United Ways of Iowa
Johnston, IA · EIN 46-1216277. Reported 42 grants totalling $2,174,546 to 23 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For United Ways of Iowa, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S20) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 23 distinct organizations, with 23% 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.
- How much its list changes. 62% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $25,000. Half of what it reported fell between $15,733 and $57,263; the smallest was $5,035 and the largest $500,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
14 of those grants were non-cash -- goods, property or services worth $1,195,845 in total. In-kind giving is real support but it is not a cheque.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa Primary Care Association Inc | Des Moines, IA | $500,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| United Way of Muscatine Iowa Incorporated | Muscatine, IA | $290,654 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| United Way of East Central Iowa | Cedar Rapids, IA | $279,719 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| United Way of North Central Iowa | Mason City, IA | $199,337 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| United Way of Central Iowa | Des Moines, IA | $179,212 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| United Way of Story County Inc | Ames, IA | $119,088 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Waverly-Shell Rock Area United Way Inc | Waverly, IA | $99,578 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Cedar Valley United Way | Waterloo, IA | $91,700 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| United Way of Siouxland | Sioux City, IA | $75,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Mahaska County | Oskaloosa, IA | $56,788 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Iowa Nonprofit Alliance | Des Moines, IA | $44,029 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| United Way of the Great River Region | Keokuk, IA | $30,035 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Marshalltown Area United Way | Marshalltown, IA | $28,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Dubuque Area Tri- States | Dubuque, IA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Wapello County Iowa Inc | Ottumwa, IA | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Jasper County | Newton, IA | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| University of Northern Iowa Foundation | Cedar Falls, IA | $20,980 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Clinton County Iowa | Clinton, IA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way Quad Cities | Bettendorf, IA | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of the Midlands | Omaha, NE | $15,733 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Iowa State Univ Extension & Outreach | Ames, IA | $12,853 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| United Way of Johnson & Washington Counties Inc | Iowa City, IA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Uw Greater Fort Dodge | Fort Dodge, IA | $8,840 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
9 of 23 (39%) 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 the money was for
Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.
- Marshalltown Area United Way
COVID-19 AND DERECHO ASSISTANCE
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 14 of 23 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 20 | $540,829 | $21,990 |
| 2021 | 8 | $437,872 | $28,730 |
| 2022 | 5 | $220,298 | $47,840 |
| 2023 | 9 | $975,547 | $55,118 |
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
99% 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.
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $25,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Iowa.
- 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 United Ways of 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 316, Johnston, IA, 50131.
EIN 46-1216277 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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