Scholarship America Inc
Minneapolis, MN · EIN 23-7039405. Reported 67 grants totalling $4,783,991 to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Scholarship America Inc, the IRS classifies it under education rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE B820) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 16% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 59% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $28,030. Half of what it reported fell between $15,223 and $52,515; the smallest was $5,503 and the largest $713,110. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochester Area Community Foundation | Rochester, NY | $773,110 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines | Des Moines, IA | $600,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Nevis Pam Lindow Scholarship Foundation | Nevis, MN | $551,906 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| The Rhode Island Community Foundation | Providence, RI | $485,309 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| North Dakota Community Foundation | Bismarck, ND | $280,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| York County Community Foundation | York, PA | $223,400 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of Elkhart County Inc | Elkhart, IN | $220,016 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| The Putnam County Community Foundation Inc | Greencastle, IN | $206,336 | 6 | 4 | 2024 |
| New Hampshire Charitable Foundation | Concord, NH | $181,747 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Johnsburg Dollars for Scholars | North Creek, NY | $143,672 | 2 | 1 | 2022 |
| Omaha Community Foundation | Omaha, NE | $120,718 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Pella Community Foundation | Pella, IA | $119,451 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Innovia Foundation | Spokane, WA | $114,700 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of South Puget Sound | Olympia, WA | $100,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Northwest Minnesota Foundation | Bemidji, MN | $90,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties Inc | Utica, NY | $73,723 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Scholarship America Inc | Tucson, AZ | $66,360 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Sea Mar Community Health Centers | Seattle, WA | $50,580 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ada-Borup-West Isd 2910 | Ada, MN | $45,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Ada Scholarship Foundation Inc | Ada, MN | $44,702 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Dearborn Community Foundation Inc | Lawrenceburg, IN | $40,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque | Dubuque, IA | $37,030 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Washington County Community Foundation Inc | Salem, IN | $36,597 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Regional School Unit 50 Southern Aroostook Scholarship Fund | Dyer Brook, ME | $33,705 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Town of Burlington Scholarship Fund | Burlington, MA | $27,983 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Blackduck Independent School | Blackduck, MN | $27,552 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Fargo Public Schools Development Foundation | Fargo, ND | $24,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| White Hall Enrichment Advancement Team | Hayneville, AL | $17,607 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing | Minneapolis, MN | $17,356 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| East Irondequoit Central School District | Rochester, NY | $15,886 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa | Cedar Falls, IA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| South Central Iowa Community Foundation | Chariton, IA | $5,545 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
14 of 32 (44%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Rochester Area Community Foundation
INVESTMENT TO FUND FUTURE SCHOLARSHIPS - North Dakota Community Foundation
DISTRIBUTION OF NET ASSETS
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 24 of 32 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 19 | $2,667,259 | $42,900 |
| 2022 | 13 | $469,509 | $23,800 |
| 2023 | 18 | $966,683 | $27,766 |
| 2024 | 17 | $680,540 | $28,500 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
21% of its giving went to organizations in New York. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
Down to the city
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available 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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $28,030 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in New York.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Related guides
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Scholarship America Inc's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 17 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: 7900 International Drive 500, Minneapolis, MN, 55425.
EIN 23-7039405 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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