· Public charity
United Way of Central Iowa
To improve lives by uniting the caring power of our community
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k9 grants · $73k
- $10k–50k46 grants · $1.3M
- $50k–250k42 grants · $4.2M
- $250k+14 grants · $6.8M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DMACC ANKENY | $763,711 |
| DES MOINES INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTR | $690,030 |
| OAKRIDGE NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES | $644,917 |
| EVERYSTEP | $612,912 |
| CHILDREN AND FAMILIES OF IOWA | $547,981 |
| ORCHARD PLACE | $543,000 |
| DENTAL CONNECTIONS | $529,824 |
| LUTHERAN SERVICES IN IOWA | $405,996 |
| IOWA ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN | $400,957 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF CENTRAL IOWA | $350,352 |
| YOUNG WOMENS RESOURCE CENTER | $339,240 |
| YMCA OF GREATER DES MOINES | $335,680 |
| HOME INC | $314,368 |
| YOUTH LAW CENTER | $287,376 |
| BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL IOWA | $249,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $32.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 3% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-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 6% of United Way of Central Iowa’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in IA; by stated purpose, 96%.
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 +37% since the first grant, against +13% for those funded once.
141 repeat relationships: 109 still active in FY2025, 32 since wound down; 1 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, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $55k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- OPORCHARD PLACE9× · 2017–2025 · $8.3M · revenue +11%
- VNVISITING NURSE SERVICES OF IOWA9× · 2017–2025 · $7.8M · revenue +183%
- DCDENTAL CONNECTIONS INC9× · 2017–2025 · $5.8M · revenue +29% · 29% of their budget
Funded once
- EIELLIPSIS INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $300k · revenue +38%
- EFEMPLOYEE & FAMILY RESOURCES INCone grant, 2017 · $137k · revenue +23%
- MHMID-IOWA HEALTH FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue +288%
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.
To provide a highly structured environment which emphasizes a safety and security to all juveniles while serving as a deterrent to criminal and anti-social behaviors. Working youth in the center and communities.
To promote the development, growth and utilization of childrens advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams to better serve Iowas abused and neglected children and their families.
Immigration counseling and advocacy for minority senior citizens
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…
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.
Improve communications between employers and local unions.
Through dynamic partnerships, quality family services, advocacy and education, neicac advances community development and improves social and economic conditions for individuals and families with limited resources.
To enhance the lives of children and their families in southwest iowa by offering family counseling and support programs for families.
Faciltate a team of industry professionals to bring initiatives, education and awareness to skilled trades in iowa
Provide support, resources, and hope for a better future to persons affected by domestic abuse, sexual assault and other crisis.
To assist in the provision of a better life for iowa's low-income residents, through assistance to the community action organization located within the state.
How this is measured
141 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. 141 of the 184 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
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 ORCHARD PLACE ↗
- Who funds VISITING NURSE SERVICES OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds DENTAL CONNECTIONS INC ↗
- Who funds HOMES OF OAKRIDGE HUMAN SERVICES ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN AND FAMILIES OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds IOWA ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN SERVICES IN IOWA INC ↗
- Who funds HOME OPPORTUNITIES MADE EASY INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
- Who funds YOUNG WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER ↗
- Who funds THE YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF GREATER DES MOINES ↗
- Who funds YOUTH LAW CENTER ↗
- Who funds BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
- Who funds Iowa Legal Aid ↗
- Who funds YOUTH EMERGENCY SERVICES & SHELTER OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds YOUTH AND SHELTER SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP FIRE HEART OF IOWA ↗
- Who funds WILLKIE HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds WESLEY COMMUNITY SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds CHILDSERVE FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC COUNCIL FOR SOCIAL CONCERN INC CATHOLIC CHARITIES ↗
- Who funds DES MOINES AREA RELIGIOUS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN AND FAMILY URBAN MINISTRIES D/B/A CHILDREN AND FAMILY URBAN MOVEMENT ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN ↗
- Who funds REFUGEE & IMMIGRANT VOICES IN ACTION ↗
- Who funds FAMILIES FORWARD ↗
- Who funds GOODWILL INDUSTRIES OF CENTRAL IOWA ↗
- Who funds PROJECT IOWA ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL IOWA SHELTER & SERVICES ↗
- Who funds IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HISPANIC EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INC ↗
- Who funds CAPITOL PARK EARLY LEARNING CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds GIRL SCOUTS OF GREATER IOWA ↗
- Who funds IOWA ARTS IN EDUCATION DBA ARTFORCE IOWA ↗
- Who funds IOWA CONGOLESE ORGANIZATION AND CENTER FOR HEALING ↗
- Who funds GREATER DES MOINES HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
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: Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino Inc · Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn · Mid-Iowa Health Foundation · Chrysalis Foundation · Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa · Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation · EMC Insurance Foundation · The West Bancorporation Foundation Inc · Lsb Foundation · The Merchants Bonding Company Foundation · Ita Group Foundation · Golf Charitable Foundation of Greater Des Moines
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization United Way of Central Iowa funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from United Way of Central Iowa. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on United Way of Central Iowa’s filings →