FundersIowa

Grace Bott Millar Charitable Trust

Keokuk, IA · EIN 42-6374807. Reported 48 grants totalling $250,347 to 30 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.

Yesaccepts unsolicited requests
$5,000median grant
$250,347granted, 2021-2024
30organizations funded
30%of grantees funded again the next year
$1,435,408assets, latest filing

Does this foundation accept applications?

Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Grace Bott Millar Charitable Trust did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.

This is the foundation's own statement to the IRS, not our judgement, and it says nothing about whether they have a form, a deadline, or an appetite for new grantees. Treat it as the reason this foundation is worth your research time, not as an invitation. Many small foundations of this kind have no website and no application process -- a letter of inquiry is the normal first step.

How big are its grants?

The median grant is $5,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $2,952 and $6,600; the smallest was $300 and the largest $20,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.

Under $1,000
8 grants
$1,000 - $5,000
11 grants
$5,000 - $10,000
22 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
7 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Keokuk Union DepotKeokuk, IA$27,000222022
The Grand TheaterKeokuk, IA$22,000422022
Camp Eastman Development AssocWest Burlington, IA$20,000112023
Hoerner YMCAKeokuk, IA$15,000222024
Keokuk Saddle ClubKeokuk, IA$15,000222024
Girl Scouts of Eastern IowaWest Burlington, IA$14,000332023
Lake Cooper FoundationKeokuk, IA$12,500222022
Grand Theater CommissionKeokuk, IA$12,000222024
Keokuk Parks FoundationKeokuk, IA$11,600222022
First Christian ChurchKeokuk, IA$10,000112023
Keokuk Union Depot FoundationKeokuk, IA$10,000112024
Main Street KeokukKeokuk, IA$10,000112024
Keokuk Lion's ClubAmes, IA$9,895112021
Keokuk Garden ClubKeokuk, IA$8,952332024
Grand Theater FoundationKeokuk, IA$8,000112023
American Legion Post 41Keokuk, IA$5,000112021
KaspirKeokuk, IA$5,000112024
Keokuk Hamilton Dam MuseumKeokuk, IA$5,000112023
Keokuk Police DepartmentKeokuk, IA$5,000112024
Kplay Playgrounds for AllKeokuk, IA$5,000112021
Acts 245 ClosetKeokuk, IA$4,000112023
Milestones Area Agency on AgingBurlington, IA$3,500112022
United Way of Great River RegionKeokuk, IA$3,400112024
Rand Park PavilionKeokuk, IA$2,000222022
Rand Park Pavilion CommissionKeokuk, IA$2,000222024
Bott Community CenterWarsaw, IL$1,500332023
Warsaw Elementary SchoolWarsaw, IL$1,500112021
Nation Fire Safety CouncilMontrose, IA$600222024
American LegionKeokuk, IA$500112024
National Fire Safety CouncilMichigan Center, MI$400112022

13 of 30 (43%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.

Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 30%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is less consistent than most. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 18 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.

Arts & Culture
6 grants
Recreation & Sports
5 grants
Human Services
3 grants
Animal Welfare
2 grants
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 grant
Public Safety & Disaster Relief
1 grant

Giving by year

Tax yearGrantsTotalMedian grant
202113$63,395$5,000
202213$68,500$5,000
202310$60,300$5,000
202412$58,152$5,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.

Where its money goes

Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 99% of this one's giving went to organizations in Iowa. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.

Iowa
$247K
Illinois
$3K
Michigan
$400

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Funders that support the same organizations

These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Keokuk Area Community Foundation7 shared recipientsHeartland Charitable Trust3 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund2 shared recipientsBnsf Railway Foundation2 shared recipientsAlliant Energy Foundation Inc2 shared recipients

How to approach this foundation

  1. Check you are its size. The median grant is $5,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
  2. Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in Iowa.
  3. Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
  4. Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Grace Bott Millar Charitable Trust's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: 2119 Main Street Po Box 1030, Keokuk, IA, 52632. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.

EIN 42-6374807 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Foundation returns are published about a year after the tax year ends. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this foundation has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next -- and a much better basis for deciding whether to write to them than a mission statement.

Is something here wrong about your foundation? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.