partner agencies and the Dream Center will work in many different areas including nutrition,…

Human Services

Family Wellness Bismarck-Mandan Llc

Committed to improving the wellness of families.

Human Services

Southeastern North Dakota Community Action Agency

Southeastern north dakota community action agency (sendcaa) was formed in 1965 to provide a range of services and activities in a six county area designed to alleviate poverty and give low-income people the opportunity to improve their…

Human Services

Friends of the Middle Border

Museum/educational center

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Make-a-Wish Foundation of North Dakota; the most unlike its peers is Hope Manor Foundation Inc. 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

80 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. 80 of the 153 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)

78/80

Grantees still filing

51/80

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$6,433,300Education$1,880,000Arts & Culture$1,396,200Health$1,283,500Human Services$935,000Food & Nutrition$470,000Philanthropy$439,000

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.

North Dakota Community FoundationND80.1× affinity39 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: North Dakota Community Foundation · Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Caring Foundation · Midcontinent Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Sanford Group Return · Paris Family Foundation · Missouri Slope Areawide United Way · Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation Corporation · Impact Foundation · Otter Tail Power Company Foundation · Bnsf Railway Foundation · Alex Stern Family 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 Tom and Frances Leach Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Tom and Frances Leach Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

29report 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 Tom and Frances Leach Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Tom and Frances Leach 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 Tom and Frances Leach’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