Seeds Of Change Foundation

Seeds Of Change is a closely-held, family-operated foundation created in 2012 by Jeff and Tammie Broin — founders of biofuel company POET — after a mission trip to Kenya's Kakuswi School for the Deaf. Every listed officer (Jeff Broin, Chairman; Tammie Broin, Vice Chairman; Miranda Broin, President; Jeff Pinkerman, Treasurer; Brenda Pinkerman, Director) reports $0 compensation, underscoring that this is a personal philanthropic vehicle rather than a professionally staffed grantmaking institution — Macy Kaiser, Executive Director, runs day-to-day operations with support from a Development Manager. The foundation explicitly restricts funding to international projects outside the United States, concentrated in education, agriculture, and clean-environment programming (specifically clean cookstoves).

The most important structural signal for applicants is the foundation's tiered relationship model: Seedling (new relationship, smaller projects, sub-12-month timelines), Sprout (2+ years of prior engagement, sustainable community solutions, 2-year projects), and Bloom (long-term strategic partner, multi-year funding contingent on demonstrated milestone achievement). This is not a typical open RFP process — it is designed to convert first-time grantees into long-term partners over several funding cycles. The grantee data bears this out: just six organizations (Farm Input Promotions Africa, Light Up Hope, Asone Ministries, Global Health Ministries, Green 66 Innovations, and Kakuswi School for the Deaf) account for the overwhelming majority of the $14.6M in tracked grantee dollars across 32 recorded grants, each having received exactly 3-4 grants — evidence of sustained, repeat-year Bloom/Sprout relationships rather than one-off giving.

First-time applicants should expect to enter at the Seedling tier with a modest, tightly scoped ask (the smallest tracked grants run $5,000-$10,000), not the $1M+ awards reserved for legacy partners like FIPS-Africa. Given the family-run, relationship-oriented board, organizations with an existing East Africa track record or connections through POET's grain-donor network (Grain for Change) may have an edge, though the published application is open to any qualifying international applicant during the annual window.

Total annual giving has scaled roughly 13-fold in eight years: $694,853 (FY2015) to $1,763,770 (FY2019) to $9,079,172 (FY2023) — the most recent year with a complete total_giving figure. Grants paid tell a similar story: $87,365 (2015), $1,410,054 (2019), $2,642,938 (2021), $4,992,704 (2022), and $8,734,116 (2023). The foundation runs largely as a pass-through vehicle rather than an endowed grantmaker — total assets stayed near $1-2.4M through most of the 2019-2023 period even as revenue spiked, because incoming contributions are substantially redeployed as grants within one to two fiscal years rather than accumulated. FY2022 illustrates the lag: $14,348,152 in contributions came in against only $4,992,704 granted that year, with the surplus flowing out as the $8,734,116 disbursed in FY2023 against just $1,194,023 in new FY2023 contributions. FY2024 shows another buildup, with total assets back up to $10,738,932 on $15,861,736 in revenue.

Across the tracked grantee-level history (32 grants, $14,597,473 total, average $456,171 per grantee relationship), Farm Input Promotions Africa (FIPS-Africa) is by far the largest recipient at $7,499,135 across 4 grants — over half of all tracked grantee dollars — reflecting Mission Grow's centrality to the foundation's giving. Light Up Hope follows at $2,876,305 (4 grants), then Asone Ministries at $1,498,082, Global Health Ministries at $1,273,050, Green 66 Innovations at $828,828, and Kakuswi School for the Deaf at $503,173. Smaller one-off grants include Lifelight ($25,000), Humanity & Hope United Foundation ($10,000), Power Up Gambia ($8,900 across 2 grants), and a $5,000 COVID-relief grant to Mukuru Slums.

At the individual-grant level, the IRS Schedule of grants shows a median award of $203,082, average $377,563, and range of $10,000-$1,046,048. By program area, the most recent 990 shows Mission Grow at $1,046,048 in expenses, Mission Hope at $1,031,672, and Mission Thrive at $666,424 — a roughly 41%/40%/26% split, three-way but agriculture-led. Grantee organizations cluster in a handful of U.S. states used as fiscal intermediaries: South Dakota (9), Colorado (4), Minnesota (4), Pennsylvania (2), and Indiana (1), reflecting the founders' Sioux Falls base.

All five peer foundations sit within roughly $10,000 of Seeds Of Change's $10,738,932 in assets and share the same IRS "Philanthropy & Grantmaking" classification, but that similarity is superficial: four of the five have no public website at all, meaning they likely operate as closed, invitation-only family vehicles with no discoverable application path. Seeds Of Change stands out in this peer set as the only foundation with a transparent mission statement, published application portal, defined eligibility criteria, and a public annual fundraising calendar (gala, golf tournament) — making it comparatively far more accessible to an unsolicited applicant than its similarly-sized peers, even though its own funding remains concentrated among a small number of long-term grantees.

The most concrete recent activity comes from the foundation's own site and POET's affiliated news outlet, Vital: A Night for Change, the foundation's flagship annual gala, raised over $200,000 in its most recent cycle, and the annual Golf Tournament fundraiser continues each May in the Sioux Falls area. A Q1 2024 partnership update from Uganda-based As One Ministries reported 16,000 farmers in active agricultural training and 2,304 students enrolled across Mission Grow and Mission Hope programming — concrete evidence the foundation continues active program monitoring with its core partners. A November 2025 feature on POET's Vital news site quoted co-founder Tammie Broin reflecting on 13 years since the foundation's 2012 founding, describing the program's growth as "heartwarming" and noting Mission Grow's reach now extends across roughly 17 African countries through the sustainable-farming-entrepreneurship model.

No public announcement of a major leadership change was found; the board remains Jeff Broin (Chairman), Tammie Broin (Vice Chairman), Miranda Broin (President), Jeff Pinkerman (Treasurer), and Brenda Pinkerman, with Macy Kaiser continuing as Executive Director. One notable addition surfaced in web research but not yet reflected in the IRS filing data: Chris Soules, an Iowa farmer and media personality, appears listed among current board members on the foundation's About page, suggesting the board has grown slightly beyond the founding family since the last filed Form 990. Beau Schmaltz departed the board effective December 30, 2022, per the most recent filing. Given the extended fiscal buildup evident in the FY2024 financials ($10.7M in assets against $15.9M in revenue), a large disbursement year in FY2025 or FY2026 would be consistent with the foundation's historical pattern of granting out prior-year surpluses.

Timing is the single most important constraint: the application window opens July 1 and closes August 31 each year, with no evidence of a rolling or off-cycle process — as of this report (mid-July 2026), the current cycle is open with roughly six weeks remaining until the deadline. Applicants should not wait; late submissions after August 31 will need to wait a full year for the next cycle.

Eligibility is a hard gate, not a preference: the foundation states its "main focus" is "international projects outside of the United States," concentrated within education, agriculture, and environment (specifically clean cookstoves). U.S.-only domestic programs, however well-aligned thematically, are unlikely to qualify. Applicants must pick a single lane — Mission Hope (education), Mission Grow (agriculture/food security), or Mission Thrive (clean cookstoves/health/environment) — since the application asks for one primary focus area rather than a blended pitch.

Come in at the right tier. First-time applicants should expect to be evaluated as "Seedling" — a new relationship, smaller project scope, completed within 12 months — not a multi-year capital ask. The foundation's own funding history shows this pattern: nearly all of its largest grantees (FIPS-Africa, Light Up Hope, Asone Ministries) built up to seven-figure cumulative support only after 3-4 separate grant cycles. A proposal that frames itself as the first step in a multi-year relationship rather than a one-time transaction is more likely to match how this funder actually operates.

Quantify everything. The application explicitly requires 3-5 project goals and three distinct impact metrics, three organizational accomplishments, and a sustainability plan — and the foundation's own public reporting is dense with hard numbers ("160 high school students placed," "7,485 students fed," "2,701,440 lives impacted," "450,240 farmers reached"). Proposals should mirror that quantitative style rather than relying on narrative alone. A named local partner organization and country-specific project detail (the foundation's active geographies are Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Madagascar) will read as more credible than a generic "Africa" framing. Because the board is small, unpaid, and family-run, relationship visibility — attending or being introduced through the annual gala or golf tournament network — may help but is not a documented requirement for the online application.