Iris Inc

Overview

Mission

Iris, inc was established by former Iowa lieutenant governor bob anderson in 1993. The mission of the organization is to promote international education, development, and peace by connecting Iowa to communities worldwide. Iris conducts many programs which bring students, journalists, business people, educators, and government leaders from africa, central and eastern europe and asia to Iowa. While in Iowa, the international participants stay with Iowa families, study in Iowa schools, intern in Iowa businesses, and become involved in community activities. When they return to their home countries, they take with them new ideas and strategies for economic development and peace advancement. They also return home with new friendships and a better understanding of americans and our democratic way of life. Iris also links iowans to the world by facilitating international relationships and arranging for travel opportunities for iowans. Almost all have been funded by the u.s. State department.

Operating model

Revenue model

Grant-funded. 92% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.

Distribution model

Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 57
• Transparency & Controls: 92
• Accountability: 69
• Sustainability: 42
• Growth: 60

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• Where the money goes: 52.4% of revenue deployed · 61% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 2 of 8 filing controls reported
• Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $465K in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $131K · 10 people listed
• Consistency: 22 of 22 current checks pass
• Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
• Filing history: 12 filing years from 2012 to 2024
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
• Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
• Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
• People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
• Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

• Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 52/100.
• High — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 7 not reported.
• High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
• High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 22/100.
• High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 14/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
• High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.