Eagle Foundation

The Eagle Foundation (EIN 47-0773892) is a private family foundation controlled by James W. Cabela — co-founder of Cabela's Inc., the outdoor retail giant acquired by Bass Pro Shops in 2017 — and operated out of Omaha, Nebraska. With nearly $991 million in assets as of FY2024 and $41.3 million in annual grants, it ranks among the largest private foundations in Nebraska and is growing rapidly. The single most important fact for prospective applicants: this foundation only makes grants to preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds. This policy is explicitly stated in its IRS filings and confirmed by third-party nonprofit databases.

The foundation's giving philosophy is rooted in Catholic social teaching. Every one of its top-10 grantees — Partners in Health, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, the Arrupe Scholars Program, Root Capital, Mercy Corps, Heifer International, GiveDirectly — reflects a coherent worldview: human dignity, poverty alleviation, access to healthcare and clean water, and global solidarity. The Cabela family's Catholic faith is not incidental; it is the organizing principle of the entire portfolio. Organizations that can speak authentically to this value system — even if not explicitly religious — have a meaningful advantage.

Relationships are built over years, not months. The grantee list shows repeated awards to the same organizations across multiple fiscal years. Partners in Health has received 6 grants; Catholic Relief Services, 5 grants; Living Goods and Root Capital, 4 grants each. The foundation rewards demonstrated impact and long-term organizational trust, not novelty. Any organization hoping to enter this funder's orbit should focus on cultivating relationships with Omaha's Catholic philanthropic community, Jesuit institutions (particularly Creighton University), and existing grantees who may offer warm introductions. Program staff Ronald Noecker and Christopher Munson are the operational contacts most likely to be accessible at sector convenings.

Note on website data: The database entry links to http://www.bluemteaglefdn.org — the Blue Mountain Eagle Foundation, a separate and entirely unrelated Pennsylvania school-district foundation. That website and its application portal do not belong to this EIN or the Cabela-family foundation.

The Eagle Foundation's grant data tells a story of disciplined concentration rather than broad distribution. Across 259 recorded grants totaling $145.5 million, the average grant size is $561,919 — but that figure is pulled up by a handful of transformative awards. The typical grant (median) is $200,000, with a floor around $5,000 for smaller Catholic diocesan or scholarship awards and a ceiling of $5,000,000 for flagship multi-year partnerships.

By program area: International humanitarian aid dominates, accounting for roughly 55-60% of total dollars. The top two grantees alone — Partners in Health ($15.25M) and Catholic Relief Services ($12.45M) — represent nearly 19% of all recorded grant dollars. Global development (World Vision, Mercy Corps, Heifer International, GiveDirectly, Root Capital) accounts for another 25%. Catholic/Jesuit education (Arrupe Scholars, Creighton University, Diocese of Grand Island, Catholic Bishop of Lincoln) comprises approximately 15%. Medical/humanitarian emergencies (Doctors Without Borders, CURE International, International Rescue Committee) account for around 5%.

By geography: Nebraska dominates with 91 of 259 grants (35%), reflecting the foundation's local roots and Catholic diocesan relationships. California (23 grants), Minnesota (14), Maryland (13), Massachusetts/New York/Washington (12 each), Colorado (11), Illinois (9), and Texas (8) reflect the headquarters locations of major national nonprofits in the portfolio.

Giving trajectory: Grants paid grew from $4.5M (2015) → $8.8M (2019) → $11.6M (2020) → $24.8M (2021) → $33.4M (2022) → $37.4M (2023) → $41.3M (2024). This acceleration correlates with a massive influx of family contributions: $136M received in 2019, $184M in 2022, $152M in 2023, and $364M in 2024. The foundation is clearly in an active capital deployment phase and has capacity to expand its grantmaking further.

FOSTER Grants: A subset of grants carry the label 'Undesignated FOSTER Grant' (e.g., World Vision FOSTER Grant: $1.5M; Catholic Relief Services FOSTER Grant: $1.5M; Partners in Health FOSTER Grant: $1.25M; Mercy Corps FOSTER Grant: $1M). These may represent a structured matching program or donor-advised component that operates parallel to core discretionary grantmaking.

The Eagle Foundation's $991M asset base and $41.3M annual giving position it among Nebraska's top five private foundations. Below is a comparison to representative peers across Nebraska family philanthropy and the Catholic international development funding landscape:

The Eagle Foundation's rapid asset growth (from $229M in 2019 to $991M in 2024) is exceptional even by family foundation standards. Unlike the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation — the closest programmatic analog given its Catholic international development focus — Eagle does not operate an open grant program or accept LOIs. Hilton is the more accessible pathway for organizations in the global health and Catholic development space that need a public application process. Among Nebraska peers, the Peter Kiewit Foundation and Lozier Foundation are more accessible to new applicants through invited grant processes, though both are smaller in scope. Eagle's combination of near-billion-dollar assets and zero public access makes it an outlier: enormous capacity, zero open door.

The single most notable recent development is the foundation's near-quadrupling of assets in five years, from $229 million (FY2019) to $991 million (FY2024). The primary driver is extraordinary contributions from family members: $364 million in new contributions were received in FY2024 alone — an amount larger than the entire endowment just four years earlier. This likely reflects continued liquidity from the 2017 Cabela's Inc. acquisition by Bass Pro Shops, estimated at $5.5 billion for the company, as family members deploy proceeds into philanthropic vehicles.

Annual grantmaking has kept pace: $41.3 million in FY2024, up from $11.6 million in FY2020. The foundation paid out more in grants in FY2024 than its entire asset base in FY2015 ($76.8 million). This trajectory, if sustained, could see annual giving reach $60-80 million by 2026-2027.

Recent large individual grants (FY2024 per CauseIQ) include Root Capital at $1.5 million, International Rescue Committee at $1 million, and Cross Catholic Outreach at $1 million. The FOSTER Grant program continued to channel undesignated funds to core partners. No major leadership changes have been publicly reported; James W. Cabela remains President/Treasurer, and the board of three directors has been stable. No public announcements of new program initiatives, RFPs, or strategic pivots have been identified through current web research.

The direct path is closed: this foundation does not accept unsolicited applications. This is stated explicitly in IRS disclosures and confirmed by grant database records. There is no online portal, no LOI process, no open RFP. Submitting an unsolicited proposal will not result in a grant and may harm future prospects.

For organizations already in the foundation's portfolio, the data signals how to maintain and deepen relationships:

• Demonstrate Catholic values alignment explicitly. The top grantees — Partners in Health, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Creighton University — all speak the language of Catholic social teaching: human dignity, the preferential option for the poor, solidarity, subsidiarity. Use this language naturally in reports and communications, not as a veneer.

• Report on program-level impact, not just outputs. Root Capital ($6M across 4 grants) and Living Goods ($2M across 4 grants) have received sustained multi-grant support — suggesting the foundation rewards organizations that can show systems-level change in smallholder agricultural finance or community health worker models.

• Maintain Nebraska visibility. Even global organizations benefit from maintaining a Nebraska presence: participating in Omaha-area philanthropic convenings, hosting site visits with Creighton University partnerships, and engaging the Diocese of Grand Island or Diocese of Lincoln signals alignment with the foundation's local Catholic community roots.

• Engage Creighton University as an intermediary. The Arrupe program ($18M+ across Creighton/Arrupe grants) is the single largest education investment. Organizations with student engagement opportunities, internship pipelines, or Jesuit institutional partnerships gain credibility in this network.

• For organizations not currently funded but seeking entry: the most realistic path is a warm introduction through an existing grantee (Partners in Health, Catholic Relief Services, Root Capital leadership), attendance at Catholic international development convenings where program staff may be present, or connection through Bridges Trust, the Omaha wealth management firm listed as the foundation's contact address.