· Private foundation
W D & Shirley Schafer-Ray Educational Trust
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k14 grants · $33k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $152k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $128k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Southwestern Community College | $128,200 |
| Iowa State University | $47,500 |
| University of Memphis | $31,300 |
| Northwest Missouri State University | $21,000 |
| University of Northern Iowa | $16,000 |
| University of Iowa | $15,000 |
| Central College | $11,000 |
| Arkansas State University | $10,000 |
| Simpson College | $4,000 |
| South Dakota State University | $4,000 |
| Columbia College | $3,000 |
| The University of Texas at Dallas | $3,000 |
| University of Kansas | $3,000 |
| Drake University | $3,000 |
| Allen College | $3,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY22–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 91% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
Which US states your grants reach
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +12% since the first grant, against +8% for the ones you funded once.
14 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2025, 1 since wound down; 9 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, 89% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $33k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
DRAKE UNIVERSITY3× · 2022–2025 · $18k · revenue +1%- SCSimpson College3× · 2022–2025 · $17k · revenue +28%
Buena Vista University2× · 2022–2024 · $11k · revenue +12%
Funded once
SALVE REGINA UNIVERSITYone grant, 2022 · $10k · revenue +12%- UOUniversity of Nebraska - Lincolnone grant, 2022 · $9k
- OSOklahoma State Universityone grant, 2022 · $9k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The University of New Haven is a student-centered comprehensive university with an emphasis on excellence in liberal arts and professional education. Our mission is to prepare our students to lead purposeful and fulfilling lives in a…
Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…
Union college is a seventh-day adventist community of higher education, inspired by jesus christ, and dedicated to empowering students to learn, serve, and lead.
Greenville college d/b/a greenville university empowers students for lives of character and service through a transforming christ-centered education in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional studies.
Columbia college improves lives by providing quality education to both traditional and nontraditional students, helping them achieve their true potential.
Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…
Trinity university is an independent co-educational university whose mission is excellence in the interrelated areas of teaching, research and services.
Provides innovative education in a dynamic urban setting. dedicated to academic excellence and community engagement,we prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skill,and experience to lead meaningful lives as informed…
The university's goal in the coming decade is to advance learning through the integration of teaching, research and service to others. the core of this goal is to prepare graduates to engage with the world and lead lives of meaning. to do…
The university of rio grande/ rio grande community college is america's unique private/public institution of higher education designed to provide learners the opportunity to attain a high-quality, high-value education. our personalized,…
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Benedictine University is an inclusive academic community dedicated to teaching and learning, scholarship and service, truth and justice, as inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition, the social teaching of the Church, and the…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is William Jewell College and the most unlike its peers is Central College. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 13 of the 40 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds DRAKE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Simpson College ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Buena Vista University ↗
- Who funds SALVE REGINA UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds GRACELAND UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds MORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds William Jewell College ↗
- Who funds Creighton University ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ↗
- Who funds ALLEN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds MERCY COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Bestenlehner D and F Educational Tr · Dean J King Family Foundation · Ottumwa Regional Legacy Foundation Inc · Snyder-Vaughn Trust Funds · Gwendolyn and Lucian L Hinecker Scholarship Trust · Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund · Fahrney Education Fdtn Trust · Roy J Carver Charitable Trust · United Way Worldwide · Meyerhoff Charitable Trust · Moore Scholarship Trust · Marguerite V Brown
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization W D & Shirley Schafer-Ray Educational Trust funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.