Iowa · Nonprofit
FAMILIES FORWARD
FAMILIES FORWARD (Iowa) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,963,424 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA ($984,642). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $4.1M
What Families Forward does
Mission
To provide compassionate, life-changing assistance to families and their path to self-sufficiency. This includes operating housing programs for homeless families with children and to provide services to assist families with children in achieving economic self-sufficiency.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Daycare - provides afforable daycare and helps to meet the various needs of each child enrolled in the daycare program.
$727,422 spent$225,957 earned by the program32% of program spendingProvided emergency shelter and supportive services for 68 homeless families including 159 children. 78% of families served by new directions shelter moved into more permanent housing; 91% of the adults that looked for employment gained employment; 100% of the families obtained childcare.
$575,318 spentof which $25,891 as grants25% of program spendingDistribution center - provides family service programs to assist families, including distributions of food and clothing.
$506,533 spent22% of program spendingProvided supportive housing and supportive services for 32 families including 87 children. Families that completed the program increased their monthly household income by 80%. 86% of the participants exited to permanent housing.
$477,172 spentof which $7 as grants$307,930 earned by the program21% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $2,286,445.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $2.3M to $4.5M (+97%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 22% · 2018 17% · 2019 18% · 2020 15% · 2021 33% · 2022 15% · 2023 21% · 2024 7% · 2025 14%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Suzanne Zutter
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income fell $155k → $141k.
9 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of FAMILIES FORWARD’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
FAMILIES FORWARD leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 71%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
74% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund FAMILIES FORWARD.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 55% · 2018 87% · 2019 52% · 2020 48% · 2021 48% · 2022 37% · 2023 64% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
46% of FAMILIES FORWARD's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 49% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
94% of FAMILIES FORWARD's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $244k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Organizations like FAMILIES FORWARD
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FAMILIES FORWARD: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds FAMILIES FORWARD?
- FAMILIES FORWARD (Iowa) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,963,424 to it, the largest being UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA ($984,642). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FAMILIES FORWARD have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $1,963,424 in grants to FAMILIES FORWARD, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FAMILIES FORWARD?
- UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL IOWA is the largest funder on record, with $984,642 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FAMILIES FORWARD find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Families Forward →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 35 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing