21 foundations in South Dakota told the IRS on the latest Form 990-PF that giving is not restricted to organizations picked in advance, and each paid at least 5 grants totaling $100K or more that year. Together they paid $83.8M. The largest is Esther and Harold Mertz Foundation in Sioux Falls, which paid $53.8M across 9 grants in 2024. The ten biggest account for 97% of the state total. 12 of the 21 file a submission deadline. The rest leave that line blank or point to a website. At the median foundation, 13% of the year's grant dollars went to organizations it had not funded before.
Analysis by Matthew Hanauer, PhD, Chief Technology Officer at Civly, from IRS Form 990-PF filings · All states
Foundations are ranked by dollars paid in each one's latest filed year. Click a column heading to sort. Deadlines are shown as filed.
| # | Foundation | City | Latest year | Grants paid | Grants | Median grant | First-time recipients | Deadline as filed | Assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Esther and Harold Mertz Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $53.8M | 9 | $15K | 0% | IN ACCORDANCE WITH WEBSITE | $665.6M |
| 2 | Seeds of Change Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $11.1M | 6 | $1.0M | 8% | APPLICATIONS OPEN UP ON JULY 1ST, AND NEED TO BE SUBMITTED BY AUGUST 31ST. | $10.7M |
| 3 | Sfs Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2025 | $8.4M | 22 | $213K | 34% | Not stated | $23K |
| 4 | C H Robinson Worldwide Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $4.0M | 87 | $5K | 9% | ANNUALLY - MAY 1 | $18.2M |
| 5 | Larson Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $1.4M | 29 | $30K | 12% | MARCH 1 AND SEPTEMBER 1 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE) | $23.1M |
| 6 | Valley Queen Charitable Foundation | Milbank | 2025 | $556K | 79 | $2K | 35% | NONE - ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS YEAR ROUND | $1.8M |
| 7 | Marion Bradley Via Memorial Foundation South Dakota | Sioux Falls | 2025 | $459K | 10 | $42K | 55% | THERE IS NO SET DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION | $7.8M |
| 8 | Gwendolyn L Stearns Foundation Inc | Rapid City | 2024 | $434K | 31 | $15K | 14% | NO PREDETERMINED DEADLINE | $3.7M |
| 9 | Evah C Cray Residuary Charitable Tr | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $423K | 22 | $13K | 24% | AUGUST 1 OF EACH YEAR | $8.7M |
| 10 | Salt of the Earth | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $420K | 8 | $35K | 0% | TO BE ESTABLISHED. | $4.6M |
| 11 | Orrion and Edith Barger Memorial Foundation Inc | Chamberlain | 2025 | $415K | 44 | $2K | 28% | Not stated | $9.4M |
| 12 | Pipestone Give Inc | Brandon | 2024 | $386K | 43 | $3K | n/a | Not stated | $20K |
| 13 | Sheldon F Reese Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2025 | $346K | 30 | $10K | 29% | NO SUBMISSION DEADLINES. | $5.1M |
| 14 | Edward L Schwab Memorial Foundation | Aberdeen | 2024 | $298K | 29 | $3K | 1% | 180 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION NOTICE | $1.7M |
| 15 | James Walter Pickle Charitable Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $279K | 7 | $35K | 41% | Not stated | $3.6M |
| 16 | Hatterscheidt Foundation Inc | Aberdeen | 2025 | $237K | 44 | $2K | 33% | There are no deadlines for submitting applications, but each application should be submitted suffici | $4.4M |
| 17 | Fred and Mary Maas Private Foundation | Gettysburg | 2025 | $208K | 9 | $15K | 9% | Not stated | $1.7M |
| 18 | Walter and Virginia Hager Foundation | Mobridge | 2025 | $195K | 17 | $10K | 19% | Not stated | $4.6M |
| 19 | Welk Family Foundation | Aberdeen | 2025 | $194K | 28 | $1K | 2% | Not stated | $2.8M |
| 20 | Jerstad Family Foundation | Sioux Falls | 2024 | $152K | 16 | $7K | 7% | Not stated | $4.4M |
| 21 | Brass Family Foundation | Lennox | 2025 | $120K | 10 | $10K | 10% | Not stated | $2.2M |
Every one of them has its own page with the application terms as filed, every recipient, and the trustees. Where a cell says n/a the filing does not carry that figure: a first-time recipient share needs more than one year of grants on record, and the asset figure comes from the IRS business master file, which does not cover every foundation.
Each figure comes from each foundation's latest filed year, 2022 or later. A foundation is listed when its Form 990-PF says giving is not restricted to preselected organizations and it paid at least 5 grants totaling $100K or more that year. Grants and application terms come from each foundation's latest IRS 990-PF e-file return. The newest tax year is partial until the IRS finishes releasing it. Grants are de-duplicated on funder, year, recipient and amount, so identical repeat grants count once and totals can run low. Full method.
Source: IRS Form 990-PF e-file releases (public domain). Analysis: Civly.
Civly Grant Matching reads your own filings, matches your programs against millions of paid grants by purpose, geography and grant size, and returns the funders with the deadline, the restrictions and the named trustees.
See Grant Matching