Skip to content
Plinth
Foundation DossiersMostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →
Plinth

· Community foundation

Community Foundation for Western Iowa

The COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR WESTERN IOWA is dedicated to creating a lasting legacy in our region by engaging our citizens and communities for durable change and fostering a culture of philanthropy.

$4.2M
Granted FY2024still arriving
39
Grants FY2024still arriving
3
States reached
$1.0M
Largest
01What you fundRead
02The needRead
03Your edgeRead
04Your fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What you fund
0171% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2017–2024.

Education$3.6MHealth$2.5MHuman Services$1.3MHousing & Shelter$1.2MPhilanthropy$1.1MYouth Development$1.0MRecreation & Sports$258kPublic Safety & Disaster$201kAnimals$180kOther$5.1M
02FY2024 · 39 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 39 grants below total $3,548,833 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,167,939 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $619,106 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k7 grants · $45k
  • $10k–50k21 grants · $373k
  • $50k–250k7 grants · $857k
  • $250k+4 grants · $2.3M
$15,000
Median grant
3
States reached
$83M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
SOUTHWEST IOWA NONPROFIT FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT$1,000,000
CHARLES E LAKIN HUMAN SERVICES CAMPUS$600,000
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION$360,000
COUNCIL BLUFFS SCHOOL DISTRICT$315,000
MINDEN COMMUNITY CLUB$231,000
POTTAWATTAMIE ARTS CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT$193,150
NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES$125,562
REVITALIZATION ASSOCIATION OF WEEPING WATER NEBRASKA$100,000
CITY OF MINDEN$85,860
HEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE$69,479
RIVERSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT$51,513
AMERICAN MIDWEST BALLET$43,000
CENTRO LATINO OF IOWA$31,000
CHILDRENS SQUARE USA$30,081
UNION PACIFIC MUSEUM ASSOCIATION$29,924
02The need
03

Do your dollars go where the need is?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $1.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 99% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%FAMILY CRISIS CENTERS: $10k → 8%STANTON CHILD RESOURCE CENTER: $12k → 11%CHARLES E LAKIN HUMAN SERVICES CAMPUS: $600k → 12%YMCA OF GREATER OMAHA: $60k → 12%YMCA OF GREATER OMAHA: $10k → 12%NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES: $126k → 12%EAST MILLS CHILD CARE SOLUTIONS: $20k → 9%YMCA OF GREATER OMAHA: $5k → 12%EAST MILLS CHILD CARE SOLUTIONS: $11k → 9%HEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE: $78k → 12%NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES: $26k → 12%HEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE: $26k → 12%HEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE: $6k → 12%OMAHA BRIDGES OUT OF PROVERTY INC: $38k → 12%TOGETHER INC: $17k → 12%NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES: $18k → 12%OMAHA BRIDGES OUT OF POVERTY INC: $25k → 12%FIREFLY: $11k → 12%NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES: $10k → 12%HEARTLAND CHILD DEVELOPMENT: $7k → 12%NEW VISIONS HOMELESS SERVICES: $6k → 12%PLAY HAVEN CHILD CARE: $20k → 12%CHILDRENS SQUARE USA: $33k → 12%CHILDRENS SQUARE USA: $30k → 12%CHILDRENS SQUARE USA: $22k → 12%FAMILY INC: $22k → 12%FAMILY INC: $12k → 12%FAMILY INC: $11k → 12%FAMILY INC: $10k → 12%CHARLES E LAKIN YMCA: $8k → 12%CONNECTIONS AREA AGENCY ON AGING: $7k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$13M · 32 repeat orgs$2.6M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +22% since the first grant, against +21% for the ones you funded once.

32 repeat relationships — 21 still active in FY2024, 11 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

32
37

Total granted

$13M
$971k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%
+21%

Still filing today

75%
51%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 55% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.6M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Human ServicesHealthHousing & ShelterArts & CultureEducationRecreation & SportsOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • CB
    COUNCIL BLUFFS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC
    6× · 2017–2024 · $3.2M · revenue +62% · 36% of their budget
  • BA
    BLUFFS ARTS COUNCIL
    3× · 2022–2024 · $534k · revenue +14%
  • GH
    Glen Haven Home Inc
    3× · 2017–2019 · $333k · revenue +50%

Funded once

  • FR
    FIRST RESPONDERS FOUNDATION
    one grant, 2022 · $201k · revenue -13%
  • CB
    COUNCIL BLUFFS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DIS
    one grant, 2020 · $143k
  • IW
    IOWA WEST FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $129k · revenue +342%

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Food Bank of Iowa

The organization receives, warehouses, and distributes salvageable food items to non-profit tax exempt member agencies to feed the ill, needy, and infants.

Food & Nutrition
2
West Central Community Action

In partnership with state and federal government, our mission is to administer programs designed to help residents in our 10-county region of southwest iowa achieve self-sufficiency.

Human Services
3
South Central Iowa Community Action Program Inc

To provide advocacy and services for disadvantaged persons and bring about institutional change for the benefit of the people we serve and the community at large. (see schedule o).to achieve this mission, scicap operates programs to…

Community Improvement
4
Regional West Health Services

Health care services for the people of western nebraska and eastern wyoming.

Health
5
Community Action of Eastern Iowa

Community action of eastern iowa respectfully partners with people to improve their health, finances, and education.

Community Improvement
6
Iowa Business Council

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.

—
7
United Way of North Central Iowa

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…

Philanthropy
8
Mid-Iowa Community Action Inc

Mica helps families experencing poverty meet their needs, build on their strengths, and achieve their goals.

Community Improvement
9
Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce

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.

—
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
Western Iowa Development Assoc

Facilitate economic opportunity, business success, community engagement, prosperity, and quality of life for rural western iowa

—
12
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.

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Jennie Edmundson Memorial Hospital Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Iowa West Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 33 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number21%7%<5yr14%7%5–10yr19%15%10–20yr16%25%20–35yr13%26%35–55yr18%21%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value21%1%<5yr14%17%5–10yr19%10%10–20yr16%40%20–35yr13%20%35–55yr18%12%55yr+

The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 1% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 11% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/72
the rest of the field
11%
429/4,019

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

57 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 57 of the 89 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

4
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
56/57
Grantees still filing
32/57
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

COUNCIL BLUFFS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT — $1,317,366 · OtherCOUNCIL BLUFFS COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRIC…VARIOUS — $807,521 · OtherVARIOUSPOTTAWATTAMIE ARTS CULTURE & ENTER — $694,757 · OtherPOTTAWATTAMIE ARTS CULTURE & ENTERBLUFFS ARTS COUNCIL — $534,268 · OtherBLUFFS ARTS COUNCILRIVERSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT — $397,716 · OtherRIVERSIDE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICTMINDEN COMMUNITY CLUB — $231,000 · OtherFIRST RESPONDERS FOUNDATION — $201,000 · Other+47 more — $1,594,547 · Other+47 moreCOUNCIL BLUFFS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC — $3,213,995 · EducationCOUNCIL BLUFFS SCHOOLS F…IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $360,000 · EducationIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FO…+1 more — $10,000 · EducationSOUTHWEST IOWA NONPROFIT FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT — $2,050,000 · HealthSOUTHWEST IOWA NO…Glen Haven Home Inc — $333,000 · HealthGlen Haven Home I…+7 more — $116,082 · HealthCHARLES E LAKIN HUMAN SERVICES CAMPUS FOUNDATION — $600,000 · Human ServicesCHARLES E…New Visions Homeless Services — $185,591 · Human ServicesNew Visio…CHRISTIAN HOME ASSN - CHILDREN'S SQUARE USA — $130,267 · Human ServicesCHRISTIAN…HEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE — $109,914 · Human ServicesHEARTLAND…YMCA OF GREATER OMAHA — $83,033 · Human ServicesYMCA OF G…FAMILY INC — $65,672 · Human ServicesOMAHA BRIDGES OUT OF POVERTY INC — $63,416 · Human Services+7 more — $103,400 · Human Services+7 moreMICAH HOUSE CORPORATION — $1,066,057 · Housing & ShelterINTER-FAITH RESPONSE INC — $68,527 · Housing & Shelter+3 more — $31,482 · Housing & ShelterWOODBINE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION — $1,000,000 · PhilanthropyOmaha Community Foundation — $83,223 · PhilanthropyFOOTHILLS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC — $57,000 · PhilanthropyBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE MIDLANDS — $1,025,145 · Youth Development
Other$5,778,175Education$3,583,995Health$2,499,082Human Services$1,341,293Housing & Shelter$1,166,066Philanthropy$1,140,223Youth Development$1,025,145

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetCOUNCIL BLUFFS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION INC — $3,213,995 over 6y, 36% of budgetSOUTHWEST IOWA NONPROFIT FOR COLLECTIVE IMPACT — $2,050,000 over 3y, 15% of budgetMICAH HOUSE CORPORATION — $1,066,057 over 4y, 30% of budgetBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE MIDLANDS — $1,025,145 over 2y, 7.1% of budgetCHARLES E LAKIN HUMAN SERVICES CAMPUS FOUNDATION — $600,000 over 1y, 5.7% of budgetBLUFFS ARTS COUNCIL — $534,268 over 3y, 11% of budgetIOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION — $360,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetGlen Haven Home Inc — $333,000 over 3y, 2.8% of budgetMINDEN COMMUNITY CLUB — $231,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetFIRST RESPONDERS FOUNDATION — $201,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetNew Visions Homeless Services — $185,591 over 5y, 2.7% of budgetMIDLANDS HUMANE SOCIETY — $180,042 over 5y, 5.0% of budgetCHRISTIAN HOME ASSN - CHILDREN'S SQUARE USA — $130,267 over 6y, 0.4% of budgetIOWA WEST FOUNDATION — $129,316 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetHEARTLAND FAMILY SERVICE — $109,914 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetRevitalization Association of Weeping Water — $100,000 over 1y, 73% of budgetCENTRO LATINO OF IOWA — $90,522 over 4y, 15% of budgetBALLET NEBRASKA — $85,239 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetYMCA OF GREATER OMAHA — $83,033 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetINTER-FAITH RESPONSE INC — $68,527 over 3y, 9.8% of budgetFAMILY INC — $65,672 over 5y, 0.9% of budgetSOUTHWEST IOWA NATURE TRAILS PROJECT — $65,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetOMAHA BRIDGES OUT OF POVERTY INC — $63,416 over 2y, 3.3% of budgetALEGENT HEALTH - BERGAN MERCY HEALTH SYSTEM — $41,728 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetIowa Legal Aid — $41,479 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetEAST MILLS CHILD CARE SOLUTIONS — $31,000 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetUNION PACIFIC MUSEUM ASSOCIATION — $29,924 over 1y, 7.0% of budgetVISION TREYNOR GROUP INC — $26,500 over 2y, 8.2% of budgetPLAY HAVEN CHILD CARE — $20,000 over 1y, 30% of budgetJENNIE EDMUNDSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL FOUNDATION — $19,735 over 2y, 0.8% of budgetPOTTAWATTAMIE CONSERVATION FOUNDATION — $19,224 over 3y, 3.0% of budgetTOGETHER INC OF METROPOLITAN OMAHA — $17,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetHISTORIC GENERAL DODGE HOUSE INC — $17,000 over 2y, 4.7% of budgetBIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF THE MIDLANDS — $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetALL CARE HEALTH CENTER — $14,153 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAPPLIED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE — $13,750 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetSOUTHWEST IOWA FAMILIES INC — $12,170 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTHE STANTON CHILD RESOURCE CENTER INC — $11,900 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetHABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF COUNCIL BLUFFS IA — $11,095 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetNEOLA BETTERMENT CORPORATION — $10,387 over 1y, 16% of budgetQUALITY LIVING INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetVISION ATLANTIC INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFAMILY CRISIS CENTERS INC — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetKANESVILLE RIDERS HONOR GUARD — $10,000 over 1y, 21% of budgetCHI HEALTH FOUNDATION — $10,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetESSEX CHILD CENTER — $8,640 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetJENNIE EDMUNDSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL — $8,296 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMUNITY ALLIANCE FOUNDATION — $7,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Iowa West FoundationThe Lozier FoundationCharles E Lakin Found…The Sherwood Foundati…Todd and Mary Heistan…Mutual of Omaha Found…Immanuel Community Vi…Robert B Daugherty Fo…The Hawks FoundationUnion Pacific Foundat…United Way of the Mid…Peter Kiewit Foundati…
Iowa West FoundationIA65.7× affinity29 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Iowa West Foundation · The Lozier Foundation · Charles E Lakin Foundation Inc · The Sherwood Foundation · Todd and Mary Heistand Family Foundation · Mutual of Omaha Foundation · Immanuel Community Vision Foundation · Robert B Daugherty Foundation · The Hawks Foundation · Union Pacific Foundation · United Way of the Midlands · Peter Kiewit Foundation

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Community Foundation for Western Iowa funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%6%25%56%100%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    22report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25

    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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Community Foundation for Western Iowa?

    Find your warmest path to Community Foundation for Western Iowa 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 directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 89 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    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 camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home
    State money flows
    the interactive map of money crossing state lines