Tozer Foundation Inc.

The Tozer Foundation Inc. operates as one of Minnesota's most narrowly scoped private scholarship funds — and understanding that narrow scope is the entire strategy. Founded in 1947 through the estate of David Tozer, a St. Croix Valley lumberman based in Stillwater, the foundation was created with an explicit mandate: to assist "needy and worthy" students from Kanabec, Pine, and Washington counties in pursuing post-secondary education. This is not a general-purpose grantmaking organization. Virtually 100% of disbursements flow to individual student scholarships administered through two intermediary partners — Scholarship America (historically) and Kaleidoscope (currently) — with no evidence of discretionary organizational grantmaking beyond nominal community gifts totaling a few hundred dollars annually.

First-time applicants must internalize that geographic eligibility is binary and checked before all other criteria. You either reside in or graduated from high school in one of the three qualifying counties, or you are ineligible, regardless of academic excellence or financial need. Once that threshold is cleared, the foundation evaluates applicants on a competitive composite weighting financial need (via FAFSA-derived Student Aid Index against school-type thresholds), academic performance (GPA historically ranging 3.28-4.55, ACT scores 19-36), character, community engagement, and school involvement.

There is no letter of intent stage, no organizational relationship-building path, no program officer to cultivate, and no site visit — this is a student scholarship fund with a fully online application process. Local high school advisory committees in the three-county area participate in rating candidates, making constructive relationships with high school counselors a secondary lever worth developing for students still in secondary school.

The foundation's leadership structure is almost entirely volunteer-based: seven uncompensated directors and President Alan Bernick (no compensation), with Director Tracey Galowitz receiving a modest $3,500 stipend — signaling an extremely lean, mission-focused board with no staff bureaucracy to navigate. The operational trustee is Lake Elmo Bank Trust Department. Communication goes through help@TozerFoundation.com or 651-773-4420. For eligible students, the $3,000 annual award renewable for up to four years represents a meaningful $12,000 total investment with straightforward academic maintenance requirements.

The Tozer Foundation's financial data reveals a stable, conservatively managed endowment foundation with consistent and gradually rising grant disbursements across more than a decade of 990 filings.

Assets and Investment Income: Total assets have ranged from $22.2M to $24.1M across the FY2010-2022 data window, reflecting steady endowment management with moderate market-driven fluctuation. Net investment income peaked at $1.81M in FY2013 and trended downward to $607K-$706K in FY2018-2022, likely reflecting a shift toward lower-yield allocations in the post-2016 rate environment. Critically, the foundation receives zero external contributions in most years — this is a purely endowed institution dependent entirely on investment returns, with no donor base, no annual fund, and no campaign activity.

Annual Grants Paid (FY2010-2022): - FY2010: $1,330,750 - FY2011: $1,179,875 - FY2014: $1,101,100 - FY2018: $935,100 (recent low) - FY2019: $965,350 - FY2020: $957,440 - FY2021: $1,073,600 - FY2022: $1,336,100 (recent high)

The dip in FY2018-2020 likely reflects the board moderating scholarship volume during compressed investment income ($607K-$641K net). The recovery to $1,336,100 in FY2022 — matching the FY2010 peak — suggests board-approved expansion of the scholarship pool following equity market recovery.

Grant Structure: At $3,000 per scholarship per year, the foundation funds approximately 310-445 individual students annually depending on the disbursement year. The median award is $3,000, though the website specifies grants are made "up to" $3,000, allowing modest downward adjustment for applicants with lower demonstrated need. The foundation carries a substantial multi-year forward obligation at any point in time, as renewing scholars in years two through four represent committed disbursements before new recipients are added.

Grantee Concentration: 100% of substantive giving flows through two scholarship administrators: Scholarship America ($3,545,750 across 4 grants, historical primary channel) and Kaleidoscope ($902,000, current platform). Nominal general support grants of $500 to Lakeview Hospice and $400 to Foundation for Bayport Public Library represent incidental community giving, not a signal of broader organizational grantmaking. All identified giving is confined to Minnesota.

Exact peers for a county-level private scholarship fund with this degree of geographic focus are scarce in philanthropic databases — the Tozer Foundation occupies a narrow niche between large community foundations and micro-local scholarship awards. The table below situates Tozer within a broader landscape of Minnesota-centered funders to provide orientation on scale, access model, and mission alignment.

Tozer is the only foundation in this comparison offering a fully open, direct-to-student application restricted exclusively to three Minnesota counties. Scholarship America, headquartered in St. Peter, MN, operates nationally through corporate and organizational partner programs — students cannot apply independently and must be sponsored. Bush Foundation funds organizations and individuals at a scale 35x larger than Tozer, with a leadership development focus that diverges fundamentally from need-based scholarship support. Grotto Foundation maintains an invitation-only model for youth education grants, in sharp contrast to Tozer's accessible portal application.

Tozer's defining advantage for eligible students is the intersection of geographic restriction (which narrows the applicant pool relative to statewide programs) and open access (which requires no organizational intermediary). Students from Kanabec and Pine counties likely face lighter competition than those from Washington County's larger suburban high school systems.

The Tozer Foundation's most recent confirmed public activity is the launch of the 2025-2026 scholarship cycle. The foundation's Facebook page announced in November 2025 that the application opened November 15, 2025 — consistent with the established annual timeline. The 2026 cycle closed February 17, 2026, with award notifications expected in early June 2026 via Kaleidoscope, and scholarship funds disbursed mid-to-late July 2026 directly to enrolled institutions.

The most notable financial development in recent public records is the FY2022 disbursement of $1,336,100 in grants — the highest single-year figure since FY2010's $1,330,750 — representing a 24% increase over the FY2018 trough of $935,100. This suggests the board approved a meaningful expansion of scholarship volume or per-student award following strong equity market performance in 2021.

The foundation completed a platform migration from Scholarship America's scholarship management system to Kaleidoscope's MyKaleidoscope portal, reflected in the 990 grantee data showing Kaleidoscope receiving $902,000. The current application URL (apply.mykaleidoscope.com/scholarships/2026tozerscholarship) confirms Kaleidoscope as the active platform. This transition appears to have occurred within the last 2-3 years based on the grantee sequence.

No board leadership changes, new program announcements, geographic expansions, or press releases were identified in publicly available 2025-2026 sources. The foundation operates with deliberate low public profile: no news section on the website, no indexed press releases, and community communication conducted primarily through Facebook and direct email. Alan Bernick remains President and Tracey Galowitz remains the sole compensated director at $3,500 annually.

Confirm geography before investing any other effort. Washington County alone covers a large swath of the Twin Cities East Metro — Stillwater, Woodbury, Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Mahtomedi, Lake Elmo, and dozens of surrounding communities. Kanabec County covers the Mora area; Pine County covers Sandstone, Pine City, and surrounding towns. If you are uncertain of your county, verify at mn.gov/admin/demography before beginning the application. Geographic ineligibility cannot be appealed.

File FAFSA October 1, not January. The Tozer Foundation requires submission of your FAFSA Submission Summary (with Student Aid Index) as part of the application. Your SAI must fall below school-type thresholds: $20,000 for community college, $27,000 for state college or university, $45,000 for private college. Applicants above these caps are automatically declined unless they submit documentation of extenuating financial circumstances. Filing FAFSA in October gives you SAI confirmation well before the February close — filing in January risks timing out.

Select recommenders who speak to character and work ethic, not just grades. Two appraisals are required from non-family, non-guidance-counselor sources: instructors, coaches, or work supervisors. The Tozer appraisal form assesses character, industriousness, and community involvement alongside academics. A coach who observed your leadership under pressure or a supervisor who can attest to your reliability scores higher on these rubrics than a second academic reference mirroring the transcript.

Use only the Kaleidoscope portal. The active URL is apply.mykaleidoscope.com/scholarships/2026tozerscholarship. The foundation has fully migrated away from Scholarship America's platform. For portal-specific technical questions, contact help@mykaleidoscope.com. For foundation-level questions about eligibility or program details, contact help@TozerFoundation.com or call 651-773-4420.

Treat renewal as a multi-year contract. The $3,000 annual award is renewable for four years — a potential $12,000 total investment. Renewal requires a cumulative 3.0 GPA (not just semester GPA) plus timely reapplication through Kaleidoscope each February. Students who slip below 3.0 in one difficult semester can jeopardize the remaining award value. Track your cumulative GPA separately and reapply by each February deadline without waiting for prompting.