How much does Brenton Foundation give?

Brenton Foundation reported 19 grants totaling $85,100 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 23 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Brenton Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (43%), Arts & Culture (27%), Education (8%).

Who are Brenton Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Brenton Arboretum Inc ($158k), Des Moines Metro Opera Inc ($89k), Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden ($40k).

Does Brenton Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 23% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Brenton Foundation 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.

Where is Brenton Foundation based?

Brenton Foundation is based in IA.

Foundation Dossiers

Iowa · Private foundation

Brenton Foundation

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.

$85k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 19
Grants FY2025: 22
Organizations funded FY2024: 23%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $1,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $28,500
Organizations funded a year: 18 to 23; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 4
Total assets, FY2025: $1.4M
Applications: Preselected organizations only; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 23% of the organizations Brenton Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 7% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Arts & CultureEnvironmentAnimalsPhilanthropyInternationalFood & NutritionOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	19	$85k	42%
FY2024	22	$101k	23%
FY2023	21	$83k	24%
FY2022	20	$96k	10%
FY2021	18	$68k	11%
FY2020	23	$81k	n/a

98% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$230kArts & Culture$143kEducation$43kRecreation & Sports$26kHousing & Shelter$15kAnimals$15kHealth$14kFood & Nutrition$9kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Brenton Arboretum Inc	$157,504	6	4%
Des Moines Metro Opera Inc	$89,000	6	1%
Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden	$40,000	5	1%
Edmundson Art Foundation Inc	$36,500	5	0%
Dallas Center Public Libraryfoundation	$25,000	1	n/a
Spurgeon Manor Inc	$15,000	2	0%
Mission Animal Hospital	$12,000	3	0%
Nature Sacred	$10,500	2	0%
Millbrook School	$8,000	3	0%
Outreach Inc	$7,500	2	0%

Show all 32 grantees

All grantees of Brenton Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Brenton Arboretum Inc	$157,504	6	4%
Des Moines Metro Opera Inc	$89,000	6	1%
Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden	$40,000	5	1%
Edmundson Art Foundation Inc	$36,500	5	0%
Dallas Center Public Libraryfoundation	$25,000	1	n/a
Spurgeon Manor Inc	$15,000	2	0%
Mission Animal Hospital	$12,000	3	0%
Nature Sacred	$10,500	2	0%
Millbrook School	$8,000	3	0%
Outreach Inc	$7,500	2	0%
Des Moines Symphony Association	$5,250	5	0%
Yale University	$5,000	1	n/a
Above and Beyond Cancer Inc	$5,000	1	0%
Iowa Arboretum Inc	$5,000	1	1%
Des Moines Public Library Foundation	$4,500	6	0%
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Inc	$3,500	5	0%
Second Harvest Heartland	$3,460	2	0%
Salisbury House Foundation	$3,000	4	0%
Blank Park Zoo Foundation Inc	$2,500	5	0%
Food Bank of Iowa	$2,500	1	0%
Science Center of Iowa	$2,500	5	0%
Lake Minnetonka Garden Club	$2,000	1	2%
Hunger Free Dallas County	$2,000	2	2%
Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation	$2,000	1	0%
Iowa Public Radio Inc	$1,500	6	0%
Dallas Center Celebrations Inc	$1,500	6	n/a
The Young Mens Christian Association of Greater Des Moines	$1,000	2	0%
Voices of Ascension Inc	$1,000	1	0%
Pacem in Terris	$600	6	0%
Yale University	$500	1	n/a
Humanities Iowa	$500	1	1%
Iowa Rivers Revival	$500	1	n/a

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 13 recipients with no EIN on record ($58k), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget Brenton Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 27.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Meredith Corporation FoundationIA32× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Meredith Corporation Foundation · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Gartner Family Foundation % Michael G Gartner · Bookey Family Foundation · EMC Insurance Foundation · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · The Levitt Foundation · John Ruan Foundation Trust · William C Knapp Charitable Fdn · Mary K and Daniel M Kelly Family Foundation C/O Dan Kelly · Weathertop Foundation F/K/A Thomas Nelson Urban Jr · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Compare Brenton Foundation with peer funders

About Brenton Foundation

How much does Brenton Foundation give?: Brenton Foundation reported 19 grants totaling $85,100 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 23 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does Brenton Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (43%), Arts & Culture (27%), Education (8%).
Who are Brenton Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Brenton Arboretum Inc ($158k), Des Moines Metro Opera Inc ($89k), Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden ($40k).
Does Brenton Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 23% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does Brenton Foundation 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 Brenton Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Meredith Corporation Foundation, Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn, Gartner Family Foundation % Michael G Gartner.
Where is Brenton Foundation based?: Brenton Foundation is based in IA.