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Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab at a glance

· Private foundation

Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab

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.

$27k
Granted FY2025still arriving
10
Grants FY2025still arriving
3
States reached
$11k
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, FY2020 to 2024.

Education$120kReligion$59kHealth$35kPublic Benefit$15kRecreation & Sports$5kHuman Services$1kEnvironment$300Arts & Culture$300Other$0
02FY2025 · 10 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k9 grants · $16k
  • $10k–50k1 grant · $11k
$1,500
Median grant
3
States reached
$763k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH$10,500
DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH$5,180
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING$5,000
IOWA BARN FOUNDATION$2,500
IOWA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COUNCIL$1,500
ALZHEIMER ASSOCIATION MINNESOTA$1,000
PRIEM CEMETARY$500
MINNESOTA ARBORETUM FOUNDATION$250
LITTLE CEDAR MENNONITE SCHOOL$100
ST ANSGAR RESCUE SQUAD$100
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY20–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $2k → 11%MINNESOTA ARBORETUM FOUNDATION: $250 → 5%CENTER OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT: $5k → 11%THE CORPS FOUNDATION: $100 → 14%PEO INTERNATIONAL: $100 → 10%FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH: $12k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $52k → 15%IOWA BARN FOUNDATION: $3k → 17%HILLSDALE COLLEGE: $20k → 14%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $1k → 11%MINNESOTA ARBORETUM FOUNDATION: $200 → 5%ALZHEIMER ASSOCIATION MINNESOTA: $1k → 11%THE CORPS FOUNDATION: $100 → 14%FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH: $11k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $25k → 15%IOWA BARN FOUNDATION: $250 → 17%HILLSDALE COLLEGE: $20k → 14%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $5k → 11%FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH: $11k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING: $25k → 15%IOWA BARN FOUNDATION: $50 → 17%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $5k → 11%FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH: $7k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING: $5k → 15%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $3k → 11%ST ANSGAR PARKS AND RECREATION: $5k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING: $5k → 15%DESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $2k → 11%ST ANSGAR COMMUNITY SCHOOLS: $3k → 12%UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING: $5k → 15%PRIEM CEMETARY: $1k → 12%PRIEM CEMETARY: $500 → 12%IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH: $200 → 12%ST ANSGAR RESCUE SQUAD: $100 → 12%CEDAR SUMMERSTOCK: $11k → 12%MITCHELL COUNTY: $10k → 12%ST JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH: $9k → 12%ST JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH: $7k → 12%CEDAR SUMMERSTOCK: $1k → 12%LITTLE CEDAR MENNONITE SCHOOL: $100 → 12%MITCHELL COUNTY ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOUNDATION: $100 → 12%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.

89%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$209k · 10 repeat orgs$26k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +51% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.

10 repeat relationships: 6 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

10
7

Total granted

$209k
$23k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+51%
+12%

Still filing today

10%
14%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 90% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21’22’23’24’25
Youth DevelopmentArts & CultureHousing & ShelterOther
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

  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION
    2× · 2020–2021 · $77k
  • UO
    UNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING
    4× · 2022–2025 · $40k
  • FL
    FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH
    4× · 2022–2025 · $40k

Funded once

  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2024 · $10k
  • SA
    ST ANSGAR PARKS AND RECREATION
    one grant, 2022 · $5k
  • CO
    Center of the American Experiment
    one grant, 2024 · $5k · revenue +12%
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
04the grantee network

4 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. 4 of the 22 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
4/4
Grantees still filing
4/4
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $77,025 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSING: $40,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWA COLLEGE OF NURSINGFIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH: $39,778 · OtherFIRST LUTHERAN CHURCHDESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: $18,795 · OtherDESERT FOOTHILLS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHST JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCH: $16,265 · OtherST JOHNS LUTHERAN CHURCHIndividual grant recipient: $12,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipient: $10,000 · Other+11 more: $11,750 · OtherHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $40,000 · EducationHILLSDALE COLLEG…Center of the American Experiment: $5,000 · Youth DevelopmentIOWA BARN FOUNDATION: $2,800 · Arts & CultureIOWA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COUNCIL: $1,500 · Housing & Shelter
Other$225,613Education$40,000Youth Development$5,000Arts & Culture$2,800Housing & Shelter$1,500

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 budgetHILLSDALE COLLEGE: $40,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetCenter of the American Experiment: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetIOWA BARN FOUNDATION: $2,800 over 3y, 1.1% 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 HILLSDALE COLLEGE ↗
  • Who funds Center of the American Experiment ↗
  • Who funds IOWA BARN FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds IOWA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COUNCIL ↗

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%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
    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 Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab?

    Find your warmest path to Gary Gerlach and Karen a Conner Charitab 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 22 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 2025, released 2025. 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

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    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
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    where grant money is based, and what stays home