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C W Ahrens Charitable Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

C W Ahrens Charitable Trust

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$834k
Granted FY2024still arriving
2
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$833k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$867kPhilanthropy$91kHealth$76kReligion$30kRecreation & Sports$15kHuman Services$5kYouth Development$3kEducation$2kOther$0
02FY2024 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k1 grant · $1k
  • $250k+1 grant · $833k
$833,498
Median grant
1
States reached
$0
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Claude W & Dolly Ahrens Foundation$833,498
LINK$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY23–24, $2k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%LINK: $1k → 9%LINK: $1k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

96%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.1M · 10 repeat orgs$40k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +119% since the first grant, against +33% for those funded once.

10 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 8 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
9

Total granted

$1.1M
$40k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+119%
+33%

Still filing today

50%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
HealthPhilanthropyHuman ServicesEducationRecreation & SportsOther
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.

Backed again, and grew

  • CW
    Claude W & Dolly Ahrens Foundation
    2× · 2023–2024 · $863k · revenue +119% · 49% of their budget
  • GR
    GRINNELL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER
    5× · 2017–2022 · $67k · revenue +35%
  • AP
    Ahrens Park Foundation
    2× · 2018–2020 · $15k · revenue +119%

Funded once

  • SM
    ST MARYS CATHOLIC CHURCH
    one grant, 2017 · $20k
  • NC
    NEWBURG CHESTER CHURCH
    one grant, 2019 · $5k
  • GU
    GRINNELL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
    one grant, 2019 · $5k
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Mid-Iowa Health Foundation
Religion
2
Greater Des Moines Partnership Foundation
Philanthropy
3
Grinnell Mutual Group Foundation
—
4
Community Mercy Health System

Support Community Mercy Health Partners

Health
5
Iowa Specialty Hospital Foundation - Clarion
Health
6
Ames Collegiate Shooting Sports
Recreation & Sports
7
Children's Health Care

We champion the health needs of children and families. we are committed to improving children's health by providing the highest-quality, family centered care, advanced through research and education.

Health
8
Cardinal Health Foundation
Education
9
Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation
Human Services
10
Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation Inc

The mission of gundersen lutheran medical foundation, inc. is to improve the lives of patients and our larger community through medical education, research, outreach, and the philanthropic support of gundersen health system.

Health
11
Dorvin & Betty Leis Family Charities Inc
Philanthropy
12
The Carl C Icahn Foundation (Fka Fndtn for a Greater Opportunity)
—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Grinnell Regional Medical Center; the most unlike its peers is Ahrens Park Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

8 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 8 of the 19 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/8
Grantees still filing
7/8
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Claude W & Dolly Ahrens Foundation: $863,498 · PhilanthropyClaude W & Dolly Ahrens FoundationAHRENS FOUNDATION: $40,500 · OtherAHRENS FOUNDATIO…GREATER POWESHIEK FOUNDATION: $32,000 · OtherGREATER POWESHIE…Individual grant recipient: $27,500 · OtherIndividual grant…ST MARYS CATHOLIC CHURCH: $20,000 · OtherST MARYS CATHOLI…OTHER 501-C (3) ORGS: $18,000 · OtherOTHER 501-C (3) …GRINNELL AREA MENTAL HEALTH: $7,500 · Other+7 more: $20,000 · Other+7 moreGRINNELL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: $66,500 · Health+1 more: $1,500 · HealthAhrens Park Foundation: $15,000 · Recreation & SportsLINK Inc: $2,000 · Human ServicesCENTRAL IOWA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL: $1,000 · Education
Philanthropy$863,498Other$165,500Health$68,000Recreation & Sports$15,000Human Services$2,000Education$1,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetClaude W & Dolly Ahrens Foundation: $863,498 over 2y, 49% of budgetGRINNELL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: $66,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAhrens Park Foundation: $15,000 over 2y, 1.0% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL IOWA: $3,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetST FRANCIS MANOR INC: $2,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetLINK Inc: $2,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $1,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

  • Who funds Claude W & Dolly Ahrens Foundation ↗
  • Who funds GRINNELL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER ↗
  • Who funds Ahrens Park Foundation ↗
  • Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
  • Who funds ST FRANCIS MANOR INC ↗
  • Who funds LINK Inc ↗
  • Who funds American Heart Association Inc ↗
  • Who funds CENTRAL IOWA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL ↗

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.

Lsb FoundationAmazonsmile Foundation
Lsb FoundationIA13.6× affinity4 shared granteesties to 1 of 1Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Lsb Foundation · Amazonsmile 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.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization C W Ahrens Charitable Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from C W Ahrens Charitable Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%3%13%28%50%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    2report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to C W Ahrens Charitable Trust?

    Find your warmest path to C W Ahrens Charitable Trust 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 19 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

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    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
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    The regranting layer
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    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home