Iowa · Nonprofit
MAINFRAME STUDIOS
MAINFRAME STUDIOS (Iowa) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,995,411 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN ($2,098,901). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $9.6M
What Mainframe Studios does
Mission
Mainframe Studios is a financially self-sustaining nonprofit providing affordable workspaces to advance equity and opportunities in the arts. It is the largest nonprofit art studio building in the nation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
In 2025, Mainframe underwent strategic planning and revised our mission and vision statements and added organizational values of respect, collaboration, accessibility, financial sustainability, and risk-taking. Mainframe identified four strategic pillars to guide our work over the next three years: financial health, internal strength, mission delivery, and organization awareness. Mainframe studios completed its third full year operating at 98% capacity. 181 creative workspaces are used by over 220 artists and 8 arts related nonprofits. Mainframe maintained a waitlist of over 155 applicants in 2025. Income from affordable rents generated enough revenue to cover operating costs. An additional 4650 square foot event rental space, The Big Room, provides a place for weddings, converences, workshops, corporate parties and fundraisers for a rental fee. We receive a portion of food and beverage sales that take place in this space. The Big Room also serves as s classroom for our 12-week session of artist professional development and quarterly tenant meetings. Our second-floor common area serves as a learning space where artists regularly share skills with each other. Studio 108 is a…
$1,655,333 spent$1,405,525 earned by the program98% of program spendingMainframe Studios spends a portion of of its budget on programming for monthly First Friday Open Studio events that attract thousands of visitors. We average 2,464 attendees each First Friday with over 14,250 people attending each month. That accounts for a sizable community impact and a total of 174,238 visitor experiences each year. The festive, free First Friday Studio events feature unique and creative experiences for audiences each month. These include exhibitions in 4 gallery spaces, arts activities, and live music entertainment relating to themed events and various art forms such as ceramics, fashion, printmaking and painting. First Fridays also feature local musicians and affordable dinner options by local food vendors and resident caterers, Tangerine Food Company. Tenant/Artists open their studios to connect with new customers and community members to help further their careers and artistic practices. Artists/tenants are paid to support First Friday events by documenting the events and designing all printed and social media. Tenants/Teaching artists support our K-12 art field experiences that saw 998 youth participate in 2025. In fall 2025, Mainframe launched Work of Art:…
$31,211 spent2% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,686,544.
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 2021 to 2022, from $9.0M to $11M (+21%).
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 0% · 2021 6% · 2022 7% · 2023 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
13% of MAINFRAME STUDIOS’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 5 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
Julia Franklin-Jones
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $225k → $328k.
3 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 MAINFRAME STUDIOS’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
MAINFRAME STUDIOS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 73%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
73% 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 MAINFRAME STUDIOS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 37% · 2019 50% · 2020 85% · 2021 62% · 2022 48% · 2023 37% — 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
17% of MAINFRAME STUDIOS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
54% of MAINFRAME STUDIOS'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 $1.8M that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
MAINFRAME STUDIOS is better cushioned than half of the 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 5,127 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like MAINFRAME STUDIOS
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
87% 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 MAINFRAME STUDIOS: 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 MAINFRAME STUDIOS?
- MAINFRAME STUDIOS (Iowa) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,995,411 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN ($2,098,901). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MAINFRAME STUDIOS have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $3,995,411 in grants to MAINFRAME STUDIOS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MAINFRAME STUDIOS?
- COMMUNITY FDN OF GREATER DES MOINES F/K/A GREATER DES MOINES COMMUNITY FDN is the largest funder on record, with $2,098,901 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MAINFRAME STUDIOS 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 Mainframe Studios →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 22 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