Iowa · Nonprofit
GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION
GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION (Iowa) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,109,976 to it, the largest being Athene Charitable Foundation ($2,301,666). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 606 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 606 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Golf Charitable Foundation of Greater Des Moinesshared funderslocal
- Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas Outdoor Fundportfolio match
- Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundationportfolio match
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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
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 1% · 2021 1% · 2023 8% · 2024 2% · 2025 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (74% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $60k → $1.9M.
7 of 38 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $9.7M from 5 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Community Fdn of Greater Des Moines F/K/A Greater Des Moines Community Fdn). These are real filings, and they are not money GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 38 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
GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 32% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 67% · 2018 100% · 2019 83% · 2020 41% · 2021 20% · 2022 33% · 2023 63% — 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 GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 55% 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 GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $202k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 38 funders put you typical among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Golf Charitable Foundation of Greater Des Moinesshared funderslocalIA · backs 54 organizations that share your funders · funds 107 organizations near you
- Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas Outdoor Fundportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Openlandsportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National Environmental Education and Training Foundation Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National Recreation and Park Associationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Outdoor Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Leiter Family Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Fourten Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Fishamerica Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- National Park Trust Incportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Andrew R and Janet F Miller Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
73% 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 GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION?
- GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION (Iowa) receives grants from 38 organizations whose IRS filings report $7,109,976 to it, the largest being Athene Charitable Foundation ($2,301,666). 21 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 38 organizations giving $7,109,976 in grants to GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION, 21 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION?
- Athene Charitable Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,301,666 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT OUTDOORS FOUNDATION 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.
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 38funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing