Iowa · Nonprofit
VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA
VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA (Iowa) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,653,602 to it, the largest being WESTERN UNION FOUNDATION ($500,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 79
- Grants received
- $3.7M
- Net assets
- $6.7M
What Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa does
Mission
Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa is dedicated to improving the lives of children who are at risk, underprivileged, critically ill, or living with special needs.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Variety provides funding to qualified agencies throughout iowa for children who are underprivileged, at risk, critically ill or living with special needs. Variety provides all-inclusive playgrounds for children of all abilities to play together and foster friendship. Variety partners with iowa hospitals to help critically ill children and their families by providing funding to alleviate immediate financial needs. Variety provides bikes, helmets and locks to children who do not own a bike, as well as specialized bikes and equipment for children living with special needs.
$3,183,034 spentof which $2,823,654 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,183,034.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $5.3M to $7.0M (+33%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Wendy Ingham
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 18 funders to 22 funders, grant income fell $410k → $290k.
11 of 79 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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: $3.1M from 7 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 VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA raised.
From the IRS filings of VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 79 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
VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 61% · 2018 31% · 2019 24% · 2020 45% · 2021 29% · 2022 24% · 2023 22% — 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
44% of VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 61% 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
59% of VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA's grant income comes from Iowa funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $656k arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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.
Organizations like VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA
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
83% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
82%
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 VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA: 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 VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA?
- VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA (Iowa) receives grants from 79 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,653,602 to it, the largest being WESTERN UNION FOUNDATION ($500,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA have?
- IRS filings report 79 organizations giving $3,653,602 in grants to VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA?
- WESTERN UNION FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VARIETY - THE CHILDREN'S CHARITY OF IOWA 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 79 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing