Stevens Seminary Foundation

Stevens Seminary Foundation (EIN 41-1924014, Glencoe, MN) is not a conventional nonprofit grantmaker — it is a hyper-local, trust-style scholarship fund whose IRS-filed mission is simply "SCHOLARSHIPS." Its own website confirms the actual target audience: graduates of Glencoe-Silver Lake (GSL) High School headed to college, university, or an accredited technical program. With $3.87M in trust assets (FY2023) and total annual giving that has ranged from $118,278 to $262,233 over the last decade, its scale and scope are both deliberately narrow. The two-line 990 program budget makes the split explicit: $99,000 to Scholarships and $44,717 to "GSL Schools" — a roughly 69%/31% split that has held steady across filings.

There is no LOI-to-full-proposal pipeline, no site visit, and no open RFP for outside 501(c)(3) organizations. The only documented pathway is through the GSL High School counseling office, meaning the actual "applicants" are individual students, not organizations. Nonprofit grant seekers researching this foundation should understand up front that it functions closer to a family/community scholarship trust than a program-officer-staffed foundation — there is no portfolio of grantee organizations to study, no published RFP, and no visible pattern of funding outside groups.

Governance reinforces this reading: the five-person board (Michael Gavin, President; Tim Schuth, Treasurer; Katherine Olson, Secretary; Michele Mackenthun and Mindy Lemke, Trustees) draws zero compensation, and the foundation is domiciled "C/O The Gavin Law Office" rather than at a dedicated office — a classic lean, volunteer-run local trust structure. Organizations adjacent to the GSL district — booster clubs, PTOs, in-district enrichment or career-and-technical programs — are the closest analog to an "organizational" funding relationship via the GSL Schools line, but this is not advertised as an open grant program. The realistic path in is a warm, direct relationship with the GSL school district administration or the Gavin Law Office, not a cold proposal submission. First-time contacts should calibrate expectations accordingly: this is not a target for a competitive national or regional grant strategy.

Total giving has moved with investment performance rather than a stated funding strategy, ranging from $118,278 (FY2020, a pandemic-affected low) to $262,233 (FY2014, the highest year on record). The three most recent years on file show: FY2021 $135,473, FY2022 $150,779, and FY2023 $179,750 — a rising trend, driven mainly by a strong FY2023 net investment income of $368,083 (versus $100,297 in FY2022) rather than new fundraising. Three-year average giving (2021-2023): approximately $155,334/year.

The only itemized program breakdown available (most recent filing) shows $99,000 to Scholarships (69% of that year's $143,717 in itemized program spend) and $44,717 to GSL Schools (31%) — confirming that essentially 100% of disbursed funds stay within the Glencoe-Silver Lake school community; there is no evidence of giving outside McLeod County, Minnesota, or outside the education/scholarship category (NTEE code B82, Scholarships & Student Financial Aid).

Asset growth has been steady: total assets climbed from $2.12M (FY2011) to $3.87M (FY2023), a roughly 83% increase over 12 years, driven by a mix of periodic large one-time contributions (e.g., $604,429 received in FY2020, $546,948 in FY2011, $481,688 in FY2012 — likely bequests or estate gifts) and compounding investment income (net investment income has ranged from $63,594 to $368,083 across the available years). In years without a major bequest, annual new contributions are typically modest — $11,249 to $21,880.

No per-scholarship dollar amounts, number of annual recipients, or maximum/minimum award sizes are disclosed publicly by the foundation or in the 990 data provided; the foundation's own site declines to specify award size. Grant seekers should not assume typical foundation-style award ranges (e.g., $5,000-$50,000 project grants) apply here — this is individual student aid, likely distributed across many small awards rather than a few large ones, consistent with community scholarship-fund norms, though exact figures cannot be confirmed from available data.

Stevens Seminary Foundation sits in a remarkably tight asset band with its five listed peers — all cluster within about $27,000 of each other (roughly $3.878M-$3.905M) despite being spread across five different states, which strongly suggests these are algorithmically matched "similar-size, same-NTEE-category" foundations rather than direct competitors or geographically relevant comparators. None of the peer records in this data set include disclosed giving levels or public application processes, making a direct programmatic comparison impossible from the data available; all appear to be small, single-purpose education/scholarship trusts of the same general type and scale as Stevens Seminary Foundation, reinforcing that this is a common structure (name-branded local or family scholarship trust) rather than an outlier.

No news articles, press releases, leadership announcements, or program launches specific to Stevens Seminary Foundation were found for 2025 or 2026 — the organization maintains no visible media presence, and its website appears to be a single, largely static informational page. The most notable recent activity is financial rather than programmatic: the FY2023 Form 990 (the most recent available in the data set) shows total revenue jumping to $405,881 from $145,715 the prior year, driven by net investment income of $368,083 (versus $100,297 in FY2022) — a reflection of favorable investment markets in the foundation's trust portfolio rather than a new capital campaign or bequest. Total giving in that same year rose to $179,750, its highest level since FY2014's $262,233.

Leadership has been stable: the same five uncompensated officers/trustees — Michael Gavin (President), Tim Schuth (Treasurer), Katherine Olson (Secretary), Michele Mackenthun (Trustee), and Mindy Lemke (Trustee) — appear consistently across the most recent filings on record, with no indication of turnover. Given the foundation's small, all-volunteer structure and lack of public communications, grant seekers should not expect announced RFP cycles, new initiatives, or public grant lists; the most reliable way to track any change in this foundation's activity is through GSL school district communications to families, not through the foundation's own channels.

Because Stevens Seminary Foundation funds individual students rather than organizations, most of the standard nonprofit grant-writing playbook does not apply here — but the underlying access pattern still matters for anyone trying to reach it. First, the single documented channel in is the GSL High School counseling office: students (or organizations partnering with GSL students) should route all inquiries there rather than searching for an online portal, since none appears to exist. Second, timing is spring-focused — the foundation's own site says applications are "typically due in the spring, ahead of graduation," but explicitly warns the exact date shifts year to year, so confirm directly with the counseling office each cycle rather than relying on a prior year's deadline.

For organizations (rather than individual students) hoping to connect to the "GSL Schools" funding line ($44,717 in the most recent itemized filing, roughly 31% of program spend), there is no visible open-call process. The realistic approach is relationship-based: engage the Glencoe-Silver Lake school district administration directly about in-district enrichment, career-and-technical, or student-support programming, since the foundation appears to fund the district as an intermediary rather than accepting outside proposals. A cold letter of inquiry mailed to "C/O The Gavin Law Office" is unlikely to be an established or expected channel — this looks like a lean, trust-administration structure, not a program office set up to review unsolicited proposals.

The most common mistake grant seekers are likely to make with this foundation is treating it like a typical mid-size community foundation with an open competitive grant cycle. It is not: there is no public grantee list, no RFP, no site visit process, and no evidence in a decade of 990 filings of funding any organization outside the GSL school community. Anyone outside that community — a nonprofit, school district, or program not affiliated with Glencoe-Silver Lake, MN — should treat this as a low-probability, effectively closed prospect and focus fundraising energy elsewhere, reserving this foundation only for GSL-affiliated students or district-level partnership conversations.