Lundborg Foundation

Lundborg Foundation is a small, family-operated private foundation out of Hopkins, MN, run almost entirely by members of the Lundborg family — Michael Lundborg (President, $30,000 compensation), Stephanie Lundborg (Secretary, $13,650), Donna Lundborg (Vice President), Hayden Lundborg (Treasurer), and historically Richard Lundborg (President) — supplemented by a small circle of trusted directors (Randy Kroll, Keith Myrmel, Nancy Mayo, Kathy Wucherpfennig, Scott Meadows, Rodney Jackson). This is not a competitive-application grantmaker: our database flags it as "preselected_only," and independent aggregators (Grantable, Grantmakers.io) confirm the Foundation "only makes contributions to preselected charitable organizations and does not accept unsolicited requests for funds." The Foundation's own site describes no application process at all — only a general contact form. Applicants should treat any generic "submit application online" guidance in third-party databases as unreliable for this funder.

The Foundation's primary activity is not third-party grantmaking — it is self-directed: it "develops and pays all costs of" its own Christian media properties (ThinkersBibleStudies.com, ChurchFacts.com, FaithExplorer.com, DisciplesMake.com, and sf.org), which drew 570,190 users and 746,550 sessions in one reported year. Of the money that does leave the Foundation as grants, the clear anchor relationship is Christian Ministries International, which received 4 grants totaling $18,000 (55% of all documented outbound giving) for general program support — almost certainly a longstanding, personally-vetted partner rather than a competitive grantee. Steiger International received a single $10,000 grant explicitly tied to producing content and interviews for the Foundation's own websites, signaling the Foundation values vendor-style creative/media partners as much as traditional program grants.

For an outside organization with no prior relationship, realistic odds of a cold ask succeeding are low. The productive path is relationship-building: warm introductions through Twin Cities evangelical/Christian ministry, camp, or creative-arts networks, or positioning as a content/production partner analogous to Steiger International, followed by a modest, specific funding request routed through info@lundborg.org.

Documented outbound grantmaking is very small: 7 lifetime grants totaling $32,528, averaging $4,647 per grant, ranging from $1,500 (Royal Family Kids) up to a single $10,000 gift (Steiger International); the largest cumulative relationship is Christian Ministries International at $18,000 across 4 grants. Geographically, giving is concentrated in Minnesota (6 of 7 grants, ~86%) with one grant reaching Colorado — consistent with the family's Twin Cities base (Hopkins, MN office; officers connected to Minnetonka/McGregor-area recipients).

The picture looks very different at the 990 "total giving" line, which blends outbound grants with the Foundation's own program spending (it runs its websites as direct charitable activity, not through grants). Total giving was $152,797 (FY2023), $97,502 (FY2022), $171,811 (FY2021), $112,691 (FY2020), and $57,766 (FY2019) — no clean growth trend, and one filing shows $148,741 in direct program expense for the web ministries alone, meaning the vast majority of "giving" never reaches outside nonprofits as a cash grant. Actual grants_paid to others by year were $15,000 (2019), $10,000 (2020), $0 (2021), $5,000 (2022), and $7,528 (2023) — small, inconsistent, and not obviously tied to asset size.

That asset base has changed dramatically: total assets sat in the $80,000-$175,000 range every year from 2012 through 2022 ($103,541 in FY2022), then jumped to $6,068,076 in FY2023 and $5,045,258 in FY2024 — a 50-60x increase in a single filing cycle, alongside FY2023 net investment income of $936,394 and FY2024 total revenue of $825,348. Contributions received that year are recorded as $0, so the jump likely reflects an investment revaluation, internal transfer, or 990 restatement rather than new outside donor money — worth confirming directly with the Foundation if the distinction matters. Outbound grantmaking has not yet scaled to match the new asset base, though the much larger balance sheet does raise the Foundation's theoretical future capacity.

Lundborg sits at the small end of this set — its $5.05M asset base is roughly one-sixth the size of Lenzmeier's or Fiterman's, and unlike those larger Twin Cities family foundations, essentially none of its capital funds a searchable outside grants program; the money instead runs the family's own Christian web-ministry properties. Christian Ministries Foundation Inc is the closer functional peer on giving pattern (steady, modest, Christian-ministry-focused grants in the $10K-$20K range per grant) even though its own asset size wasn't available in search results. Organizations unable to secure a relationship with Lundborg directly may find the Fish Family Foundation, which explicitly funds Minnesota-based Christian ministries, missions, and scholarships from outside the state, to be a more accessible parallel option worth investigating separately.

No foundation-specific news, press coverage, leadership announcements, or new program launches for 2025 or 2026 turned up in web searches — search results for "Lundborg Foundation" news are dominated by unrelated, much larger organizations bearing similar names (Denmark's Lundbeck Foundation, Sweden's Lundberg/Lars Erik Lundberg research foundations), underscoring that this is a low-visibility, low-media-footprint family foundation with no PR apparatus. The most recent verifiable activity is financial: FY2024 shows total assets of $5,045,258 and total revenue of $825,348, following the FY2023 filing that recorded a jump to $6,068,076 in assets and $936,394 in net investment income.

On the leadership side, our data shows the board has been fully family-controlled across the filings we have (Michael, Stephanie, Donna, Hayden, and historically Richard Lundborg), with continuity among outside directors Randy Kroll (Chairman), Keith Myrmel and Scott Meadows (Vice Chairmen), and Nancy Mayo, Kathy Wucherpfennig, and Rodney Jackson (Directors) — no turnover signals or new appointments were identifiable from public sources in this pass. The Foundation's website continues to promote its four flagship digital ministries (Thinkers Bible Studies, Church Facts, Faith Explorer, Disciples Make) plus sf.org, with a quarterly email update as its main public-facing communication channel; no new site sections, programs, or grant initiatives were detected during this review. Given the sharp FY2023 asset increase, a fresh Form 990-PF filing (when it becomes available) is the most likely source of any real update on this Foundation's trajectory.

This is not a fundable target through a conventional written proposal — treat it as a relationship-first funder. The Foundation's own site has no grants page, no LOI form, and no published deadline or review cycle; the only listed entry points are a general inquiry form at lundborg.org/contact and the email info@lundborg.org. Third-party aggregators (Grantable, Grantmakers.io) independently confirm the Foundation gives only to preselected organizations and does not accept unsolicited funding requests, so a cold, formal application is very unlikely to be read as one, let alone funded.

The most effective approach is a warm introduction through Twin Cities evangelical/Christian ministry, camp, or creative-arts circles — the board is a tight family-plus-trusted-associates group (Michael, Stephanie, Donna, and Hayden Lundborg, plus Randy Kroll, Keith Myrmel, Scott Meadows, Nancy Mayo, Kathy Wucherpfennig, and Rodney Jackson), and personal vouching is likely to matter more than proposal quality. Organizations that offer digital content, web production, or media/interview services aligned with the Foundation's own core work (Thinkers Bible Studies, Church Facts, Faith Explorer, Disciples Make, sf.org) have a documented precedent — Steiger International received $10,000 tied directly to producing content and interviews for the Foundation's sites — so framing an ask as a content/production partnership rather than a pure grant request may resonate more than for other funders.

Keep any initial funding request modest and specific: historical grants run $1,500 to $10,000 per gift, with the deepest relationship (Christian Ministries International, $18,000 across 4 grants) built through repeat "program support" gifts rather than one large award. Use explicitly Gospel-centered, Kingdom-oriented language consistent with the Foundation's own self-description — it exists "to share the Gospel and serve our community through the arts and ministry programs" and to "come alongside artists, ministries, and creative leaders... so their work can advance God's Kingdom." Geography matters: 6 of 7 known grants went to Minnesota organizations, so Twin-Cities-area or broader-Minnesota ministries (with a documented Colorado exception) are the strongest fit. A common mistake would be treating this like a large institutional foundation with a formal cycle — there is none disclosed, so relationship-building and the quarterly newsletter signup are more productive first steps than drafting a full proposal.