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Iowa · Private foundation

Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$360k
Granted FY2025(still arriving)
25
Grants FY2025
22
Organizations funded FY2024
36%
First-time grantees FY2024
Read the full brief
Median grant, FY2025
$5,758
Largest grant, FY2025
$78,116
Organizations funded a year
16 to 22
FY2023 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025
1
Total assets, FY2025
$7.5M
Applications
Takes unsolicited applications
Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 36% of the organizations Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund funded were first-time grantees, receiving 15% of its grant dollars.

The numbers by year
Fiscal yearOrganizations fundedTo those organizationsFirst-time grantees
FY2025still arriving25$360k36%
FY202422$300k36%
FY202316$292kn/a
100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$1.8MHealth$23k

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2023 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Luther College$29,58930%
Palmer College Foundation$22,51620%
Coe College$10,93610%
Northwestern College$8,21820%
Grand View University$6,98810%
Upper Iowa University$6,41610%
Briar Cliff University$5,75810%
Drake University$5,75810%
Buena Vista University$5,75810%
Morningside University$5,50010%
Show all 12 grantees
All grantees of Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund by total granted
GranteeTotal grantedYearsShare of their budget
Luther College$29,58930%
Palmer College Foundation$22,51620%
Coe College$10,93610%
Northwestern College$8,21820%
Grand View University$6,98810%
Upper Iowa University$6,41610%
Briar Cliff University$5,75810%
Drake University$5,75810%
Buena Vista University$5,75810%
Morningside University$5,50010%
Allen College$5,40220%
Southwestern Community College$4,5641n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 21 recipients with no EIN on record ($834k), not named here.

Where it is load-bearing

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund supplied at peak.

25%50%75%100%$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLuther College: $29,589 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetPalmer College Foundation: $22,516 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCoe College: $10,936 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNorthwestern College: $8,218 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetGrand View University: $6,988 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUpper Iowa University: $6,416 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBriar Cliff University: $5,758 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetDrake University: $5,758 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetBuena Vista University: $5,758 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMorningside University: $5,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAllen College: $5,402 over 2y, 0.0% of budget

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 11.

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.

Bestenlehner D and F Educational TrMO20× affinity7 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Bestenlehner D and F Educational Tr · Fahrney Education Fdtn Trust · W E Ruebush Foundation · Dean J King Family Foundation · Roy J Carver Charitable Trust · Pella Rolscreen Foundation · Mahana-Cong Church Scholar Found · Bernice E Peterson Scholarship Trust · Joseph J Sinek Scholarship Trust · Louis J Elbert Trust · Paul & Mary Collins Trust · W D & Shirley Schafer-Ray Educational 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 Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund with peer funders

About Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund

How much does Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund give?
Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund reported 25 grants totaling $360,014 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 16 and 22 organizations a year over FY2023 to FY2024.
What does Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund fund?
By grant dollars over FY2023 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (99%), Health (1%).
Who are Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund's largest grantees?
By total granted over FY2023 to FY2025: Luther College ($30k), Palmer College Foundation ($23k), Coe College ($11k).
Does Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund fund new organizations?
In FY2024, 36% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund accept unsolicited applications?
Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
Which funders back the same organizations as Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund?
Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Bestenlehner D and F Educational Tr, Fahrney Education Fdtn Trust, W E Ruebush Foundation.
Where is Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund based?
Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund is based in IA.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 33 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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