Holthues Trust

OVERVIEW: Human rights grantmaking at Holthues supports a general range of human rights and environmental causes both in the U.S. and abroad.

IP TAKE: Holthues Trust makes grants at both the local level in Iowa and abroad, particularly in the human rights focus area. This funder doesn’t accept unsolicited applications. As well, its limited staff makes it more difficult for new grantseekers to get in touch with them, but it does accept contact at the phone number provided below. Holthues also has a history of supporting the same organizations year after year, so securing a grant from the trust may lead to a long-term funding relationship. The trust offers operating support and has an unrestricted-no spending requirement.

PROFILE: Established in 1998, the Holthues Trust is a private foundation located in Muscatine, IA. Without a website to guide grant seekers, this funder’s grantmaking strategies and approach remains unclear. However, despite the trust’s low profile, tax filings suggest a clear pattern of giving that emphasizes support for local, Iowa organizations, as well as national organizations that serve human rights efforts both in the U.S. and abroad.

Grants for Human Rights

The Holthues Trust’s grants for human rights support foundations around the world of all sizes. Tax filings show a particular interest in established organizations that conduct work for violence prevention, torture prevention, anti-human trafficking, immigrants’ rights and other related causes. Global work tends to invest in organizations headquartered in the U.S. that work abroad in places like Sudan and Iraq.

In the past, the trust has supported the Center for Victims of Torture’s New Tactics in Human Rights program, Disability Rights International, Just Detention International, and the AMCAV project, which works to protect the rights of female rape victims in Africa. The trust also awards occasional grants to nonviolence and peacebuilding organizations. 

Grants for Environmental and Wildlife Conservation

Recent grantmaking in the past few years has expanded to investing in conservation projects that address environmental education, environmental advocacy and wildlife protection. Many of the trust’s environmental grants tend to stay in the Great Plains and Midwest region at-large, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Previous environmental and wildlife conservation grantees include Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness, Land Stewardship Project and Raptor Advocacy Rehabilitation and Education (RARE), among others.

Grants for Iowa

Holthues Trust makes both human rights and environmental conservation grants to Iowa-based organizations. However, for Iowa-based organizations, the trust also makes grants for more general grants for health and education. Previous Iowa grantees include the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, the Iowa Environmental Council, Iowa Conservation Education Coalition, and others.

Important Grant Details:

Grant amounts usually average about $10,000. The trust tends to make a few dozen grants a year. While the trust tends to have larger assets, annual grantmaking remains relatively modest at about $1 million to $1.5 million. Grantseekers are still advised to introduce themselves to the trust.

This is funder does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding.

PEOPLE:

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).

CONTACT:

Holthues Trust

209 Iowa Avenue

Muscatine, Iowa 52761

(563) 264-1500