Guess which nonprofit CEO earned $4,926,772. See how Des Moines schools are ranked. And quit talking with chatbots.

Each November, we take a look at some of the highest salaries among nonprofit organization employees in the state of Iowa. Using candid.org, we sort by the highest-grossing nonprofits in the area and review their most recent 990 tax form. Here are the largest salaries we found:

Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino once again jumped to the top of the highest-grossing nonprofits, coming in at $2,595,228,457 in total revenue. Their most recently available 990 form is from 2023. It states President and CEO Gary Palmer as its highest earner, with his salary listed at $1,698,944. This is up a bit more than $100,000 from the 2022 form. The next highest earner was Senior VP and COO Ann Atkins, whose salary also jumped six figures to $693,268.

The Central Iowa Hospital Corporation’s total revenue came out to $1,227,218,973. They have three physicians on their books who earned seven figures. On their 990 form, it lists Physician Robert Isaak with a salary of $1,137,409, Arshin Sheybani earning $1,007,862 and John Triantafyllos at $1,005,243. As for executives, CEO David Stark has earned $1,133,577 total, and Senior VP and COO Eric Lothe is listed as making $1,009,710.

Catholic Health Initiatives – Iowa Corporation, aka Mercy Medical Center, came in third with a total revenue of $977,048,225. Five of their employees hauled in seven figures, according to their 2024 990 form. Director and CEO Robert Ritz, who topped our list last year, had a total compensation of $2,103,598. Dr. Hijinio Carreon, regional chief medical officer, earned $1,196,065. Director and President Michael Wegner earned $1,084,868. Senior VP and CFO Randall Rubin made $1,023,460. Cardiologist Mark Tannenbaum rounds out their starting five at $1,003,530.

Next up is Iowa Health System, which features our highest earner. According to their 990 form, total revenue came out to $495,106,486. In total, Iowa Health System had nine executives or employees making seven figures. Here are the top three: President and CEO Clay Holderman put all others on this list to shame with his total compensation coming in at $4,926,772, more than double that of last year’s highest. COO and Senior VP Susan Erickson’s total compensation was $1,969,435. David Williams, CCO, earned $1,857,782. The other five seven-figure earners were Scott Kizerch, Peter D Watson, Robert Erickson, Dandre Carpenter, Aaron Gillingham and Daniel Carpenter. …

The Iowa School Performance Profiles released its 2025 data on how public schools performed on required measures. We went to the school rankings tab to see which Des Moines area schools are performing the highest. The categories are: Exceptional, High Performing, Commendable, Acceptable, Needs Improvement and Priority. The largest percentage of Iowa schools is in the commendable score range at 25.19%. Only 1.88% of schools are in the exceptional range. 

Cowles Elementary School, located in Windsor Heights, was the lone Des Moines School in the exceptional school range. Downtown School, located, you guessed it, downtown, was the only Des Moines school in the high performing range. Jefferson Elementary School and Greenwood Elementary School were in the commendable range. Thirteen schools landed in the acceptable range, including Roosevelt High School. Seventeen schools landed in the needs improvement range, including Lincoln, North and Hoover high schools. Twenty-one schools fell in the priority school range, including East High School. …

Advance America, a consumer financial services company, conducted a survey on how many days on average people have to work to cover household bills. This included housing, food, childcare, healthcare, transportation and utilities. The group surveyed more than 3,000 households across the country and determined that, on average, it takes Iowans 17 days to earn enough to cover their bills. Alabama had the greatest struggle, coming out to 26 days. Colorado is doing the best, at 10 days. Groceries and food hit people the hardest, with 56% saying food was the expense that climbed the most in the past year. …

Have you talked to a chatbot lately? Have you talked to it about your feelings? First of all, cut it out. Second, according to a study by AllSafeIT, an IT provider, Iowans’ top use for chatbots was “coping with anxiety.” The study also said that, on average, Iowans spent an additional 17 days, two hours and 36 minutes online since using chatbots. …

The Iowa Energy Center Board awarded nearly $2.3 million in energy grants in October. The program is funded by gas and electric utilities across the state and enables eligible applicants to “pursue projects that provide a benefit to Iowa ratepayers.” The majority of the money went to Iowa State University, which is using the wind from Cyclones to power windmills. Not really, but the projects ranged from enhancing Iowa’s energy resilience through anaerobic digestion-based microgrids to AI-assisted robotic mapping of underground infrastructure. Of the $2,267,837 in grants, $2,011,328 of it went to ISU. The remaining $256,509 went to Terenc, a company based in Bloomfield that focuses on sustainable energy solutions, for a distributed energy resource management system for rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. …

Iowa Realtors released housing market data for September 2025. Year over year, for single-family homes, the numbers say there are 7.2% more new listings, 5.9% more home sales, and a 6.5% increase in median sales price. Numbers were similarly positive from the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors, whose September numbers say, year over year, there was a 14% increase in available homes, an 18.3% increase in home sales and a 5.1% increase in the median sales price, which is $305,000. 

Nationally, homebuyer statistics have caused some concern. According to a report from BatchData, 33% of single-family homes were bought by investors in Q2 2025. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median first-time home buyer age increased to 38 from 35, and the typical repeat buyer age increased to 61 from 58. Data from Redfin shows that home sellers outnumber home buyers by more than 500,000, the largest gap ever recorded since it began tracking data in 2013. ♦