· Private foundation
The Wellmark Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k9 grants · $18k
- $10k–50k6 grants · $151k
- $50k–250k6 grants · $600k
- $250k+6 grants · $2.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA | $758,599 |
| IOWA JAG INC | $400,000 |
| STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION | $387,672 |
| BLUES CARE GIVING CONTRIBUTIONS | $336,307 |
| LIFESCAPE FOUNDATION | $250,000 |
| CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC | $250,000 |
| SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| ROCK VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | $150,000 |
| SPENCER COMM SCHOOL DISTRICT | $100,000 |
| BRAVO GREATER DES MOINES INC | $100,000 |
| IOWA JAG INC | $50,000 |
| SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION OF ROCK VALLEY IA | $50,000 |
| STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA | $33,375 |
| ROCK VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT FOUNDATION | $31,951 |
| SPENCER COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICT | $30,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY21–24, $700k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 96% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 22% of The Wellmark Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 86% of the giving stays in IA; by stated purpose, 78%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +113% since the first grant, against -7% for those funded once.
4 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 1 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 36% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.4M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- BCBLUES CARE GIVING CONTRIBUTIONS4× · 2021–2024 · $4.1M
- IJIOWA JOBS FOR AMERICA'S GRADUATES INC4× · 2021–2024 · $625k · revenue +113%
- COCITY OF CEDAR RAPIDS CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC LIBRARY2× · 2021–2023 · $125k
Funded once
- FBFood Bank of Iowaone grant, 2020 · $352k
- UDURBAN DREAMSone grant, 2021 · $250k · revenue -42%
- FBFOOD BANK OF IOWAgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $200k · revenue +46%
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.
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.
Facilitate economic opportunity, business success, community engagement, prosperity, and quality of life for rural western 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.
The foundation is organized to further the growth and development of private colleges and universities of higher education in 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. this is where giving grows.
Our mission is to champion the iowa city downtown district as a progressive, healthy, and culturally-vibrant urban center of the region.
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…
The organization promotes, develops and advances the business community in iowa city and the surrounding area. in addition, the organization connects business and industry with federal, state and local resources to enable and stimulate…
To foster, encourage, aid or otherwise assist in the economic growth and development of the four-county region of buena vista, clay, dickinson and emmet counties in iowa.
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…
The university of iowa facilities corporation acquires and holds property for the benefit and use of the university of iowa.
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.
Faciltate a team of industry professionals to bring initiatives, education and awareness to skilled trades in iowa
How this is measured
55 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. 55 of the 207 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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.
- Who funds CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ↗
- Who funds IOWA JOBS FOR AMERICA'S GRADUATES INC ↗
- Who funds STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds LIFESCAPE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds URBAN DREAMS ↗
- Who funds SOUTH DAKOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOOD BANK OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds THE DAVIS COUNTY TRAILS COUNCIL CORPORAT ↗
- Who funds NEWBO CITY MARKET ↗
- Who funds LEON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ↗
- Who funds CEDAR FALLS SCHOOLS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CASEY SERVICE CLUB INC ↗
- Who funds FIVE ISLAND TRAIL CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds LET'S SKATE ↗
- Who funds HERREID AREA HOUSING DEVELOPMENT ↗
- Who funds WILLKIE HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds HOMES OF OAKRIDGE HUMAN SERVICES ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation · GreenState Credit Union · South Dakota Community Foundation · United Way of Central Iowa · Mid-Iowa Health Foundation · Kyle J & Sharon Krause Family Foundation · Greenstate Foundation · First Interstate BancSystem Foundation Inc · Athene Charitable Foundation · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Wellmark Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Wellmark Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Wellmark Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Wellmark 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.
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