Catholic Tuition Organization Has Tax Credits To Award for 2025

October 1, 2025

Explanation of CTO Iowa Tax Credits

The Catholic Tuition Organization is one of 12 school tuition organizations in Iowa granted authority to distribute state income tax credits in support of students attending private schools. CTO tax credits help donors to help qualified students in one of the 16 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Des Moines.

For the 2025 tax year, CTO is seeking donations of up to $4,115,105, with 90% of those funds raised earmarked to support students whose family income is within 400% of the federal poverty limit. Heading into the final quarter of the calendar year, CTO has more than 70% of those tax credits still available. Granted the final quarter of the calendar year is when the bulk of the donations to CTO arrive, it is still important to spread the word about their availability.

More than 1,900 students attending our Catholic schools qualified under the federal poverty guideline to receive a CTO tuition award for the 2025-26 school year. CTO granted them $2.14 million dollars in support. Last year we used about half of the credits assigned to the Diocese of Des Moines, leaving half to expire! 

Donors get 75% of their donation back as an Iowa tax credit. If you expect to pay Iowa income taxes this year, CTO urges you to speak with your tax professional to see if you would benefit from contributing before Dec. 31.

If you plan to give and haven’t done it yet, please don’t wait until the end of December! Several donors last year waited too long and didn’t beat the deadline. The postmark on the envelope was too late and in several cases their stock gift wasn’t processed in time.

Eligible donors in 2025 under state law include those expecting to pay Iowa state income tax for the calendar year, including individuals, some trusts and estates, partnerships, limited liability companies, S-corporations and C-corporations. There is no limit in state law as to the amount of a single tax credit that can be granted by an STO.

For more information on CTO tuition grants or donating, contact Brian Tingleff, Director at 515-237-5010 or btingleff@dmdiocese.org.