Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation supports human services, health, education, children and youth, food, community development, violence prevention and community arts in and around Rapid City, South Dakota.
IP TAKE: The Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation is a low-profile funder that’s laser-focused on Rapid City, South Dakota. That said, it gives a handful of grants in its areas of focus to organizations also based in Sioux Falls and a few other areas of South Dakota, but on a much smaller basis. This funder provides program support and cash grants, but you must first send them an LOI for further consideration at the address provided below. Stearns is not transparent, but relatively accessible to Rapid City organizations. To get on this funder’s radar, contact information has been provided below. This is a dedicated partner to have in the Rapid City area.
PROFILE: Established in 2001, the Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation is a private foundation based in Rapid City, South Dakota. Kathy Miller serves as Stearns’s president, working with a limited staff. This is a low-profile funder that lacks a public website, which restricts transparency about how this funder approaches grantmaking. However, 990s reveal focus area priorities that include human services — which encompasses children and youth, families, food, community development — health, and K-12 education, in addition to a handful of other topics outlined below.
Grants for Community Development, K-12 Education and Health
This funder likes to keep its cards close. With no website to inform grantseekers about grantmaking strategies or focus areas, it is unclear what kinds of grantmaking approaches Stearns takes towards those it seeks to fund; however, recent tax records reveal major interests in human services, health and education — in that order.
Human services grants — which for Stearns, overlap with community development, youth and the arts — have focused on a wide range of issues that include elder support to gender-based violence prevention.
Health grants have focused on a wide range of have focused on a range of issues, from nutrition to mental health services, which have encompassed suicide prevention and substance abuse, as well as developmental disability services.
K-12 grant have also focused on early childhood education, reading literacy, and classroom resources, among other interests.
The primary demographics that this funder appears to serve are children, youth and low-income communities, with a smaller focus on women and families. Stearns shows an outlying interest in grants for human rights, violence prevention, arts and culture, recreation, agriculture, and fishing. Recent subjects towards which the Foundation has given include:
Basic and emergency aid, bereavement counseling, child welfare, Clubs, domestic violence prevention, K-12 education, family services, food banks and nutrition, mental health care, substance abuse prevention, suicide crisis intervention and rural developlement.
Past grantees include Black Hills Works, Allied Arts Fund Drive, the local chapter of United Way, Volunteers of America Dakotas, Cornerstone Rescue Mission, Western SD Senior Services, Alliance of Tribal Tourism and the Rapid City Club for Boys, among many others.
Grant Details:
Grants range between about $5,000 and $100,000, and tend to be on the smaller side.
Grantmaking is typically for programs and specific projects, not operating support or capital projects.
Learn more about this funder’s local giving by examining its recent tax records. Grantmaking focuses on the Rapid City area of South Dakota.
While the Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation accepts unsolicited Letters of Interest from organizations focused on Rapid City, South Dakota and areas that immediately surround it, it does not accept grant applications without LOIs. LOIs are accepted on a rolling basis.
The Foundation may be reached at (605) 343 - 7720. To apply for a grant, the Gwendolyn L. Stearns Foundation first requires a Letter of Inquiry mailed to the below address. In the event of interest, grantseekers will receive contact from the Foundation requesting a full grant application:
246 Founders Park Dr Ste 101
Rapid City, SD 57701-8092
United States
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