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John Ruan Foundation Trust at a glance

· Private foundation

John Ruan Foundation Trust

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$4.0M
Granted FY2025still arriving
52
Grants FY2025still arriving
7
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2021 to 2025.

Education$4.6MRecreation & Sports$3.3MArts & Culture$2.8MHealth$2.4MAnimals$2.0MScience & Tech$2.0MEnvironment$1.7MCommunity Improvement$1.7MOther$0
02FY2025 · 52 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k25 grants · $98k
  • $10k–50k18 grants · $235k
  • $50k–250k2 grants · $160k
  • $250k+7 grants · $3.5M
$10,000
Median grant
7
States reached
$100M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MERCY ONE FOUNDATION$1,000,000
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION$1,000,000
MERCY ONE FOUNDATION$500,000
IOWA CONFLUENCE WATER TRAILS$300,000
IOWA MOTOR CARRIERS FOUNDATION$250,000
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY$250,000
ELLIPSIS$250,000
BRAVO GREATER DES MOINES$100,000
DOWLING CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL$60,000
WORLD FOOD PRIZE$25,000
DES MOINES SYMPHONY$25,000
ISU FOUNDATION$25,000
DRAKE UNIVERSITY$20,000
ST AUGUSTIN CATHOLIC SCHOOL$10,000
SCIENCE CENTER OF IOWA$10,000
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 (FY24–24, $50k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, 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.

area typical 10%JOPPA: $50k → 10%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.

Which US states its grants reach

MN
IL
OR
IA
IN
NJ
CT
CO
MO
VA
DC
TX
FL
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.

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$17M · 63 repeat orgs$6.1M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +15% since the first grant, against +6% for those funded once.

63 repeat relationships: 46 still active in FY2025, 17 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

63
35

Total granted

$17M
$4.2M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+15%
+6%

Still filing today

62%
43%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 54% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.9M went to new ones.

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

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

’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHealthEducationAnimalsRecreation & SportsPhilanthropyOther
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

  • BP
    BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC
    5× · 2021–2025 · $2.0M · revenue +42%
  • DRAKE UNIVERSITY
    5× · 2021–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +4%
  • Northwestern University
    5× · 2021–2025 · $1.0M · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • UC
    US Chamber Foundation
    one grant, 2021 · $1.6M
  • ES
    EVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2023 · $500k
  • CI
    CHILDSERVE INC
    one grant, 2024 · $500k · revenue +7%
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
University of Iowa Facilities Corporation

The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.

—
2
Common Good Iowa

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.

—
3
State University of Iowa Foundation

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…

Education
4
Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

Exploring, explaining and celebrating the world of plants.

Environment
5
State University of Iowa Alumni Association

Our mission is to strengthen the university of iowa through alumni engagement. we do this through our communications, alumni programs, and events.

—
6
Iowa Medical Society

Our mission is to advance the practice of medicine through advocacy, education, and engagement with physicians throughout iowa to ensure the highest quality of care for the patients they serve.

—
7
Iowa Renewable Fuels Association

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…

Community Improvement
8
Iowa Credit Union Foundation

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…

Unclassified
9
Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center

To improve lives in our global community by educating diverse groups of highly competent and compassionate health professionals.

Education
10
Iowa Farm Bureau Foundation

Building iowa's values by recognizing and responding to significantchanges in iowa - those that fundamentally affect families and communities.

Housing & Shelter
11
Midwest Dairy Association

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.

—
12
The Foundation for the Iowa City Community School District

The foundation for the iowa city community school district connects the community with our schools to ensure every student has extraordinary learning experiences. together we empower teachers and district staff and inspire students to…

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Des Moines Arts Festival Inc; the most unlike its peers is World Food Prize 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

57 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. 57 of the 102 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.

2
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
10
Early backer (in before they grew)
57/57
Grantees still filing
36/57
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

US Chamber Foundation: $1,570,000 · OtherUS Chamber FoundationMERCY ONE FOUNDATION: $1,500,000 · OtherMERCY ONE FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION: $1,310,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATIONUNIVERSITY OF IOWA: $1,250,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF IOWAMercyOne Des Moines Foundation: $900,000 · OtherMercyOne Des Moines FoundationFRIENDS OF DES MOINES PARKS: $859,500 · OtherFRIENDS OF DES MOINES PARKSDES MOINES AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE: $775,000 · OtherDES MOINES AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGECommunity Foundation Leadership Circle: $750,000 · OtherCommunity Foundation Leadership CircleEVANS SCHOLARS FOUNDATION: $500,000 · OtherIOWA MOTOR CARRIERS FOUNDATION: $500,000 · OtherCHILDSERVE INC: $500,000 · OtherDes Moines Botanical Center: $482,620 · Other+48 more: $2,433,000 · Other+48 moreSCIENCE CENTER OF IOWA: $1,545,000 · Arts & CultureSCIENCE CENTER OF …DES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $525,000 · Arts & CultureDES MOINES SYMPHON…MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE INC: $415,000 · Arts & CultureMALTZ JUPITER THEA…SALISBURY HOUSE FOUNDATION: $370,000 · Arts & CultureSALISBURY HOUSE FO…BALLET DES MOINES: $276,000 · Arts & CultureBALLET DES MOINESMAINFRAME STUDIOS: $250,000 · Arts & CultureMAINFRAME STUDIOS+10 more: $499,000 · Arts & Culture+10 moreBLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC: $2,045,000 · AnimalsBLANK PARK …GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION: $300,000 · AnimalsGREAT OUTDO…+1 more: $1,000 · AnimalsDRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,070,000 · EducationROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $435,000 · EducationIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 · Education+4 more: $105,000 · EducationNorthwestern University: $1,042,500 · Recreation & Sports+2 more: $3,000 · Recreation & SportsIOWA CONFLUENCE WATER TRAILS: $500,000 · EnvironmentIOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $100,000 · Environment+1 more: $5,000 · EnvironmentELLIPSIS INC: $250,000 · HealthABOVE AND BEYOND CANCER INC: $30,000 · HealthMAYO CLINIC: $25,000 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc: $20,000 · Health+6 more: $28,000 · Health
Other$13,330,120Arts & Culture$3,880,000Animals$2,346,000Education$1,735,000Recreation & Sports$1,045,500Environment$605,000Health$353,000

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 budgetBLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC: $2,045,000 over 5y, 13% of budgetSCIENCE CENTER OF IOWA: $1,545,000 over 5y, 14% of budgetDRAKE UNIVERSITY: $1,070,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetNorthwestern University: $1,042,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION: $525,000 over 5y, 6.2% of budgetIOWA MOTOR CARRIERS FOUNDATION: $500,000 over 2y, 62% of budgetIOWA CONFLUENCE WATER TRAILS: $500,000 over 2y, 8.7% of budgetCHILDSERVE INC: $500,000 over 1y, 3.2% of budgetROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $435,000 over 5y, 20% of budgetMALTZ JUPITER THEATRE INC: $415,000 over 2y, 1.8% of budgetSALISBURY HOUSE FOUNDATION: $370,000 over 4y, 36% of budgetGREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION: $300,000 over 2y, 3.8% of budgetBALLET DES MOINES: $276,000 over 5y, 9.0% of budgetELLIPSIS INC: $250,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetMAINFRAME STUDIOS: $250,000 over 1y, 7.7% of budgetWorld Food Prize Foundation: $150,000 over 5y, 1.1% of budgetFOOD BANK OF IOWA: $127,500 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION: $125,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDES MOINES COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE: $112,500 over 5y, 2.8% of budgetBRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC: $100,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetIOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION: $100,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetLAKE STATES DAIRY CENTER INC: $100,000 over 2y, 1.4% of budgetEdmundson Art Foundation Inc: $55,500 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL IOWA: $55,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetBERGMAN ACADEMY: $50,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetJOPPA: $50,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetLAKE FOREST COUNTRY DAY SCHOOL: $40,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetDOWNTOWN EVENTS GROUP INC: $40,000 over 4y, 2.4% of budgetCulver Educational Foundation: $35,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetABOVE AND BEYOND CANCER INC: $30,000 over 3y, 1.1% of budgetIOWA COLLEGE FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetMAYO CLINIC: $25,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetAVON OLD FARMS SCHOOL INC: $25,000 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetDES MOINES ARTS FESTIVAL INC: $25,000 over 5y, 0.5% of budgetIOWA LAW SCHOOL FOUNDATION: $25,000 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetVARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA: $22,500 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetSouthern Methodist University: $20,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc: $20,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetBRENTON ARBORETUM INC: $13,500 over 5y, 0.4% of budgetIOWA HISTORICAL FOUNDATION: $12,500 over 5y, 1.2% of budgetDES MOINES PERFORMING ARTS: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOYT SHERMAN PLACE FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetORCHARD PLACE: $10,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWESLEYLIFE: $7,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetNATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION: $5,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetColonial Williamsburg Foundation: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJupiter Medical Center Foundation Inc: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHOPE MINISTRIES: $5,000 over 2y, 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 BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC ↗
  • Who funds SCIENCE CENTER OF IOWA ↗
  • Who funds DRAKE UNIVERSITY ↗
  • Who funds Northwestern University ↗
  • Who funds DES MOINES SYMPHONY ASSOCIATION ↗
  • Who funds IOWA MOTOR CARRIERS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds IOWA CONFLUENCE WATER TRAILS ↗
  • Who funds CHILDSERVE INC ↗
  • Who funds ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE INC ↗
  • Who funds SALISBURY HOUSE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds BALLET DES MOINES ↗
  • Who funds ELLIPSIS INC ↗
  • Who funds MAINFRAME STUDIOS ↗
  • Who funds World Food Prize Foundation ↗
  • Who funds FOOD BANK OF IOWA ↗
  • Who funds IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds DES MOINES COMMUNITY PLAYHOUSE ↗
  • Who funds BRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC ↗
  • Who funds IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
  • Who funds LAKE STATES DAIRY CENTER 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.

EMC Insurance Foundat…Community Fdn of Grea…Prairie Meadows Race …Meredith Corporation …The Merchants Bonding…Bookey Family Foundat…The West Bancorporati…Wt and Edna M Dahl Tr…Kyle J & Sharon Kraus…Thomas & Linda Koehn …Gartner Family Founda…William C Knapp Chari…
EMC Insurance FoundationIA51.1× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: EMC Insurance Foundation · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · Meredith Corporation Foundation · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation · Bookey Family Foundation · The West Bancorporation Foundation Inc · Wt and Edna M Dahl Trust · Kyle J & Sharon Krause Family Foundation · Thomas & Linda Koehn Foundation · Gartner Family Foundation % Michael G Gartner · William C Knapp Charitable Fdn

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 John Ruan Foundation Trust funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from John Ruan Foundation Trust. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%13%25%38%50%share of the org’s income from government →median 3%
  • Tuality Healthcare Foundation: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
2get no government money at all
14report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–50%
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.

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 102 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

Play a game based on John Ruan’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$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