GrantmakersIowa

Humanities Iowa

Ames, IA · EIN 23-7374180. Reported 26 grants totalling $314,652 to 24 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

24organizations funded
$10,000median reported grant
$314,652granted, 2020-2023
12%of grantees funded again the next year
13%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Humanities Iowa, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A70Z) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 24 distinct organizations, with 13% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 12% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $9,530 and $12,500; the smallest was $6,610 and the largest $39,400. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
8 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
17 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
1 grant

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Hawkeye Community CollegeWaterloo, IA$39,400112021
Des Moines Metro Opera IncIndianola, IA$22,500222022
Iowa Museum AssociationCedar Falls, IA$20,000112022
Iowa Writers HouseIowa City, IA$20,000112022
Dubuque Arts CouncilDubuque, IA$17,700222021
University of Northern IowaCedar Falls, IA$16,850112020
Siouxland Public MediaPo Box, IA$15,000112023
Tolerance Week IncN Sioux City, SD$15,000112021
Ankeny Community NetworkAnkeny, IA$10,000112022
Danish Immigrant MuseumElk Horn, IA$10,000112020
Fair Field ProductionsFairfield, IA$10,000112020
Figge Art MuseumDavenport, IA$10,000112021
German American Heritage CenterDavenport, IA$10,000112021
Iowa Environmental CouncilDes Moines, IA$10,000112020
Iowa Poetry AssociationDes Moines, IA$10,000112023
Mainframe StudiosDes Moines, IA$10,000112022
Sioux City Art CenterSioux City, IA$10,000112023
Siouxland Institute of Film IncSioux City, IA$9,750112021
Iowa City Foreign Relations CouncilIowa City, IA$9,530112020
Seed Savers ExchangeDecorah, IA$9,500112022
Vesterheim Norwegian American MuseumDecorah, IA$7,812112020
Iowa State University Office of Sponsored Programs AdminAmes, IA$7,500112022
Linn County Historical SocietyCedar Rapids, IA$7,500112022
Living ProofMoline, IL$6,610112020

2 of 24 (8%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 12 of 24 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
9 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Environment
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20208$78,502$9,765
20217$106,650$10,000
20228$94,500$10,000
20233$35,000$10,000

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

93% of its giving went to organizations in Iowa. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Iowa
$293K
South Dakota
$15K
Illinois
$7K

Down to the city

Waterloo, IA
$39K
Cedar Falls, IA
$37K
Des Moines, IA
$30K
Iowa City, IA
$30K
Indianola, IA
$22K
Davenport, IA
$20K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc6 shared recipientsCommunity Fdn of Greater Des Moines5 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund5 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc4 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program4 shared recipientsCommunity Foundation of Greater Dubuque4 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Iowa.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Humanities Iowa's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 881, Ames, IA, 50010.

EIN 23-7374180 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.