Tennyson Family Foundation Inc
Custer, SD · EIN 20-5632475. Reported 130 grants totalling $140,540 to 40 organizations across tax years 2021-2024. This foundation did not tell the IRS it funds only preselected organizations.
Does this foundation accept applications?
Yes -- on its own tax return. Form 990-PF asks every private foundation whether it makes grants only to organizations it selects itself. Of the 91,758 foundations in our data that made a grant and answered, 78% said yes -- and applying to those is wasted effort. Tennyson Family Foundation Inc did not check that box on its most recent filing, which puts it in the minority that is at least open to being approached.
How big are its grants?
The median grant is $1,000. Half of everything it gave fell between $500 and $1,000; the smallest was $40 and the largest $11,600. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong foundation.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Years funded is the number of separate tax years in which the organization received money -- more than one means a real relationship rather than a one-off.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Growing Roots Inc | Custer, SD | $14,100 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Black Hills Area Community Foundati | Rapid City, SD | $14,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer School District | Custer, SD | $13,350 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer YMCA | Custer, SD | $8,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Youth and Alumni Foundation | Custer, SD | $7,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| The Storehouse | Custer, SD | $7,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Christmas for Kids | Custer, SD | $4,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Ministerial Alliance Inc | Custer, SD | $4,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Custer Ministerial Assn | Custer, SD | $4,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Rapid City Club for Boys | Rapid City, SD | $4,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| United Way of the Black Hills | Rapid City, SD | $4,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Weave | Custer, SD | $4,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Black Hills Works Foundation | Rapid City, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Children's Home Society of Sd | Sioux Falls, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Action Plan | Custer, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer County 1880 Courthouse Museu | Custer, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Estelline Alumni Association | Castlewood, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Feeding South Dakota | Rapid City, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lutheran Social Services | Rapid City, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Operation Black Hills Cabin | Custer, SD | $3,500 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Area Art Council | Custer, SD | $2,800 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Senior Center | Custer, SD | $2,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Volunteer Fire Department | Custer, SD | $2,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Friends of Custer County Sar | Custer, SD | $2,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Pringle Volunteer Fire Department | Pringle, SD | $2,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| St Jude Children's Hospital | Memphis, TN | $2,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer Fire Department | Custer, SD | $1,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Front Porch Coalition | Rapid City, SD | $1,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Pringle Fire Department | Pringle, SD | $1,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Custer Humane Society | Custer, SD | $1,200 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Special Olympics Sd | Sioux Falls, SD | $1,200 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer County Library | Custer, SD | $1,000 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Custer County Library Foundation | Custer, SD | $1,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| South Dakota Public Broadcasting | Vermillion, SD | $850 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Storybook Island Inc | Rapid City, SD | $800 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Feisty Firefighters | Sioux Falls, SD | $500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Midwest Honor Flight | Sioux Center, IA | $400 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Midwest Honor Flight - Ia & Sd | Sioux Center, IA | $400 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Compassionate Friends Inc | Wixom, MI | $400 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Custer County Sheriff's Office | Custer, SD | $40 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
38 of 40 (95%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold.
Measured the way we measure every foundation -- what share of one year's grantees are funded again the next -- this one retains 94%, across 3 year-to-year transitions. The median foundation retains about 67%, so this one is unusually consistent. A high number means its list is close to settled and a newcomer has to displace someone; a low one means it is still moving money around, which is where an opening is.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose field of its filings. This is the closest thing to a statement of what this foundation cares about, in its own words.
- The Storehouse
FUND FOOD DISTRIBUTION PROGRAMS - Weave
VIOLENCE VICTIMS ASSISTANCE
What kind of organizations it funds
By the recipient's own IRS classification, for the 51 grants where we could identify the organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 32 | $24,400 | $500 |
| 2022 | 32 | $31,550 | $1,000 |
| 2023 | 34 | $38,190 | $1,000 |
| 2024 | 32 | $46,400 | $1,000 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- filings arrive about a year late, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a foundation winding down.
Where its money goes
Foundations concentrate geographically far more than their mission statements suggest. 98% of this one's giving went to organizations in South Dakota. If you are outside its footprint, that matters more than how well your programme fits.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These funders gave to organizations this one also funded -- some private foundations, some community foundations and other grantmaking charities. Shared grantees are the strongest available signal that two funders have overlapping priorities, and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.
How to approach this foundation
- Check you are its size. The median grant is $1,000. Asking for ten times that is the most common way small organizations waste a submission.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving is concentrated in South Dakota.
- Read the recipient list above for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer, and a cheap one to get.
- Look up the current filing before writing. The 990-PF names the foundation's officers and, where one exists, its application procedure. We link it below.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Tennyson Family Foundation Inc's own Form 990-PF filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred, or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 35 S 4TH St, Custer, SD, 57730. This is the address the foundation gave the IRS; many small foundations file through an accountant or a bank trust department, so it may not be where post to a programme officer should go.
EIN 20-5632475 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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