Iowa · Nonprofit
FEED IOWA FIRST
FEED IOWA FIRST (Iowa) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,025,265 to it, the largest being GREATER CEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($694,361). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $483k
- Funders on record
- 15
- Grants received
- $1.0M
- Net assets
- $932k
What Feed Iowa First does
Mission
To combat food insecurity today and tomorrow by growing food and farmers.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Grow, share, nourish is a grassroots program addressing food insecurity. We grow produce in two ways. First, Feed Iowa First manages wanatee farm, an 11-acre, chemical free farm in marion. Second, we tend to urban fields, secured through collaborative partnerships with local faith-based organizations, businesses, and corporations to transform their underutilized land into productive farmland. We then distribute vegetables in two ways: directly to pantries and through our mobile pantry, the veggie van. We work with over 37 pantries, directly distributing produce catered to the desires of the populations they serve. Vegetable production wanatee:Feed Iowa First manages an 11-acre farm in marion. Here we engages over 100 local volunteers annually to cultivate fresh produce, in total yielding 10,000-15,000 pounds of produce annually. We partner with linn county conservation on a 20-year land lease, which has allowed the investment in water infrastructure and other program improvements. Vegetable production urban fields: Feed Iowa First manages 9 urban fields. Partner organizations tend, water, weed, and harvest produce, which is then distributed to underserved communities. Feed Iowa…
$200,610 spent$3,980 earned by the program64% of program spendingEquitable land access (ela):equitable land access is a program that connects landless individuals with agricultural backgrounds to fertile land and resources to grow chemical-free, culturally relevant produce. Ultimately, the program aims to lower the barrier of entry to farming, democratize land access, create economic opportunities for marginalized communities, and promote sustainability in our local food system. It is split into two branches: the farm business incubator and community agriculture, each with its own objectives.business incubator: the farm business incubator is a three-year program supporting underserved farmers with affordable land access at wanatee farm, shared infrastructure and equipment, startup materials, and connections to business development and farming resources. Our goal is to help our clients establish farming as a primary source of income. We partner with food retailers and distributors, such as field to family food hub, to create market access opportunities for emerging farmers. We also partner with emerging farmer resource hubs (e.g., practical farmers of iowa), land navigators (e.g., silt), and banking and financing institutions (e.g., crbt and…
$112,666 spent$3,142 earned by the program36% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $313,276.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $603k to $824k (+37%).
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: 2020 6% · 2021 7% · 2022 14% · 2023 22% · 2024 16% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of FEED IOWA FIRST’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 6 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
Josten Jody
Executive director
Board chair
Anderson Sabrina
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $36k → $129k.
4 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 70% 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 FEED IOWA FIRST’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
FEED IOWA FIRST leans on a few funders — its largest provides 68% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
83% 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 FEED IOWA FIRST.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 85% · 2020 49% · 2021 67% · 2022 90% · 2023 81% — diversifying over time.
“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
43% of FEED IOWA FIRST's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
70% of FEED IOWA FIRST's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $313k that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $713k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Against its field
FEED IOWA FIRST holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,936 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like FEED IOWA FIRST
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 FEED IOWA FIRST: 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 FEED IOWA FIRST?
- FEED IOWA FIRST (Iowa) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,025,265 to it, the largest being GREATER CEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($694,361). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 70% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does FEED IOWA FIRST have?
- IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $1,025,265 in grants to FEED IOWA FIRST, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FEED IOWA FIRST?
- GREATER CEDAR RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $694,361 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FEED IOWA FIRST 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 Feed Iowa First →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 15 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing