· Private foundation
Tomson Family Foundation Trust
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k53 grants · $152k
- $10k–50k17 grants · $274k
- $50k–250k9 grants · $540k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST OLAF COLLEGE | $125,000 |
| VESTERHEIM NORWEIGAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM | $65,000 |
| MASON CITY FOUNDATIONMUSIC MAN SQUARE | $50,000 |
| CLEAR LAKE CLASSICAL | $50,000 |
| ELCA WORLD HUNGER | $50,000 |
| MASON CITY YMCA & REHABILITATION CENTER | $50,000 |
| WALDORF LUTHERAN COLLEGE | $50,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICA | $50,000 |
| NORWEGIAN AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $28,500 |
| 43 NORTH IOWA | $26,000 |
| WARTBURG COLLEGE | $25,000 |
| CEDAR SUMMERSTOCK THEATRE | $25,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $25,000 |
| LUTHER SEMINARY | $25,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $101k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 87% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 8% of Tomson Family Foundation Trust’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 78% of the giving stays in IA; by stated purpose, 72%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +25% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.
79 repeat relationships: 63 still active in FY2025, 16 since wound down; 16 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $82k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- UOUNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA FOUNDATION6× · 2020–2025 · $1.6M · revenue +7%
- VNVESTERHEIM NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM6× · 2020–2025 · $350k · revenue +117%
- SOST OLAF COLLEGE6× · 2020–2025 · $300k · revenue +57%
Funded once
- ELEVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN AMERICAone grant, 2020 · $50k
- NBNEW BEGINNINGS HOUSE OF HOPEone grant, 2023 · $16k
- RCRIVER CITY SCULPTURES ON PARADE INgraduatedone grant, 2024 · $15k · revenue +147%
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.
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.
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.
The iowa gold star military museum's mission is to honor and depict the military experience of iowa citizens in all wars, homeland defense and iowa service. the museum's purpose is to collect, preserve and exhibit materials that illustrate…
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…
Our mission is to strengthen the university of iowa through alumni engagement. we do this through our communications, alumni programs, and events.
To facilitate the lifetime connection of alumni, students, and friends with iowa state university and each other.
The objective, powers, and purposes of this association shall be to associate the members thereof together into a society for the purpose of promoting the interests and welfare of iowa cooperatives by any appropriate means but specifically…
To excite, engage and educate through the arts.
The bureau is organized for the purpose of advancing the economic vitality and quality of life for residents and visitors as iowa's premier destination.
The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.
Cornell college offers an innovative and rigorous learning community where faculty and staff collaborate with students to develop the intellectual curiosity, creativity and moral courage necessary for a lifetime of learning and engaged…
To improve member newspapers
How this is measured
63 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. 63 of the 132 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
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.
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VESTERHEIM NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM ↗
- Who funds WARTBURG COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds ST OLAF COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds CLEAR LAKE CLASSICAL INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds THE NAVAL INSTITUTE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds LUTHER COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds NORTH IOWA TRANSITION AND EMPLOYMENT SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds Iowa Specialty Hospital Foundation - Clarion ↗
- Who funds NORTHERN LIGHTS ALLIANCE FOR THE HOMELESS INC ↗
- Who funds CEDAR SUMMERSTOCK THEATRE ↗
- Who funds THE ARTISANS VILLAGE INC ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF NORTH CENTRAL IOWA ↗
- Who funds TLC The Learning Center ↗
- Who funds CEDAR VALLEY SEMINARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LAKE OCONEE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds NEWMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM FOUND ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL 19TH AMENDMENT SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds STEBENS CHILDREN'S THEATRE ↗
- Who funds OCONEE PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN PASSENGER TRAIN HISTORY MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds HAWKEYE HARVEST FOOD BANK ↗
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.
Open a dossier: First Citizens Bank Charitable Foundation · Bertha Stebens Charitable Foundation · Farrer Endowment Foundation · The David & Phyllis Murphy Charitable Foundation · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · United Way of North Central Iowa · John K and Luise V Hanson Foundation · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Beth E Reinhart Charitable Trust · Kinney-Lindstrom Foundation Inc · Land O'Lakes Foundation · Victor M & Phyllis Frudden Meyer Family Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Tomson Family Foundation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Tomson Family Foundation Trust. Bigger dots raise more.
- Wounded Warrior Project Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Tomson Family Foundation Trust?
Find your warmest path to Tomson Family Foundation Trust 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 Tomson Family’s filings →