· Private foundation
Hills Bancorporation Foundation
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.
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 · FY2024
- Under $10k14 grants · $75k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $47k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY SCHOOL FOUNDATION | $25,000 |
| THE HISTORY CENTER | $12,000 |
| THE IOWA CITY BIKE LIBRARY | $10,000 |
| BOYS & GIRLS CLUB OF THE COORIDOR | $8,000 |
| GIRL SCOUTS OF EASTERN IOWA & WESTERN ILLINOIS | $7,500 |
| BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA HAWKEYE AREA COUNCIL | $7,500 |
| FILMSCENE | $7,500 |
| UNIVERSITY OF IOWA DANCE MARATHON | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF IOWA | $5,000 |
| IOWA JOBS FOR AMERICAS GRADUATES (IJAG) | $5,000 |
| IC PUBLIC LIBRARY FRIENDS FOUNDATION | $5,000 |
| SAFETY VILLAGE OF JOHNSON COUNTY | $5,000 |
| EASTERN IOWA ARTS ACADEMY | $5,000 |
| HEARTLAND YOUTH FOR CHRIST | $3,000 |
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 (FY17–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 8% of Hills Bancorporation 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, 85%.
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 +101% since the first grant, against +32% for those funded once.
26 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2024, 13 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $26k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- CRCEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2024 · $175k · revenue +101%
- FFILMSCENE8× · 2017–2024 · $55k · revenue +150%
- EIEastern Iowa Arts Academy8× · 2017–2024 · $48k · revenue +121%
Funded once
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUBone grant, 2023 · $8k
- BOBUR OAK LAND TRUSTgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $6k · revenue +27%
- RTRIVERSIDE THEATRE COone grant, 2023 · $5k · revenue -18%
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.
Provision of christ centered education with scholastic excellence.
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in iowa.
The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.
Founded in 1995 as the philanthropic arm of the iowa credit union league and guided by the credit union philosophy of "people helping people", the iowa credit union foundation (the foundation) works to champion financial well-being for…
Our mission is to inspire the iowa city area to be greater by: 1) elevating business, 2) investing in strategic initiatives, and 3) advocating for the economic resiliency of the greater community.
To deliver programs and to conduct research for the benefit of students, educators, emerging leaders and employers that expand their knowledge and enhance their individual responsibility and leadership skills.
To empower central iowa youth with an entrepreneurial mindset, financial capability and foundation for career success so that they can creat a bright and fulfilling future.
To excite, engage and educate through the arts.
To promote the common business interests of member companies without profit and without the inuring of income to the benefit of any member company or individual. to present the executive, legislative, judicial and regulatory bodies…
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.
Aligning donor passion and generosity to advance iowa state university's land grant ideals.
The iowa scholarship fund solicits gifts to provide financial support exclusively for scholarships (tuition, room, board, and fees) to students who participate in intercollegiate athletics at the university of iowa.
How this is measured
25 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. 25 of the 43 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 CEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FILMSCENE ↗
- Who funds Eastern Iowa Arts Academy ↗
- Who funds HAWKEYE AREA COUNCIL BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA ↗
- Who funds LINN-MAR SCHOOL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LINN COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds IOWA JOBS FOR AMERICA'S GRADUATES INC ↗
- Who funds CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF EASTERN IOWA AND WESTERN ILLINOIS INC ↗
- Who funds FAITH ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL CZECH & SLOVAK MUSEUM & LIBRARY INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE CORRIDOR ↗
- Who funds MIRACLES IN MOTION THERAPEUTIC EQUESTRIAN CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds BUR OAK LAND TRUST ↗
- Who funds THE KERNELS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds RIVERSIDE THEATRE CO ↗
- Who funds MULTICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTER OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds SAFETY VILLAGE OF JOHNSON COUNTY ↗
- Who funds THE FOUNDATION FOR THE IOWA CITY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT ↗
- Who funds MOUNT VERNON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOUR OAKS FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICES ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR THE TRADES ↗
- Who funds HEARTLAND YOUTH FOR CHRIST INC ↗
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: GreenState Credit Union · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation · The Kenneth K Kinsey Family Foundation · Hills Bank Donor Advised Gift Fund · Community Foundation of Johnson County · Midwestone Bank Foundation · John P & Lawrence J Giacoletto Fnd · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · United Fire Group Foundation · The Accel Foundation · Greenstate Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Hills Bancorporation Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Hills Bancorporation Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Hills Bancorporation Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Hills Bancorporation 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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