Iowa · Nonprofit
GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN
GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN (Iowa) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,163,084 to it, the largest being THOMAS & LINDA KOEHN FOUNDATION ($1,515,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 49
- Grants received
- $3.2M
- Net assets
- $27M
What Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden does
Mission
Exploring, explaining and celebrating the world of plants.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
More than sixty years ago, community leaders saw the need for an urban garden in the heart of des moines. After years of persistence, their vision came to life with the opening of the botanical center (as it was then known) in 1979. The original botanical center operated as part of the city of des moines' parks and recreation department, featuring the domed conservatory, a tropical plant collection, and a couple of classrooms. Municipal oversight of the botanical center continued through the early 2010s. At that time, four community leaders-former des moines mayor tom urban, buz brenton, fred weitz, and janis ruan-led the transformation of the botanical center into the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. This transformation included the closure of robert d. Ray drive to allow for the construction of outdoor gardens along the des moines river. The Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden opened as a private, nonprofit organization in 2013 and continues to thrive through a strong public-private partnership with the city of des moines today.more than 40 years after its original opening, today's Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden is a vibrant 12-acre public garden-including nearly four…
$4,113,265 spent$1,565,684 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $4,113,265.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $26M to $31M (+23%).
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 7% · 2021 15% · 2022 0% · 2023 21% · 2024 15% · 2025 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (87% 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
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
Kimberley Perez
President / CEO
Board chair
Mike Abbott
Chair of the board
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income fell $412k → $181k.
10 of 49 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 6% 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: $6.3M 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 GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN raised.
From the IRS filings of GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 49 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
GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 76% · 2019 86% · 2020 46% · 2021 39% · 2022 44% · 2023 25% — 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
36% of GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
80% of GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $205k 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.
Against its field
GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 195 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 195 environment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN
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
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
81%
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 GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN: 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 GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN (Iowa) receives grants from 49 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,163,084 to it, the largest being THOMAS & LINDA KOEHN FOUNDATION ($1,515,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN have?
- IRS filings report 49 organizations giving $3,163,084 in grants to GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN?
- THOMAS & LINDA KOEHN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,515,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREATER DES MOINES BOTANICAL GARDEN 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 Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden →
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 49 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