Iowa · Nonprofit
International Messengers
International Messengers (Iowa) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,869,503 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($672,351). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $7.2M
- Funders on record
- 31
- Grants received
- $2.9M
- Net assets
- $4.8M
What International Messengers does
Mission
International Messengers is an evangelical, interdenominational missions organization comprised of international staff. We are committed to making disciples of all nations through partnering with local churches to renew, train and mobilize believers for active involvement in reaching the world for Christ.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
International Messengers normally conducts over 40 evangelistic short-term ministries each year, sends over 300 North Americans on short-term missionary endeavors, supports over 175 full-time missionaries around the world, and conducts nearly 100 events designed to challenge and disciple the North American church--these include preaching in churches, speaking at camps, conducting retreats, prayer services, marriage enrichment ministries, and various types of missions presentations. The goals of these activities are two-fold: 1) to reach more people with the good news about having a relationship with Jesus Christ, and 2) to encourage and equip people to be a part of sharing that good news with others. Much of the work we do is measured in intangibles rather than in statistical data. The numbers above give some idea of the scope of the work.
$5,389,368 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $5,389,368.
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 2022 to 2023, from $5.4M to $4.7M (−14%).
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.
99% of International Messengers’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (90% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Brent Howland
Member/CEO
Board chair
Tim Sizer
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 15 funders, grant income fell $341k → $305k.
18 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 88% 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: $12k from one payer (the payer's own filing calls it a related party, largest Brody International Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money International Messengers raised.
From the IRS filings of International Messengers’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 31 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
International Messengers has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 23% 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
89% 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 International Messengers.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 44% · 2018 51% · 2019 54% · 2020 36% · 2021 36% · 2022 42% · 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
67% of International Messengers's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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
88% of International Messengers'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 $349k that is directly attributable, 98% of it comes from funders outside Iowa, across 11 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
International Messengers's revenue grew 55% between 2017 and 2024.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,394 religion nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like International Messengers
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 International Messengers: 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 International Messengers?
- International Messengers (Iowa) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,869,503 to it, the largest being NETWORK FOR GOOD ($672,351). 23 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 88% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does International Messengers have?
- IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $2,869,503 in grants to International Messengers, 23 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of International Messengers?
- NETWORK FOR GOOD is the largest funder on record, with $672,351 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like International Messengers 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 International Messengers →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 31 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