Jeffers Foundation

Jeffers Foundation is a small, hands-on family foundation (~$12.8M in assets as of FY2023) with a singular focus: fostering environmental stewardship through experiential outdoor education, per the bequest of founder Bob Jeffers, who developed the Prior Lake, Minnesota property the foundation now operates from. Unlike a general-purpose funder, it runs four discrete, clearly bounded grant programs rather than one open fund: the Transportation Grant (up to $2,000 per event), School Garden Grant (up to $2,000), Outdoor Classroom Grant (up to $5,000, matching), and Innovation in Outdoor Education Grant (up to $5,000, matching, for 'out-of-the-box' ideas). This is a forms-driven, program-officer-light funder — there is no LOI-to-full-proposal ladder or site-visit stage for standard requests. Applicants download a program-specific fillable PDF and email it to grants@jeffersfoundation.org, with decisions in 3-4 weeks. Eligibility is tightly restricted to Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) organizations or schools, and funds must tie to a specific project or field trip — never general operating, salaries, or overhead. Two of the four programs require a match, capped at 50% in-kind. Beneath this small-grants layer, historical Form 990 data shows a second, relationship-based track: Minnesota Trout Unlimited received $90,000 across two 'Trout in the Classroom' grants, and the MN Association for Environmental Education received $60,000 across two general-operating grants — both far above the published small-grant caps, suggesting the foundation extends larger, more flexible support to partners with an established multi-year track record. First-time applicants should therefore treat the $2,000-$5,000 programs as the realistic entry point, built around one concrete, measurable outdoor-learning outcome (a single garden, field trip, or classroom build) rather than an ongoing program ask. Given the foundation's own signature metric — nearly 100 schoolyard gardens established to date — proposals that mirror its preference for tangible, replicable projects, framed in its own pedagogical language of hands-on observation and nature journaling, are best positioned to succeed.

Total giving has swung considerably year to year: $434,826 (FY2019), $517,048 (FY2020), a spike to $2,820,752 (FY2021), $791,919 (FY2022), and $500,793 (FY2023) on total assets that have declined slowly from $16.9M (FY2011) to $12.8M (FY2023). The FY2021 spike is driven almost entirely by a $2,000,000 transfer (across three grants) to the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust, a donor-advised fund intermediary — not a direct program grant to an operating nonprofit. Stripping that out, direct 'grants paid' figures are far smaller and inconsistent: $0 in FY2023, $202,500 in FY2022, $1,753,000 in FY2021 (reflecting the DAF transfer), $0 in FY2020, and $51,079 in FY2019 — indicating the foundation does not distribute every year and timing can lag by a full cycle. Among the ten grants tracked in the foundation's top-grantee data (totaling $2,158,000), actual program-level awards to Minnesota environmental-education groups cluster far below the average of $215,800: Minnesota Trout Unlimited received $90,000 across two grants ($45,000 average) for Trout in the Classroom; the MN Association for Environmental Education received $60,000 across two general-operating grants ($30,000 average); New London-Spicer Schools received $5,000 across two school-bus grants ($2,500 average); and Prior Lake School District received a single $3,000 school-bus grant. Seven of the ten tracked grants went to Minnesota recipients and three to Illinois (the Chicago-based DAF trust), confirming that program dollars are overwhelmingly Minnesota-focused despite the DAF outlier. For the standard, unsolicited applicant, the realistic funding range today is defined by the foundation's four published grant caps: $2,000 for Transportation or Garden Grants, and $5,000 (matching) for Outdoor Classroom or Innovation grants — a $2,000-$5,000 band, not a share of the multi-million-dollar totals reported on the 990. Officer compensation ($215,566 in FY2023, up from $154,369 in FY2020) is a meaningful and growing share of total giving in low-distribution years, indicating a lean but non-trivial administrative overhead relative to the size of direct grantmaking.

Jeffers Foundation stands apart from this asset-matched peer set (all clustered near $10.46M and classified under the same generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE code) as the only one with a public website, published program guidelines, named contact staff, and a defined, open application process. The five peers have no listed websites or public grant guidance, which is typical of small, closely-held single-family 990-PF filers that give by personal relationship or board referral rather than open call. For grant seekers without an existing connection to a trustee, Jeffers is meaningfully more accessible than its size peers — it is a rare sub-$15M family foundation running structured, dollar-capped, publicly documented grant programs rather than an invitation-only fund.

The most visible recent development is the 2024 opening of Jeffers Lodge, a dedicated teaching facility in Prior Lake, Minnesota, which now anchors both the foundation's own educator training and its public workshop calendar — four sessions are scheduled for summer 2026: the Outdoor Classroom Institute (July 13-15), Earth Science Outdoors (July 27-29), Preschool Outdoors Summer Workshop (August 7), and Nature Journaling Institute (September 19-20). Leadership has changed hands more than once since the foundation's most recent filed Form 990 (FY2023): Paul Oberg served as CEO/CFO through November 2021, compensation records show Fergus Wooley then stepped into the CEO role, and the foundation's current website lists Kelly Johnson as CEO/CFO — a further transition visible on the site but not yet reflected in public tax filings, alongside Suzanne Fuluvaka (COO/CAO), Mike Fairbourne (Assistant CEO), David Grack (Director of Education), and Galen Erickson (Director of Communications). The foundation's 2026 grant cycle is open now across all four programs (Transportation, School Garden, Outdoor Classroom, Innovation in Outdoor Education), with a rolling review and a December 31, 2026 outer deadline. Its signature long-run output metric — nearly 100 schoolyard gardens established through the Garden Grant program — continues to be the foundation's primary public proof point. No third-party press coverage, major gift announcements, or news-media stories were found for 2025-2026; the foundation does not appear to issue press releases, and its public activity is limited to its own website updates and workshop calendar.

Start with the smallest applicable program: first-time applicants have the best odds with the Transportation Grant ($2,000/event) or School Garden Grant ($2,000), both of which require no matching funds, before attempting the $5,000 Outdoor Classroom or Innovation grants. If you do pursue a matching grant, secure your match (cash or in-kind, capped at 50% in-kind) before submitting — incomplete match plans are a likely rejection point. There is no online portal: download the program-specific fillable PDF from jeffersfoundation.org/jeffers-grants/ and email the completed form to grants@jeffersfoundation.org (or mail to 3884 Fountain Hills Dr NW, Suite A, Prior Lake, MN 55372). Eligibility is strict and binary — Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) organizations and schools only; out-of-state applicants are not considered, consistent with the 7-of-10 Minnesota concentration in the foundation's historical grantee data. Funds must attach to a specific, discrete project or field trip; general operating and staffing/overhead requests will not fit any of the four published programs — the foundation's larger relationship grants (e.g., $60,000 to the MN Association for Environmental Education for general operating) came only after a multi-year partnership, not a first application. Use the foundation's own pedagogical vocabulary in your narrative: 'hands-on,' 'experiential learning,' 'sensory observation,' and 'journaling' all mirror language from its mission statement and its 'Good Sense' educator guide, and signal genuine alignment rather than generic environmental-education framing. Timing: because review is rolling with a 3-4 week decision window, apply as soon as your project or field trip date is set rather than waiting for a formal deadline — but note the current cycle's outer boundary is December 31, 2026. Build familiarity before asking: the foundation runs its own workshops at Jeffers Lodge (Outdoor Classroom Institute, Nature Journaling Institute, Earth Science Outdoors, Preschool Outdoors), which double as a natural, low-pressure way for educators to meet program staff, including Director of Education David Grack, ahead of a funding request. Finally, do not benchmark your ask against the foundation's total reported giving — a large share of that figure in high-giving years reflects a donor-advised-fund transfer (Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust, $2M in FY2021), not funds available to new Minnesota applicants.