· Private foundation
Samuel B O'Brien 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 you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k13 grants · $11k
- $10k–50k1 grant · $30k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HISTORIC ARNOLDS PARK | $30,000 |
| IOWA GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION | $6,000 |
| SHATTUCK ST MARY'S SCHOOL | $1,050 |
| DES MOINES METRO OPERA | $1,000 |
| HERITAGE CAROUSEL OF DES MOINES | $1,000 |
| MILL REEF FUND | $500 |
| U OF OKOBOJI JUNIOR TENNIS | $300 |
| BRENTON ARBORETUM | $256 |
| ANIMAL RESCUE LEAGUE | $225 |
| DES MOINES ART CENTER | $140 |
| DES MOINES BOTANICAL CENTER | $125 |
| IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION | $100 |
| PEARSON LAKES ART CENTER | $75 |
| LEWIS AND CLARK COLLEGE | $50 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY19–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 21% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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.
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.
18 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2025, 6 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, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $6k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- DMDES MOINES METRO OPERA INC7× · 2019–2025 · $63k · revenue +83%
- SMSHATTUCK-ST MARY'S SCHOOL7× · 2019–2025 · $14k · revenue +13%
- INIOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION7× · 2019–2025 · $9k · revenue +80%
Funded once
- SUState University of Iowaone grant, 2019 · $5k
- TPTHE PARK FOUNDATION - ARNOLDS PARK IAone grant, 2019 · $2k
- TFTRHS FOUNDATION - ROOSEVELT HIGH SCHOOLone grant, 2020 · $1k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Organization's mission statement true to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the isabella stewart gardner museum is: - to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; - to…
Cultivate stewardship through environmental education and research, advocate for adequate funding of park programs and infrasturcture improvements, increase park users and improve the quality of vistor experiences in iowa parks.
To assist members in the development of their careers and to support lasting parks and recreation systems.
To cultivate and develop an expansive collection of trees, gardens, and plants for all to explore, enjoy and study; and to provide through education and stewardship, a greener, healthier, more beautiful environment.
Icl's mission is to create a conservation community and pragmatic, enduring solutions that protect and restore the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the land and wildlife you love.
To educate students in the liberal arts through free inquiry and the open exchange of ideas.when grinnell college framed its charter in the iowa territory of the united states in 1846, it set forth a mission to educate its students "for…
Aligning donor passion and generosity to advance iowa state university's land grant ideals.
To become a cherished destination for all, where vibrant gardens create transformative experiences that connect people, inspire learning, and deepen appreciation for nature.
Inspiring communities to save wildlife for future generations.
Oregon agricultural trust partners with farmers and ranchers to protect agricultural lands for the benefit of oregons economy, communities, and landscapes.
To conserve, restore and promote the sustainable use and enjoyment of our natural resources, including soil, air, woods, water and wildlife.
We harness the power of plants for humankind and share the joy and beauty of tropical gardening with everyone. fairchild tropical botanic garden is a museum of tropical plants within a world famous, 83-acre designed landscape. it was…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Lewis & Clark College. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
14 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. 14 of the 25 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds HISTORIC ARNOLDS PARK INC ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES METRO OPERA INC ↗
- Who funds SHATTUCK-ST MARY'S SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds IOWA NATURAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds BRENTON ARBORETUM INC ↗
- Who funds IOWA GREAT LAKES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DING DARLING WILDLIFE SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds MILL REEF FUND ↗
- Who funds BLANK PARK ZOO FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds Edmundson Art Foundation Inc ↗
- Who funds PEARSON LAKES ART CENTER ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds PACIFIC CREST TRAIL ASSOCIATION ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Windsor Charitable Foundation · Brenton Foundation · Krause Gentle Foundation · Meredith Corporation Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · National Philanthropic Trust · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Samuel B O'Brien Foundation 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, a single department, or state — and drag the year to watch it move.
- Lewis & Clark College — 2% of income from government
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.