Oregon Trail Community Foundation
Scottsbluff, NE · EIN 47-0596705. Reported 84 grants totalling $2,360,340 to 48 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
Does this grantmaker accept applications?
Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.
Three things in the filing do bear on it:
- What kind of organization it is. For Oregon Trail Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
- How spread out its giving is. 48 distinct organizations, with 17% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- How much its list changes. 61% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $15,195. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $36,692; the smallest was $5,200 and the largest $254,075. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
Every organization it funded
This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon Trail Community Foundation | Scottsbluff, NE | $405,893 | 6 | 3 | 2024 |
| Friends of the Midwest Theater | Scottsbluff, NE | $199,854 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Riverside Zoological Foundation | Scottsbluff, NE | $174,794 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| University of Nebraska Foundation | Lincoln, NE | $144,450 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Regional West Foundation | Scottsbluff, NE | $120,600 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Platte River Basin Environments Inc | Scottsbluff, NE | $115,318 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Cooperative Ministries Council | Scottsbluff, NE | $92,325 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Cirrus House Inc | Scottsbluff, NE | $80,824 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Northfield Haven | Gering, NE | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Northfield Haven | Gering, NE | $73,326 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Fellowship of Christian Athletes | Kansas City, MO | $72,075 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Scottsbluff Community Schools Foundation Inc | Scottsbluff, NE | $61,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| First United Methodist Church | Scottsbluff, NE | $57,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| 11 13 Ministries | Gering, NE | $56,900 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska | Gering, NE | $54,900 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Voluntary Action Center | Scottsbluff, NE | $47,919 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Legacy of the Plains | Gering, NE | $47,135 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Brent Eley Foundation | Aurora, CO | $35,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Scottsbluff Public Schools Fdn | Scottsbluff, NE | $30,448 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Chadron Community Hospital Corp | Chadron, NE | $27,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation | Lincoln, NE | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Festival of Hope | Scottsbluff, NE | $24,306 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Western Nebraska Community College Foundation | Scottsbluff, NE | $23,841 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Young Mens Christian Association of Scottsbluff Nebraska | Scottsbluff, NE | $21,043 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| CASA of Scotts Bluff County | Gering, NE | $20,200 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Berean Fundamental Church of Mitchell Nebraska | Mitchell, NE | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Horizon to Horizon | Gering, NE | $16,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Doves Program | Scottsbluff, NE | $15,190 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Rocky Mountain Childrens Health Foundation | Arvada, CO | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| The Potters Wheel Inc | Scottsbluff, NE | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| The Terry and Hazeldeane Carpenter Intergenerational Center | Gering, NE | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| United Way of Western Nebraska | Scottsbluff, NE | $13,363 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Kids First Preschool | Scottsbluff, NE | $12,890 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Nebraska 4-H Foundation | Bayard, NE | $12,722 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Post Playhouse Inc | Chadron, NE | $11,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Scottsbluff, NE | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Called to Compete Inc | Omaha, NE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| City of Scottsbluff | Scottsbluff, NE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Cornerstone Education and Research Foundation Inc | Superior, CO | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ducks Unlimited Inc | Memphis, TN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Folds of Honor Foundation | Owasso, OK | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ive Got a Name | Lincoln, NE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Morill Public Schools | Morrill, NE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Scratch My Belly Inc | Rcho Santa Fe, CA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| St Agnes Catholic Church | Scottsbluff, NE | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Weston County School District 1 State of Wy Edctn Endwmnt Fndtn | Newcastle, WY | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Options Pregnancy Center | Gering, NE | $8,574 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Teammates Mentoring Program | Gering, NE | $7,450 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
18 of 48 (38%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.
What the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Platte River Basin
LAND ACQUISITION FOR ANIMAL HABITAT - Capwn
FOOD INSECURITIES / HOMELESS - Scotts Bluff County Volunteer Center
FOOD INSECURITIES/ ELDERCARE - Nebraska State Historical Society Foundation
RECREATION PATHWAY TO HISTORIC MONUMENT - CASA of Scotts Bluff County
CHILDREN COMMUNITY SUPPORT
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 33 of 48 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 17 | $451,095 | $13,363 |
| 2022 | 20 | $690,712 | $20,347 |
| 2023 | 21 | $502,482 | $15,000 |
| 2024 | 26 | $716,051 | $15,845 |
Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.
Where its money goes
93% of its giving went to organizations in Nebraska. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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Funders that support the same organizations
These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available 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 grantmaker
- Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $15,195 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Nebraska.
- Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Oregon Trail Community Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 26 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.
Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 1344, Scottsbluff, NE, 69361.
EIN 47-0596705 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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