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Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation

The Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation is founded on our commitment to the Rotary value of Service Above Self.

$127k
Granted FY2025still arriving
2
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$50k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Community Improvement$169kHuman Services$97kEnvironment$80kHealth$50kRecreation & Sports$40kPhilanthropy$40kFood & Nutrition$6k
02FY2025 · 2 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 2 grants below total $67,325, the rows itemized in this filing. The $126,875 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $59,550 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k1 grant · $17k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
$50,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$2.8M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ELLIPSIS INC$50,000
ROTARY INTERNATIONAL$17,325
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 (FY18–20, $46k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%SCKIC INC DOROTHYS HOUSE: $40k → 10%DES MOINES COUNCIL OF ST VINC: $6k → 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.
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 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
Family Promise of Greater Des Moines

To provide shelter and services to families experiencing homelessness

—
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
Feeding South Dakota

To eliminate hunger in south dakota.

Food & Nutrition
4
Ywca of Fort Dodge Ia

We are a state licensed substance abuse facility which functions to provide a clinically managed residence treatment center for women and women with children.

—
5
St Cloud Downtown Alliance Foundation

Enhancing and strengthening our community and our regional core.

—
6
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St Cloud

At Catholic Charities, we focus our efforts around three core pillars: Food Access, Mental Health and Housing. Guided by our mission - to serve and enhance human dignity for all people - we provide essential services and foster a sense of…

Human Services
7
Webster City Day Care

Child day care center

—
8
Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc

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.

—
9
United Way of East Central Iowa

Unite the caring power of communities to invest in effective solutions to improve people's lives.

Philanthropy
10
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
11
Freedom for Youth Ministries

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.…

Youth Development
12
Iowa City Unesco City of Literature

To build and support diverse communities of writers and audiences through the transformative power of story. We lead by inclusion and collaboration, celebrating the emotions, discovery and connections inspired by the written word in all…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Catholic Council for Social Concern Inc Catholic Charities; the most unlike its peers is Sckic Inc. 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

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 12 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
8/9
Grantees still filing
7/9
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL: $168,718 · OtherROTARY INTERNATIONALATTAIN: $40,000 · OtherATTAINPOLK COUNTY IOWA: $40,000 · OtherPOLK COUNTY IOWA+2 more: $11,250 · OtherELLIPSIS INC: $50,000 · HealthELLIPSIS IN…SCKIC Inc: $40,000 · Human ServicesSCKIC IncDES MOINES COUNCIL OF ST VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY: $5,750 · Human ServicesDES MOINES…DES MOINES PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $40,000 · PhilanthropyDES MOINE…CAN PLAY: $40,000 · Recreation & SportsCAN PLAYGREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN: $40,000 · EnvironmentGREATER D…FOOD BANK OF IOWA: $5,750 · Food & Nutrition
Other$259,968Health$50,000Human Services$45,750Philanthropy$40,000Recreation & Sports$40,000Environment$40,000Food & Nutrition$5,750

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetELLIPSIS INC: $50,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDES MOINES PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION: $40,000 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetCAN PLAY: $40,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetGREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN: $40,000 over 1y, 0.8% of budgetCATHOLIC COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL CONCERN INC CATHOLIC CHARITIES: $5,750 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetFOOD BANK OF IOWA: $5,750 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetYOUTH EMERGENCY SERVICES & SHELTER OF IOWA: $5,500 over 1y, 0.1% 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.

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.

Prairie Meadows Race …United Way of Central…Community Fdn of Grea…EMC Insurance Foundat…R & R Realty Group Fo…The West Bancorporati…The Merchants Bonding…Gartner Family Founda…Mid-Iowa Health Found…Variety - the Childre…Delta Dental of Iowa …The Blackbaud Giving …
Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino IncIA21.8× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · United Way of Central Iowa · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · EMC Insurance Foundation · R & R Realty Group Foundation · The West Bancorporation Foundation Inc · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation · Gartner Family Foundation % Michael G Gartner · Mid-Iowa Health Foundation · Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa · Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund

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 Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    4report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Rotary Club of Des Moines Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Rotary Club of Des Moines 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.

    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 12 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 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 Rotary Club of Des Moines’ 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