Butler Childrens Garden Foundation Inc.

Grant seekers should understand upfront that Butler Children's Garden Foundation Inc. is not a conventional grantmaker for outside nonprofits — it is a private operating foundation, established by Debra (Debi) and Andrew (Andy) Butler and inspired by their two granddaughters, built specifically to design, construct, and now operate Wanderwood Gardens, a 2.5-acre children's garden and woodland playground adjacent to the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. Its Form 990 filings mark it as operating in every year on record (FY2022-FY2024), and the numbers confirm it: $0 in grants paid across all three years, with 'total giving' at just $9,455 (FY2022), $70,970 (FY2023), and $0 (FY2024). Governance is a two-person affair — Debra A. Butler (President/Secretary/Director) and Andrew J. Butler (VP/Treasurer/Director) — both drawing $0 compensation, the profile of a closely held family vehicle, not a staffed grantmaking institution with review committees or program officers. There is no grantee list to study (the record shows zero historical grants and no by-state breakdown) because none exist. The foundation is filed under NTEE code T23 (Botanical/Horticultural) inside the broader 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' category, which is a filing artifact rather than a signal that it fields unsolicited proposals — its own consumer-facing website, wanderwoodgardens.com, is built entirely around garden hours, admission, and membership, with no grants page, LOI process, or funding-priorities statement anywhere on the site. The more accurate frame is that this foundation is itself a grant recipient: it holds a two-year, $50,000-per-year Mission Grant from the Dubuque Racing Association (first awarded 2025, continuing 2026) to fund website work, a seasonal internship program, and garden/forest maintenance equipment. For nonprofits with a genuine reason to engage — accessible outdoor education, horticultural therapy, ADA-accessible play design, or complementary programming near the Dubuque Arboretum — the realistic path is a direct partnership conversation with Andy or Debi Butler, not a formal grant application, and expectations should be set accordingly before investing proposal-writing time here.

The financial record tells an operating-project story, not a grants-distribution one. Total assets moved from $3,157,212 (FY2022) to a nearly flat $3,102,223 (FY2023) and then jumped 190% to $8,995,985 (FY2024), driven by $6,005,000 in new contributions received that year alone — versus $3,165,018 in FY2022 and $0 in FY2023 — consistent with a capital push timed to the garden's 2026 opening. Total revenue follows the same arc: $3,166,667 (FY2022) to $15,981 (FY2023) to $6,082,983 (FY2024). Net investment income has stayed modest and unremarkable — $77,983 in FY2024 and $15,981 in FY2023 (effectively all of that year's revenue) — pointing to a small endowment-style cash buffer rather than an actively managed investment portfolio. Grants paid sit at exactly $0 in every filing year captured (FY2022, FY2023, FY2024). The broader 'total giving' line, which can include program spending, was $9,455 in FY2022, peaked modestly at $70,970 in FY2023, and reverted to $0 in FY2024 — too small and inconsistent to describe as a program, and almost certainly reflecting incidental operating costs rather than third-party awards. Officer compensation is $0 across all years, since Debra and Andrew Butler serve as unpaid directors. There is no median grant size, no program-area split, and no geographic breakdown to report because the underlying grantee dataset is empty (zero historical grants, no by-state figures, no average award size on file) — this foundation has made no identifiable grants to outside organizations in the years available. The one concrete outbound/inbound dollar pattern tied to this entity runs in the opposite direction from what a typical applicant expects: Butler Children's Garden Foundation is itself the recipient of a two-year, $50,000-per-year ($100,000 total) Mission Grant from the Dubuque Racing Association, first awarded in 2025 and renewed into 2026, restricted to website completion, a seasonal internship program, and garden/forest maintenance equipment — the closest thing to a documented 'funding pattern' associated with this filing.

All six foundations cluster within roughly $5,900 of a $9-million asset level and share the same generic 'Philanthropy & Grantmaking' NTEE classification, yet none — including Butler — shows a public, itemized grants program in the data available; none of the five peers even list a working website. Butler is the outlier in one respect only: it has built a genuine public-facing digital and physical presence, because its 'grant recipient' is its own operating project rather than a portfolio of external nonprofits. The pattern across this ~$9M asset tier reads as closely held, founder-directed vehicles built around a single purpose or a small pre-selected circle, rather than open-application grantmaking institutions — grant seekers should expect the same from most peers in this cohort unless direct evidence of a distribution program surfaces.

The foundation's news footprint is entirely about the garden it funds, not about grants awarded to third parties. Wanderwood Gardens, the 2.5-acre children's garden and woodland playground adjacent to the Dubuque Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, moved from construction (Telegraph Herald/KWWL coverage of groundbreaking and progress) to a planned 2026 opening, and the foundation's own live site (wanderwoodgardens.com) now shows normal seasonal operating hours (Tuesday-Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday 9am-5pm, closed Mondays) and timed-entry ticketing, indicating the garden has moved into active public operation. On the funding side, the Dubuque Racing Association issued a Mission Grant Release dated June 2, 2025, awarding the foundation $50,000 per year, renewable up to two years, restricted to completing phase two of the foundation's website, launching a seasonal internship program, and purchasing garden and forest maintenance equipment. DRA's 2026 grant announcements (reported June 23, 2026, alongside a $250,000 regional round that also touched the Field of Dreams project) reflect the continuation of that existing multi-year commitment rather than a new award. A Telegraph Herald editorial framed the completed garden as a 'magical community amenity' for the Dubuque region, and outlets have repeated the founding story: Debi and Andy Butler built the project after being inspired by their two granddaughters, with an emphasis on inclusive design — the treehouse canopy trail is ADA-accessible, reaching 18-20 feet up so children with mobility limitations can experience the tree canopy alongside their peers. No leadership changes, new funding programs, or third-party grant announcements from the foundation itself were found; all located activity concerns the garden's construction, opening, and the DRA funding that supports it.

There is no formal grant application process to prepare for here, and treating this like a standard funder will waste proposal-writing effort. The foundation publishes no LOI process, no funding-priorities statement, no application form, and no deadline anywhere in its IRS filings (application_instructions is filed as '__none__') or on its consumer-facing website — because it does not run a third-party grants program. The two people who make every decision are Debra A. Butler and Andrew J. Butler, both unpaid directors, so any real engagement will be a personal relationship, not a committee review. Practically: (1) Do not submit a cold LOI or proposal to the filing address — there is no one positioned to route or review it as a grant request. (2) If the interest is a genuine program partnership (accessible outdoor education, horticultural therapy, nature-based childhood development, ADA-accessible recreation design), reach out through the garden's public line (563-587-9596) or a warm introduction, and frame the conversation as collaboration on Wanderwood Gardens' stated mission — 'Inspiring Lives through Creative Outdoor Play' — rather than as a funding ask. (3) Avoid contacting during peak visitor operations; the garden runs public hours Tuesday-Sunday, so outreach is more likely to land with the Butlers directly in off-hours or off-season (winter, when the garden is likely quieter). (4) If the actual objective is funding for a similar community attraction or capital project, the Dubuque Racing Association's Mission Grant program — the funder that has twice awarded Butler Children's Garden Foundation $50,000/year — is the more relevant model to study directly (dradubuque.com), since it demonstrates an actual open, competitive process in this same geography. (5) Don't rely on aggregator sites (Cause IQ, GetHoldings, GrantAdvance) that list this EIN under grantmaking codes; verify directly that no program exists before investing further time, exactly as this report has done.