· Private foundation
Gunderson Family 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
88% of Gunderson Family Foundation’s FY2025 grant dollars went to Schwab Charitable Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2025 names 4 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2019, the last year Gunderson Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 5 organizations, $171k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2019
- Under $10k7 grants · $6k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $45k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $120k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $120,000 |
| KIDS FIRST LAW CENTER | $25,000 |
| IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $20,000 |
| CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH | $3,000 |
| SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION | $1,000 |
| YMCA | $1,000 |
| NEW CHAPTERS LIBRARIES | $500 |
| SELF-HELP INTERNATIONAL | $250 |
| KEEP IOWA BEAUTIFUL | $140 |
| MARYS MEALS | $100 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $14k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 74% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
13 repeat relationships: 4 still active in FY2019, 9 since wound down; 22 grantees were first funded in FY2019 (too recent to call). Read against FY2019, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $9k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION3× · 2018–2023 · $80k · revenue -13%- KFKIDS FIRST LAW CENTER2× · 2018–2019 · $50k · revenue +121%
- IPIOWA PARKS FOUNDATION2× · 2017–2018 · $26k · revenue -9% · 93% of their budget
Funded once
- HAHARVEST ACADEMYgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue ×35 · 31% of their budget
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITYgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $20k · revenue +47%- YAYOUTH AND SHELTER SERVICES INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue +145%
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.
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.
Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.
Iowa sister states is dedicated to connecting iowans with the world community. our mission is to develop and implement international partnerships and programs that promote the cultural, economic, and other interests of iowa and its friends…
The university of iowa center for advancement's mission is to advance the university of iowa through engagement and philanthropy. we serve our alumni and friends in the state and the region, throughout the country, and around the world. we…
Seeking to build a stronger, more caring community by forming partnerships with businesses, community experts, education & health & human service agencies to achieve targeted outcomes & sustained changes in community conditions which will…
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.
The organization receives, warehouses, and distributes salvageable food items to non-profit tax exempt member agencies to feed the ill, needy, and infants.
The intertribal agriculture council was founded in 1987 to pursue and promote the conservation, development and use of our agricultural resources of american indian and alaska native tribes.
The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.
The mission of the iowa business council is to engage the personal commitment of its executive members in active leadership roles on major initiatives that offer opportuinities to enhance iowa's overall economic vitality.
Isep empowers higher education institutions to expand the perspectives and potential of students around the world through our wide range of accessible, authentic academic intercultural programs.
The iowa center's mission is to empower iowans with the potential to succeed as they pursue opportunities for financial success. the iowa center achieves its mission by delivering three lines of direct service that open up small business…
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
How this is measured
21 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. 21 of the 47 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds KIDS FIRST LAW CENTER ↗
- Who funds IOWA PARKS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HARVEST ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SUN VALLEY SUMMER SYMPHONY INC ↗
- Who funds YOUTH AND SHELTER SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA EUROPEAN CULTURAL CONNECTION ↗
- Who funds CULTUREALL INC ↗
- Who funds HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE OF THE WOOD RIVER VALLEY INC ↗
- Who funds SUN VALLEY CULINARY INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds BLAINE COUNTY SENIORS COUNCIL INC THE SENIOR CONNECTION ↗
- Who funds GENESIS INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA PUBLIC RADIO INC ↗
- Who funds MIND AND SPIRIT COUNSELING CENTER ↗
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: Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · Spur Community Foundation Inc · Ita Group Foundation · United Way of Central Iowa · The West Bancorporation Foundation Inc · Lsb Foundation · Idaho Community Foundation Inc · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc · American Endowment Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Gunderson Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Gunderson Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Gunderson Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Gunderson Family Foundation 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.
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