· Private foundation
Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund
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 $10k16 grants · $74k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $144k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $142k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| IOWA LAKES COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $78,116 |
| IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY | $64,316 |
| UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA | $33,904 |
| UNIVERSITY OF IOWA | $28,468 |
| DES MOINES AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $24,660 |
| IOWA CENTRAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $24,144 |
| PALMER COLLEGE OF CHIROPRACTIC | $11,516 |
| COE COLLEGE | $10,936 |
| IOWA WESTERN COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $10,098 |
| NORTH IOWA AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $7,896 |
| GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY | $6,988 |
| NORTHWEST IOWA COMMUNITY COLLEGE | $6,666 |
| GRINNELL COLLEGE | $5,758 |
| BRIAR CLIFF UNIVERSITY | $5,758 |
| LUTHER COLLEGE | $5,758 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 93% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
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 +11% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.
19 repeat relationships: 16 still active in FY2025, 3 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, 86% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $49k went to new ones.
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- LCLUTHER COLLEGE3× · 2023–2025 · $30k · revenue +7%
- PCPALMER COLLEGE FOUNDATION2× · 2024–2025 · $23k · revenue +14%
- NCNORTHWESTERN COLLEGE2× · 2024–2025 · $8k · revenue +11%
Funded once
- UIUPPER IOWA UNIVERSITYone grant, 2023 · $6k · revenue -9%
- MUMORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITYone grant, 2024 · $6k · revenue +8%
- BVBUENA VISTAone grant, 2024 · $5k
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.
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…
The mission of the university is to educate leaders for a global society who are strong in character and judgment, confident in their identity and vocation, and committed to service and justice.
Inspired by lutheran scholarly tradition and the liberal arts, augustana provides an education of enduring worth that challenges the intellect, fosters integrity and integrates faith with learning and service in a diverse world.
Through innovative learning opportunities, individual student attention, and an unwavering commitment to inclusive educational access, simpson college cultivates a diverse community of learners to lead lives of meaning and purpose.
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.
As an institution of higher education committed to the reformed christian perspective, dordt university equips students, alumni, and the broader community to work effectively toward christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary…
Augsburg university educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.the augsburg experience is supported by an engaged community that is committed to intentional diversity in its…
See schedule o.we are inspired by the ideals of our founder who, in 1896, emphasized respect for all people and ideas, who honored knowledge with practice, progress and the common good. our historical commitment to experiential learning…
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…
To educate students in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.when grinnell college framed its charter in the iowa territory of the united states in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for…
We are a Catholic, co-educational, liberal arts university founded in 1843 by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dubuque, Iowa. Clarke educates students at the post-secondary level in the liberal arts and sciences, the…
As a diverse community of learners, we cultivate integrity, curiosity, connection and resilience.
How this is measured
11 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. 11 of the 33 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 LUTHER COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds PALMER COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds COE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds NORTHWESTERN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds UPPER IOWA UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds BRIAR CLIFF UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds DRAKE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Buena Vista University ↗
- Who funds MORNINGSIDE UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds ALLEN COLLEGE ↗
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: 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
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational Fund. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Willard E and Ella P Thompson Educational’s filings →