Iowa State University Foundation: $147.0M Revenue, $119.9M Program Expenses

Iowa State University Foundation earns a C on the efficiency rubric — the median bucket on the LakeQuality scale, indicating performance close to the national midpoint across program spending, executive compensation, and financial reserves. Composite score: 63/100.

Iowa State University Foundation is a large nonprofit by U.S. standards: $147.0M in 2023 revenue against $153.8M in expenses. Organizations in this revenue bracket usually run multiple programs with permanent staff and a meaningful endowment or reserve. Iowa State University Foundation directs 80% of its expenses to programs — above the third-party-rater threshold for an efficient organization.

Five-year revenue trend is mildly negative: a modest decline that could reflect grant-cycle timing, donor turnover, or program wind-down. Worth checking against the program-spending pattern to see whether the decline is structural. CEO compensation is reported as zero in the filing — typical for nonprofits where the chief executive is paid through a related entity (parent system, university, or foundation) rather than the filing organization itself, or for small organizations whose chief is a volunteer or board member. In the Education category, Iowa State University Foundation sits alongside universities, K-12 systems, scholarship funds, and education-research organizations. Education-sector nonprofits often hold large endowments, which affects how the reserves-and-revenue ratios should be read.