Home Stability Grant · 2024
“When the roof gave out, I had two weeks before the house was condemned. Eleven days after I wrote to the Foundation, there was a crew on my porch. Strangers with my last name.”
Margarethe Stoessel
Our impact
Help that arrives with a familiar name attached.
Each story below is shared with the family member's written permission. Names and details are theirs; the outcome is ours together.
Heritage Scholarship · 2023
“I was the first in my family to apply to university and the shortfall was €2,800. Anneliese wrote back the day after I applied and just said, ‘We've got you, cousin.’ I graduate in spring.”
Junia Stoessel
Flood Response · 2025
“Nineteen of us packed boxes for four days for relatives we'd only ever seen in a group chat. That's the whole thing, really. Names on a list turning into people on a doorstep.”
The Stoessel-Okafor volunteers
A decade, by the numbers
- 268
- Stoessels directly assisted
- $412,600
- Distributed since 2016
- 9 days
- Median time to first payment
- 41
- Scholarships awarded
- 6
- Countries reached
- 0
- Dollars ever repaid — grants, not loans
Donor recognition wall
Keepers of the Name
Monthly donors who have given for a year or more. Listed with permission; many more give anonymously.
- Helen Stoessel-Braun
- Karl D. Stoessel
- The Bergmann-Stoessels
- Anneliese Stoessel
- Rudy & Pat Stoessel
- Stoessel Brothers Hardware
- Junia Stoessel
- M. Stoessel-Okafor
- The Dubuque Reunion Committee
- Elsa Stoessel-Wray