The Education Foundations: Two School Districts, Two Endowment Structures

School City of Mishawaka Education Foundation, formed 1994; Penn-Harris-Madison Educational Foundation, 1995–97

Lead: Each of Mishawaka's two school districts holds its private money in its own foundation, and the two structures print a study in scale. The School City of Mishawaka Education Foundation Inc (EIN 35-1973986) dates its formation to 1994 — the year its own Form 990 carries and the district's account repeats — with the federal ruling following in June 1997. Its most recent register return (tax period ending August 2025) reports assets of $1,063,089 and revenue of $312,220. Its own reports give the working figures: grants totaling $181,000 in 2022 in its annual report's account, against grants of $176,847 on its Form 990 for the year ended August 31, 2022 — the report and the return printed side by side, as filed — and total assets of $477,956.19 at that date, of which endowment investments of $272,397.25 are "Held by Community Foundation": the district's permanent money sits in the pooled vehicle across the river, as the boundary article below records. The foundation also holds named funds at documented size, among them the Lions Club Fine Arts Endowment, $7,500 of fine-arts grants in the report year. Its donor lists document the boundary flows as plainly as any filing: the Irions Foundation — Elkhart-seated, with $9,120,422 in register assets — stands at the $50,000-and-above level, and the Schwartz Wiekamp Foundation, seated in Granger with $17,416,988 in assets, at the $5,000 level: a banking name from Mishawaka's own founders file, its foundation now filing from the suburb. The schoolhouse course of this foundation stands in the schools file; the funds and filings stand here.

The Penn-Harris-Madison Educational Foundation Inc (EIN 35-1996785), of 55900 Bittersweet Road, carries three dates at their strengths: its formation year stands as 1995 in the federal compilations of its returns; its own 2017–18 annual report states "In 1996 PHMEF was established as an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3)"; and its federal ruling dates to January 1997. Its 30th anniversary falls in 2025–26, counted from any of them. Its own accounting gives the arc: more than $520,000 distributed in grants, scholarships, and awards from its establishment through 2017, $141,643 of it in fiscal 2018 alone; a grant budget that grew from $8,000–$10,000 a year in the early years to just over $30,000 in 2017 and then, in its published figures, $35,000 (2022), $50,000 (2023), $60,000 (2024), and $75,000 budgeted for 2025, with $73,715.48 actually awarded for 2025–26 across 16 traditional grants and 49 EZ Grants. Its most recent register return reports assets of $1,219,405 and revenue of $276,193 (tax period ending June 2025). Named funds stand at documented size within it — the Jeneane Arter Teaching in Excellence Award, established 2016, among them. The two foundations together hold about $2.3 million in the register: the districts' private margin, real money at classroom scale, beside the family fortunes of the articles above.

A third education foundation belongs to the boundary. The Scholarship Foundation of St. Joseph County is told whole in South Bend's file — the 1958 effort, the 1961 corporation, almost $6 million to more than 5,000 students — and is cross-referenced here under that file's own instruction, not re-told. The register adds one wrinkle, printed as register discipline: the Business Master File carries the Scholarship Foundation's mailing city as South Bend (Post Office Box 1602; ruling October 1961; assets $11,326,532), while South Bend's file reports its office in Mishawaka. Both stand as their records give them; the corporation's office and its mailing city are different facts, and the two files print them so.

Sources:

1. School City of Mishawaka Education Foundation: Form 990 (formation 1994; fiscal 2020 and 2022 returns) and Annual Reports 2020–21 and 2021–22 (grants $181,000 in 2022; total assets $477,956.19 and endowment $272,397.25 held by the Community Foundation at August 31, 2022; Lions Club Fine Arts Endowment; donor lists incl. the Irions Foundation and the Schwartz Wiekamp Foundation).
2. Penn-Harris-Madison Educational Foundation: Annual Report 2017–18 ("In 1996 PHMEF was established"; $141,643 in fiscal 2018; more than $520,000 since inception) and its published grant figures 2022–2025 ($73,715.48 awarded for 2025–26); federal compilations carrying formation year 1995.
3. IRS Business Master File, Indiana extract, November 2026: both foundations' rows, tax periods, assets, and revenue; the Schwartz Wiekamp Foundation (EIN 35-1760318, Granger) and Irions Foundation (EIN 35-2022821, Elkhart) rows; the Scholarship Foundation of St. Joseph County row.