About Charles E Lakin Foundation
The Charles E Lakin Foundation concentrates its giving in southwestern Iowa, making a small number of very large, mostly unrestricted contributions to local community infrastructure and direct-service organizations. Its grants emphasize youth opportunity and education pathways, community human-service capacity, family supports and emergency housing/shelter, often funneling significant multi-million-dollar gifts to local community foundations and campus-style service providers. Funding is place-based and operationally flexible, intended to strengthen organizations' general purposes rather than tightly restricted programs.
Focus Areas
Support for Western Iowa community infrastructure (large gifts to community foundations and regional intermediaries)Youth opportunity and post-secondary access (Avenue Scholars-style college/career readiness)Integrated human-service campus development (multi-agency campus or capitalization for service hubs)Childcare and early childhood access in rural communities (e.g., East Mills Child Care Solutions)Homelessness and transitional housing supports (e.g., Micah House)
Who They Fund
nonprofit organizations (general)
About Charles E Lakin Foundation
A defining feature of Charles E Lakin Foundation Inc is the size of its place-based gifts: in 2025 it gave $10,677,226 to the Community Foundation for Western Iowa for general purposes, alongside a $6,014,500 contribution to the Charles E Lakin Human Service Campus Foundation in Omaha. Those large commitments point to a funder that uses major unrestricted grants to strengthen local civic infrastructure rather than relying only on small program awards. The foundation’s recent giving also shows repeated support for organizations tied to education access, human services, housing stability, and child and family support across southwest Iowa and nearby Nebraska. Avenue Scholars Foundation, Micah House Corporation, Boys & Girls Club, Community Alliance, and East Mills Child Care Solutions all appear in the recent grants list, with multiple awards in more than one year for some recipients. The pattern is consistent with a funder focused on operational capacity and community systems, especially where local nonprofits provide direct services or serve as intermediaries for broader regional support.
What Charles E Lakin Foundation Funds
In education and post-secondary access, the foundation gave $1,922,403 to Avenue Scholars Foundation in 2025 and had also supported the organization in 2024 and 2023, signaling repeated investment in college and career readiness. For human services, it made a $1,000,000 general-purpose grant to Community Alliance in 2025 and a $1,003,000 general-purpose grant to Micah House Corporation in the same year, reflecting support for service delivery in the Omaha–Council Bluffs area. Childcare and early childhood access also appears in the record: East Mills Child Care Solutions received $1,000,000 for general purposes in 2025. The foundation has also funded youth-serving organizations such as Boys & Girls Club and Teammates Mentoring Program, indicating interest in youth development, mentoring, and after-school support.
How Charles E Lakin Foundation Gives
Typical grant size ranges from a p25 of $3,000 to a median of $15,000, with a p75 of $144,615, showing a distribution that includes many smaller awards but also a substantial upper tier. The recent grants list also shows repeat funding across multiple years for several recipients, including Avenue Scholars Foundation, Micah House Corporation, Boys & Girls Club, African American Empowerment Network Inc, Completely Kids, Southwest Iowa Nonprofit for Collective Impact, and The Stanton Child Resource Center Inc. The foundation is not a funder of individuals and does not make program-related investments. Most awards are described as contributions for general purposes, with a smaller number tied to specific uses such as shelter or swim programming.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$5.1M
Total Assets
$129.5M
Total Revenue
$7.5M
Total Expenses
$10.4M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $3K and $145K, with a median of $15K.
25th Percentile
$3K
Median
$15K
75th Percentile
$145K
Geographic Reach
Regional5 states funded
About 34% of grants go to recipients in NE.
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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