· Private foundation
Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend 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.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k3 grants · $12k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $85k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $370k
- $250k+1 grant · $799k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| WILTON COMMUNITY SCHOOLS | $798,697 |
| CAMP BEAR CREEK | $195,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MUSCATINE | $175,000 |
| CEDAR COUNTY FAIR ASSOCIATION | $25,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MUSCATINE | $25,000 |
| YOUNG LIFE | $20,000 |
| WILTON DAYCARE | $15,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MUSCATINE | $4,236 |
| SHEPHERD OF THE CROSS LUTHERAN CHURCH | $2,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 25% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 18% of Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in IA; by stated purpose, 97%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +59% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.
9 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 4 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
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, 96% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CBCAMP BEAR CREEK9× · 2017–2025 · $502k · revenue +104% · 27% of their budget
- YLYOUNG LIFE9× · 2017–2025 · $289k · revenue +59%
- SMSIMPSON MEMORIAL HOME INC4× · 2017–2023 · $243k · revenue +10%
Funded once
- HPHOOVER PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $50k · revenue +63%
- MFMAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF IOWA INCone grant, 2023 · $30k · revenue +6%
- WUWILTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCHone grant, 2018 · $10k
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.
Child day care center
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.
Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.
Christian caring - enhancing lives through a commitment to individualized care in a home empowered by god's love.
Connecting families affected by childhood cancer by providing opportunities that encourage relationships and strengthen community.
The iowa soybean association (isa) is driven to deliver increased soybean demand through market development and new uses, farmer-focused research and results, timely information and know-how, and policy initiatives enabling farmers and the…
Promoting and supporting funeral service excellence and education in the funeral service industry.
Freedom for youth offers the love of jesus christ to at-risk inner city youth and homeless young adults which empowers them to break bondages in their lives, discover their god given purpose and lead a life filled with faith, hope & love.…
The independent insurance agents of iowa will be an unrelenting advocate of the business, professional and political interests of its members; doing so by working in the public's interest and with the highest ethical standards.
Unite the caring power of communities to invest in effective solutions to improve people's lives.
To promote and develop the visitors and convention industry in the greater des moines area and to encourage the utilization of facilities for visitors and conventions.
Engages, equips and empowers learners to explore their vocations, fulfill their potential and serve the world.
How this is measured
9 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. 9 of the 18 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 COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF GREATER MUSCATINE ↗
- Who funds CAMP BEAR CREEK ↗
- Who funds YOUNG LIFE ↗
- Who funds SIMPSON MEMORIAL HOME INC ↗
- Who funds HOOVER PRESIDENTIAL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MAKE-A-WISH FOUNDATION OF IOWA INC ↗
- Who funds CEDAR COUNTY FAIR ASSOCIATION ↗
- Who funds WILTON DAYCARE ↗
- Who funds MUSCATINE COUNTY FAIR ↗
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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.
Open a dossier: Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Herbert L and Nancy M Townsend 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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