How much does Sirk Family Foundation give?

Sirk Family Foundation reported 24 grants totaling $31,395 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 15 and 37 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Sirk Family Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Philanthropy (28%), Human Services (21%), Arts & Culture (20%).

Who are Sirk Family Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Dubuque Community Y ($35k), Dubuque Symphony Orchestra ($20k), Dubuque Museum of Art ($13k).

Does Sirk Family Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 13% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Sirk Family Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Sirk Family Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Heartland Charitable Trust, James B & Melita a McDonough Foundation, Dubuque Racing Association Ltd.

Where is Sirk Family Foundation based?

Sirk Family Foundation is based in IA.

Sirk Family Foundation

Sirk Family Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Sirk Family Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$31k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$20k

Largest

01What it funds

0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$58kHuman Services$44kArts & Culture$43kReligion$15kYouth Development$10kEducation$8kAnimals$6kCommunity Improvement$6kOther$0

02FY2024 · 24 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k23 grants · $11k
$10k–50k1 grant · $20k

$300

Median grant

States reached

$365k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
DUBUQUE COMMUNITY Y	$20,000
DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA	$2,500
DUBUQUE MUSEUM OF ART	$2,000
DUBUQUE REGIONAL HUMANE SOCIETY	$1,000
GRAND OPERA HOUSE	$500
UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE	$500
HILLCREST FAMILY SERVICES	$500
OPENING DOORS	$500
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT THROUGH GOLF	$500
CARNEGIE STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY	$500
ST JUDES CHILDREN HOSPITAL	$400
DUBUQUE FOOD PANTRY	$300
WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO	$250
LIFELINE PILOTS	$250
DUBUQUE BOYS & GIRLS CLUB	$250

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $43k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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

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.

94%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$144k · 40 repeat orgs$9k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +62% since the first grant, against +0% for those funded once.

40 repeat relationships: 23 still active in FY2024, 17 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$144k

$9k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+62%

+0%

Still filing today

73%

50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $250 went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesArts & CultureEducationYouth DevelopmentAnimalsHealthOther

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

DC
DUBUQUE COMMUNITY Y
7× · 2017–2024 · $35k · revenue +81%
DS
DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
8× · 2017–2024 · $20k · revenue +203%
DM
DUBUQUE MUSEUM OF ART
7× · 2017–2024 · $13k · revenue +148%

Funded once

UI
UPLIFT INTERNATIONALE
one grant, 2021 · $3k · revenue -33%
RC
ROTARY CLUB OF DUBUQUE
one grant, 2017 · $3k
JA
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT OF THE HEARTLAND
one grant, 2020 · $1k

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.

Dubuque Area Convention and Visitors Bureau

The Dubuque Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) will lead tourism destination promotion and development to enhance and expand the Dubuque Area experience.

Community Improvement

United Way of Dubuque Area Tri-States

To connect people and resources to advance the health, education, and income of those in need in our community.

Philanthropy

Foundation for Dubuque Public Schools

Support student achievement by promoting investment in the Dubuque Public Schools.

Philanthropy

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.

—

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

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

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.

—

American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa

The union works to advocate and advance a public policy agenda to support and protect the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the state of iowa. it works to maintain throughout the united states the rights of free…

—

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

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Iowa

The foundation works to defend and promote the constitution of the united states, focusing especially on the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and 14th amendments. the foundation also works to defend and promote the constitution of the…

Civil Rights

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.

—

The Dubuque Visiting Nurse Association

The visiting nurse association exists to promote and improve the health, wellness, and safety of individuals and communities through provision of comprehensive, home, and community based initiatives and services.

—

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque; the most unlike its peers is American Heart Association 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

38 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 38 of the 58 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

38/38

Grantees still filing

31/38

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$72,050Philanthropy$59,997Human Services$42,500Arts & Culture$18,090Youth Development$7,650Animals$6,400Education$4,500

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.

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.

Heartland Charitable TrustIA51.1× affinity22 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Heartland Charitable Trust · James B & Melita a McDonough Foundation · Dubuque Racing Association Ltd · Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque · Falb Family Charitable Foundation · The Butler Family Foundation · Ay McDonald Charitable Foundation · Alliant Energy Foundation Inc · Spahn & Rose Lumber Co Charitable Fdtn · Flynn Family Foundation · Schoen Family Charitable Trust · Crescent Electric Charitable Foundation

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

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

13report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

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.

Play a game based on Sirk Family’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