Welcome to your daily briefing on nonprofit developments in Iowa. Today we're covering 8 key stories including updates on iowa nonprofit headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
5 stories
Iowa American Water announced the launch of the American Water Charitable Foundation's 2026 Water and Environment Grant Program.
Iowa nonprofits focused on water quality, environmental stewardship, or community sustainability may be eligible for funding through this corporate foundation.
The Iowa Grants Guide is a searchable database maintained by the LAWINRC that catalogs more than 500 funders based in Iowa or with an Iowa connection, with filters for funder name and advanced search options.
Iowa nonprofit professionals can use this centralized resource to identify potential funding sources without spending hours researching individual grantmakers across disparate channels.
501c3Lookup.org maintains a current list of all IRS-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in Iowa.
Iowa nonprofit professionals can use this directory for benchmarking, partnership outreach, and understanding the statewide nonprofit landscape.
USG Sperry's 2025 Community Foundation Grant has been awarded to the Southeast Iowa Resource Center, a nonprofit regional organization.
This grant demonstrates how Iowa manufacturing employers invest in local nonprofits through corporate foundation programs, offering a model for relationship-building between nonprofits and regional businesses.
GrantWatch has launched a dedicated Iowa portal to help local nonprofits, schools, religious organizations, and municipalities find grants tailored to their needs.
Iowa nonprofit professionals can now streamline their funding research without sifting through irrelevant national listings, saving time in an increasingly competitive grant landscape.
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3 stories
The IRS-recommended COI policy requires (1) annual disclosure by all directors and key employees, (2) a process for review of any disclosed conflict, (3) recusal procedures, and (4) documentation in board minutes. Policies that have only the disclosure form without the review and recusal process do not satisfy the recommendation.
A weak COI policy is a Schedule L disclosure waiting to happen, and Schedule L disclosures correlate with future IRS examination selection.
Form 990 is required to be made public by the filing organization on request and is indexed by ProPublica and others within weeks of filing. Sections most boards underestimate: Schedule J (top-staff compensation), Schedule L (transactions with interested persons), and Schedule O (narrative explanations that "soften" other answers). Donors and reporters read these.
Items that read fine in management's narrative often read very differently in print. Pre-filing review by a non-finance board member catches optics issues that a CFO will not.
Private inurement is benefit flowing to insiders (officers, directors, key employees); it is an absolute prohibition. Private benefit is benefit to outsiders that is more than incidental to the exempt purpose; it is a question of degree. Both can revoke exemption, but the legal analysis differs.
Insider transactions trigger automatic intermediate sanctions even when the exemption survives. Outsider benefit triggers a facts-and-circumstances analysis. Distinguishing them shapes the defense.
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