Iowa · Private foundation
Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey
The mission of the Better Health Foundation is to mobilize philanthropy to measurably improve community health for all the people of the 9-county greater Quad Cities region. Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- $1.9M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 22
- Grants FY2025
- 20
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 80%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $75,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $255,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 4 to 20
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 2
- Total assets, FY2025
- $50M
- Applications
- Preselected organizations only
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 80% of the organizations Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey funded were first-time grantees, receiving 62% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 38% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.3M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 22 | $1.9M | 59% |
| FY2024 | 20 | $2.0M | 80% |
| FY2023 | 8 | $416k | 50% |
| FY2022 | 6 | $166k | 33% |
| FY2021 | 8 | $376k | 38% |
| FY2020 | 4 | $322k | 25% |
| FY2019 | 4 | $507k | 50% |
| FY2018 | 5 | $436k | 60% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis Health System | $1,491,376 | 7 | 0% |
| Vera French Community Mental Health Center Inc | $871,931 | 5 | 4% |
| Community Health Care Inc | $400,000 | 2 | 0% |
| Genesis Health Services Foundation | $332,371 | 2 | 6% |
| Family Resources Inc | $295,000 | 3 | 2% |
| YWCA of Clinton Iowa | $275,000 | 2 | 8% |
| Mercer Foundation for Health | $240,207 | 3 | 30% |
| Transitions Nfp | $225,000 | 3 | 2% |
| Heart of Hope Ministries | $222,000 | 2 | 18% |
| Vera French Foundation | $197,862 | 1 | 26% |
Show all 40 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 7 recipients with no EIN on record ($708k), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 5 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 33 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Quad Cities Community Foundation · Quad Cities Golf Classic Charitable Foundation · United Way Quad Cities · Doris & Victor Day Foundation Inc · The Rock Island Community Foundation · Scott County Regional Authority · Hubbell-Waterman Fndn · Harold R Bechtel Charitable Trust · Rauch Family Foundation I Inc · Moline Foundation · Grant & Virginia Brissman Foundation Nfp · Marie H Bechtel Charitable Trust
How this is measured
Compare Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey with peer funders
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey?
Find your warmest path to Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
About Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey
- How much does Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey give?
- Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey reported 22 grants totaling $1,903,981 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 4 and 20 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (66%), Human Services (14%), Food & Nutrition (5%).
- Who are Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Genesis Health System ($1.5M), Vera French Community Mental Health Center Inc ($872k), Community Health Care Inc ($400k).
- Does Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 80% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
- Which funders back the same organizations as Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Quad Cities Community Foundation, Quad Cities Golf Classic Charitable Foundation, United Way Quad Cities.
- Where is Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey based?
- Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey is based in IA.
Play a game based on Better Health Foundation Melinda Gowey’s filings →