Partnerships That Work. For Good. For Ever.

partnerships that work

For Good. For Ever.

Iowa Community Foundations

Meets standards of excellence.

This publication was produced by the Iowa Council of Foundations (ICoF) for its Iowa Community Foundations Initiative. The ICoF, organized in 1998, is a nonprofit organization that plays a leadership role in promoting philanthropy and effective grantmaking in Iowa. For more information about the ICoF, please visit www.IowaCouncilofFoundations.org. To learn more about the organization’s Iowa Community Foundations Initiative, please visit www.IowaCommunityFoundations.org

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T

hroughout Iowa, companies of all sizes and in a wide range of industries are working with local community foundations to ensure their charitable investments have an even bigger impact on the vitality of their communities—

today, tomorrow and always.

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Partnerships that Work For Good. For Ever.

Iowa

companies know that giving back to their

communities is part of practicing good

citizenship. But they also know it’s good business: The stronger the community where their employees live and work, the more successful their business will be. Throughout Iowa, companies of all sizes and in a wide range of industries are working with local community foundations to ensure their charitable investments have an even bigger impact on the vitality of their communities. By partnering with community foundations, businesses have tapped into a giving experience that is easier and more effective than any other. You can even choose to start a fund in your company’s name.

A partnership with your community foundation not only gives you a way to support essential charitable programs but also provides immediate tax benefits. If the fund is endowed, contributions may qualify for the Endow Iowa Tax Credit, which stretches your dollars further and allows you to give for less (for more details on how the tax credit works, see page 3).

On pages 7 to 20, read about some of the rewarding partnerships that Iowa companies have established with their local community foundations. In the process, they have deepened their connection to their communities and helped create more vibrant places for all of us to live, raise families, work and retire.

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Your Community Foundation Community foundations are nonprofit organizations that focus on building local philanthropy by connecting people to the causes that matter most to them.

Working in partnership with businesses as well as with individuals, families and organizations, community foundations build endowments that benefit charitable projects and programs that meet a broad range of community needs: arts and culture, education, health, human services, community development, historic preservation, the environment and more. Through careful management of each endowment fund, the community foundation remains focused on ensuring that contributions made today, or through estate planning, will continue to provide important grant support in perpetuity.

HOW AN ENDOWMENT PARTNERSHIP WORKS An essential component of the work of community foundations is building a permanent collection of endowed funds through contributions made by many donors—businesses as well as individuals, families and organizations—for a variety of charitable causes. When your business makes a contribution to an endowment fund, that gift is carefully invested for maximum return and growth, ensuring

that the endowment will exist in perpetuity. The growth of endowment funds and the income earned provide the financial assistance necessary to help carry out your philanthropic objectives, such as supporting a particular charitable focus that is of interest to your business.

Endowed funds held at local community foundations typically have a granting policy of about 5 percent. This means

that over time, more grant dollars are available to the community and the endowment fund itself continues to grow.

An endowment partnership with your local community foundation helps your business get a higher return on its charitable investment by advancing the causes you care about—For Good. For Ever.

Year 1 Establish an endowment Fund, perhaps in the name of your

Year 15

Year 25

Year 50

business

$9,500 in cumulative grants

$19,000 in cumulative grants

$66,000 in cumulative grants

$10,000 gift

$16,000 Fund Balance

$23,000 Fund Balance

$57,000 Fund Balance This illustration assumes a 4.5% granting policy and 8.5% rate of return.

Endow Iowa Tax Credit More than 130 community foundations and their affiliates serve every corner of Iowa, providing a trusted and valuable resource to companies, individuals, families, professional advisors and nonprofit organizations.

Your local community foundation is the place to start when your business is ready to explore or enhance its charitable giving efforts or is looking for an innovative way to make a lasting, positive impact on the communities it serves. Visit www.IowaCommunityFoundations.org to connect locally or contact the Iowa Council of Foundations (www.IowaCouncilofFoundations.org) for more information.

No matter which type of endowment partnership your business may explore with your local community foundation, you could benefit from the Endow Iowa Tax Credit. The Iowa Legislature created the program, and since 2004 it has provided an incentive to establish and grow endowment funds for Iowa charitable causes at qualified community foundations. Endow Iowa provides donors the opportunity to apply (on a first-come, first-served basis) for a possible 25 percent State of Iowa tax credit, which is in addition to any federal deduction you may receive for the charitable gift. The Endow Iowa Tax Credit is available to any Iowa taxpayer, including financial institutions and businesses.

Contact your local community foundation to determine if it is qualified

to participate in the program and to learn more about how Endow Iowa can help your charitable investment go even further. This powerful incentive not only allows your business to give for less, it also helps to provide support in perpetuity to numerous Iowa charitable causes.

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How a Partnership Can Work for You Community foundations and businesses can work together in many ways, including building long-term endowment funds that support charitable projects and programs in perpetuity. Your community foundation will work with you to ensure the best partnership that will support the needs of the community and involve you in the most effective way.

Contributions made to a community foundation can be in any amount and in a variety of forms, including cash, appreciated stocks, or other assets; you also may wish to establish the fund in the name of your business. Endowment funds at local community foundations can support specific nonprofit agencies or causes, or you can choose to give to an existing fund that matches your company’s charitable interests.

You also may engage employees or others involved with your business in making grant recommendations from the endowment fund. This option, called a donor advised fund, provides a way for you and your colleagues to remain involved with grantmaking while leaving the administrative details to the community foundation. If broad community support is important to you, perhaps a contribution to an unrestricted fund would be the most effective. But no matter which type of fund you choose, you can be assured that charitable projects and programs important to your company will be supported in perpetuity.

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Types of Endowments There are five major types of endowment funds that can be established, or contributed to, at local community foundations. Grants are then awarded from those funds to support charitable projects and programs through a grant application process, through a donor recommendation or as a designated contribution to a specific nonprofit organization. You may wish to establish the endowment in your company’s name.

Unrestricted Fund This type of fund allows your business to support a broad range of local needs while allowing the community foundation the flexibility to respond to the area’s most pressing demands, both now and in the future.

Donor Advised Fund With this type of fund, your business can remain actively involved in suggesting which programs, projects and organizations receive grants. Often, an employee-based committee reviews requests and makes recommendations.

This provides an avenue to increase community awareness among your employees and engage them in creating lasting change. The community foundation handles the administrative oversight.

Field of Interest Fund When you make your gift to a field of interest fund, you choose the particular area or areas you want to support, such as community development or education, as opposed to specific organizations. The community foundation’s board then awards grants to organizations or programs that serve that purpose.

Designated Fund This type of fund allows your company to choose a specific nonprofit organization or organizations, such as a museum, human service agency or youth center, that your endowment will support in perpetuity. In addition, your company may wish to support continued education—perhaps in a field related to your business—through a specific designated endowment called a scholarship fund.

Agency Endowment Fund This type of fund is established by nonprofit organizations at their local community foundation. It’s a simple and efficient way to build an endowment that helps create sustainability and supports the nonprofit’s mission in perpetuity.

Businesses, individuals, families and organizations may make additional contributions to the fund.

Partnering with a community foundation is a “no-brainer type of decision. The question becomes, why not do it.”

Kyle J. Krause Kum & Go, West Des Moines

“One reason we value our partnership with the Community Foundation is that we have a shared conviction that a targeted action plan can truly make a difference in the community.”

Mara Sovey John Deere, Davenport

Partnering with the Community Foundation “will help us maintain our core values and help future managers do the right thing.”

Steve Goodenow Bank Midwest, Okoboji

“We see the Community Foundation staff as part of our team. When there’s a goal ahead of us, we determine how we can work together to reach it.”

Nancy Quellhorst Iowa City Chamber of Commerce, Iowa City

“Twenty years ago, not in my wildest imagination could I envision the impact United’s gift would have on the community. It will continue to give for generations.”

Gary Brown Woodbury County Disaster and Community Services, Sioux City

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P. 7 Bank Midwest Okoboji Foundation

P. 14 Massena Telephone Company Cass County Community Foundation

P. 8 Crescent Electric Supply company Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

P. 15 Peoples Savings Bank Elma Area Community Foundation

P. 9 Eagles Landing Bed and Breakfast/vineyard and winery Clayton County Foundation for the Future

P. 16 Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company Kossuth County Community Foundation

P. 10 First Central State Bank Lincolnway Community Foundation

P. 17 Platinum Ethanol, LLC Ida County Community Betterment Foundation

P. 11 Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation of Johnson County

P. 18 United Airlines Siouxland Community Foundation

P. 12 John Deere Community Foundation of the Great River Bend P. 13 Kum & Go Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

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P. 19 Van Meter Industrial Inc. Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation P. 20 Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Communications Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa

Bank Midwest Okoboji Foundation (an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines)

C

ompany leaders at Okoboji-based Bank Midwest wanted to find

the best way to both

“reach a lot of people and use our dollars most effectively” in the eight communities the bank serves in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, says Steve Goodenow, president and CEO. That goal triggered the bank to establish a donor advised fund at the Okoboji Foundation.

The fund “is a way for us to stay connected to what’s going on in each community and to give back in a more major way than if we took those dollars out of each year’s earnings,” he says. “We wanted to make sure we were putting

dollars away to fund some bigger projects. The Community Foundation is a vehicle to do that.”

That flexibility is a key advantage to partnering with the Community Foundation, Goodenow says. In some years, he explains, the bank may want to boost its contribution to the fund but there may not be a specific project it wants those additional dollars to support at that time. “The Community Foundation will invest the money, and we can wait for the right project to come along,” he says. “With the expertise they bring, we know the investment will be safe.”

The bank branch in each community vets local funding requests and makes recommendations to a central employee committee. That committee

then reviews the grant applications. “The Community Foundation helps us make sure that the organizations and projects we’re considering are legitimate,” Goodenow says. “They provide a dual check and help us do our due diligence.”

Working with the Community Foundation also helps ensure the bank’s philanthropic commitment to the communities it serves continues through the years, even after the current generation of leaders is no longer involved with the bank. The partnership “will help us maintain our core values and help future managers do the right thing,” Goodenow says. “The Community Foundation is a great partner for us in a lot of ways.” n

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Crescent Electric supply company Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque

C

rescent Electric Supply

Company in Dubuque

has been family owned

since the company was

founded in 1919.

Members of the third generation, who now run the company, are carrying on their family’s long history of serving and supporting the 120 communities where their employees work and live.

That tradition prompted the family to establish a $1.3 million designated endowment at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque that has underwritten the Crescent Community Health Center. The center provides health care and dentistry services to under-served populations. “The money stays local and helps local needs,” says Dick Schmid, senior vice president of Crescent Electric and a member of the

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board of directors. “The health center has broad usage.”

The endowment ensures future generations also will benefit from the health center, Schmid says. “It’s never the initial enthusiasm or donation that makes a project work but the long-term commitment and attention to detail,” he explains. “If you make a one-time donation, it’s over and done with and forgotten. The endowment allows it to live on in perpetuity.”

Schmid adds that the Endow Iowa Tax Credit “allowed us to increase the size of the endowment. The tax credit is a significant piece to the puzzle that allows you to stretch your dollars further. With the current 25 percent tax credit, it’s like getting an extra 25 yards before you even start to run the play.”

Although family members

established the fund, they named the health center to honor Crescent Electric employees, Schmid says. “Our employees are the engine that make this company vibrant and successful,” he says.

Employees also coordinate and volunteer for Homerun for Health and Family Fun Day, an annual charity softball event that raises funds to support some daily expenses the endowment wasn’t designed to cover.

The Schmid family previously operated its own foundation but converted the assets to a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation.

“The Community Foundation provides professional management and security,” Schmid says. “Assuming you’ve done the right due diligence, the Community Foundation provides a convenient and safe way to make an impact.” n

Eagles Landing Bed and Breakfast/ vineyard and winery Clayton County Foundation for the Future (an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque)

O

ver the years, Roger

and Connie Halvorson

have started and run

restaurants, senior

citizen housing facilities, and insurance, real estate and accounting businesses, all in northeastern Iowa. When they “retired,” their enterprising spirit led them to establish Eagles Landing Bed and Breakfast and Eagles Landing Vineyard and Winery along the Mississippi River in Marquette.

Other entrepreneurs, though, don’t often get the help they need to make their dreams a reality, Roger Halvorson says. “Many people who want to start a company don’t even know what a business plan is, let alone know how to put one together,” he says.

That realization spurred the Halvorsons in 2006 to establish a donor advised endowment at the Clayton County Foundation for the Future. The fund will focus on stimulating smallbusiness development in the county, says Halvorson, who expects the first grant to be made in 2011.

“The exciting thing is that I know there are a lot of potential businesses out there. But they need to get off on the right foot,” Halvorson says. “We hope (the endowment) will furnish that help.

The first year, we hope grants will fund a series of seminars around the county on how to create a business plan. Then, we’ll continue from there.”

The Foundation’s managerial and investment expertise appealed to the Halvorsons, and the Endow Iowa Tax

Credit provided an added incentive, he says.

By establishing the fund at the Foundation, the Halvorsons also hope to set an example for other local companies.

An endowment “is a great way for businesses to invest back into the community, get a tax credit for doing so, and contribute to a fund that will last in perpetuity,” Halvorson says.

With one-time donations, on the other hand, “the money gets spent and then it’s gone,” he says. “That’s why a foundation is so doggone important: It’s a way to leave a legacy that will go on helping people and helping the community forever.” n

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First Central State Bank lincolnway Community Foundation (an affiliate of the COmmunity Foundation of the Great River Bend)

O

ver the years, First

Central State Bank in DeWitt—a town of

about 6,000 people in

eastern Iowa—has helped local schools fund athletic, music and academic programs. “Our company is built on the backbone of the school district,” say Brigham Tubbs, First Central’s president and CEO. “My brother and I are graduates of the school district here as are many of our coworkers.”

Although the bank’s various donations have made a positive impact on the schools, Tubbs says that he and his brother, Abe Tubbs, First Central’s chief operating officer, decided they wanted to

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provide a more permanent source of funding. “Rather than always taking a shotgun approach in terms of how we help the district, we thought ‘let’s build those contributions right into our budget,’ ” Tubbs explains. “That thinking then evolved into our interest in creating an endowment.”

So in 2007, the bank established a designated endowment at the LincolnWay Community Foundation to help the schools. The bank is contributing $2,500 a year for 10 years to build the fund. “We wanted to draw on the Foundation’s expertise in operating (the endowment),” Tubbs says, adding that the Foundation’s administrative and record-keeping assistance is also a valuable part of the partnership.

Eventually, grants made from the endowment will help fund the

educational needs of community. Even after it fulfills its 10-year commitment to build the fund, the bank plans to keep contributing to the endowment. The fund’s proceeds will serve students and teachers for generations to come and help ensure the long-term vitality of the community.

“When people are looking to move to a new community, they consider the quality of the schools their children will be attending,” Tubbs says. “We’re doing this (funding the endowment) because we live, work and play here, and we want to see the community grow. And in order to grow, we need to continue to have a strong school system.” n

Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation of Johnson County

T

he Community

Foundation of Johnson

County and the Iowa

City Area Chamber of

Commerce have been “stalwart partners” for more than a decade, says Nancy Quellhorst, the Chamber’s president and CEO. In fact, the Community Foundation was launched in 1998 as a class project of the Chamber’s Leadership Program.

Through the years, the Community Foundation and Chamber have partnered in myriad ways to improve the community, including helping local businesses affected by a tornado in 2006 and by the massive floods of 2008. “We see the Community Foundation as part of our team,” Quellhorst says. “When there’s a goal ahead of us, we determine how we can work together to reach it.”

The two organizations’ strong partnership led the Chamber in 2010 to close its own foundation and transfer the assets to establish a donor advised fund at the Community Foundation. “As we looked at our Chamber foundation, it became evident to us that it was redundant, given we have such a stellar partnership with the Community Foundation,” Quellhorst says. “So we elected to move those funds there; it allows us to serve our community in more efficient ways—together.”

Specifically, the Community Foundation provides administrative and investment management services, allowing the Chamber to focus on its primary mission of fostering a strong business environment. “We have such a high level of confidence in the Community Foundation that we’re very

comfortable having them hold the fund on our behalf,” Quellhorst says.

“Overall, establishing the fund was a decision based on efficiency,” she adds.

The Endow Iowa Tax Credit provided an “additional benefit” to move the endowment to the Community Foundation, she says.

Quellhorst notes that businesses looking for ways to collaborate with their local community foundation could consider starting with a small initiative.

“Strong partnerships are predicated on trust, and a small project that’s successful builds on that trust,” she explains.

Overall, “we’re fortunate to have such a high caliber of staff and board at our Community Foundation, and we feel privileged to partner with them,” Quellhorst says. “We share the same goal: the betterment of the community.” n

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John Deere Community Foundation of the Great River Bend

A

n innovative partnership

between John Deere and

the Community

Foundation of the Great River Bend is helping to keep kids in the classroom. Achieve Quad Cities, which was spearheaded in 2008 by the Community Foundation and United Way of the Quad Cities Area, focuses on increasing high school graduation rates by removing barriers and creating better opportunities for at-risk youth. The regional alliance also includes 28 additional local companies, nonprofit organizations and school districts.

Studies show that every student who drops out will cost the community about $500,000 in his or her lifetime in lower income, poorer heath and greater dependency on social services. “All the data show that dropping out of high

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school has significant consequences on a community,” says Mara Sovey, president of the John Deere Foundation and director of the company’s Corporate Citizenship and Center of Excellence.

Among other repercussions, dropping out “affects our future workforce. We need to keep our talent pipeline filled, and having educated local workers is important for retention,” Sovey says. “We truly believe that with leadership and focus, this is a solvable problem.”

The Community Foundation plays a key role in providing that leadership, she says. “The Community Foundation brings skills and expertise to the table,” she says. “One reason we value our partnership with the Community Foundation is that we have a shared conviction and believe that with an action plan we can make a difference.

Together, we can help kids move into productive roles in our local community.”

Achieve Quad Cities stemmed from the Community Foundation’s strategic decision to become more proactive in addressing the problems poverty creates.

The alliance is working together to provide a variety of programs—such as one-to-one mentoring of at-risk youth, student internships, career expos, job shadowing and relevant classroom presentations—to improve graduation rates. The goal is to slice the current drop-out rate in half by 2020.

At John Deere, over 60 employees have volunteered in some capacity to support the program. “We’re really excited about our involvement,” Sovey says. The program is “off to a great start, and we’re eager to see the longer-term results.” n

Kum & Go Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

K

yle J. Krause views

establishing an

endowment at a

community foundation

as a “no-brainer type of decision” for companies or individuals wanting to make charitable gifts. “The question becomes, why not do it,” says Krause, president and CEO of Kum & Go, a convenience store company based in West Des Moines that operates 432 stores in 11 states. “From the standpoint of sheer efficiency, a community foundation makes much more sense for setting up an endowment than trying to create your own personal or corporate foundation.”

Kum & Go, which donates 10 percent of each year’s profits to charity, has had a donor advised fund at the

Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines since 1999. The endowment has focused on education and youth, funding programs and initiatives at local high schools and Iowa colleges and universities; school districts in the other states the company serves; and organizations like Bravo Greater Des Moines.

“The logic of partnering with the Community Foundation is that you save on all the back-office costs; you don’t have to deal with the tax forms and all of the paperwork that you’d have with your own foundation,” Krause explains.

“Outsourcing that to the Community Foundation is extremely efficient from a cost standpoint.”

Another benefit, he says, is receiving the tax advantage of contributing to the endowment and then making the grants

at a later date. The Endow Iowa Tax Credit provides a “significant tax advantage,” Krause says. “Utilizing the credits is a wonderful opportunity to endow the future success of charities that are near and dear to one’s heart.”

A community’s charitable landscape often changes over the years; a nonprofit organization, for example, may dissolve or merge with another group, he points out. If that type of change occurs, the Community Foundation “ensures that the fund is used for its intended purpose in perpetuity,” says Krause, who’s also established an endowment in his family’s name at the Community Foundation.

“That can give you solace when you’re making a gift—you know it will last forever.” n

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Massena Telephone Company Cass County Community Foundation (an affiliate of the Omaha Community Foundation/ Community foundations of southwest iowa)

G

ary Maas views Massena

Telephone Company as

“a three-legged stool.” In

addition to serving

shareholders and customers, “we want to be a part of the community and serve the people who live here,” says Maas, a member of the company’s board of directors.

With that philosophy guiding him, he said he could “see the opportunities” in how the telephone company could partner with the Cass County Community Foundation to better serve Massena, a town of about 400 people in southwestern Iowa, and the surrounding area.

Massena Telephone “wanted to do something that would give back to the community both now and in the future,”

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says Maas, who’s also a member of the Cass County Community Foundation’s board. He knew partnering with the Community Foundation would be an effective way for the company to meet that goal.

He presented the idea to Massena’s board, and in 2009 the company established a donor advised endowment at the Community Foundation. The company’s gift was matched dollar for dollar by the Southwest Iowa Foundation and benefited the Cass County Community Foundation.

The Endow Iowa Tax Credit and the ability to take a federal tax deduction provided a significant incentive to establish the endowment, Maas says.

With the tax credit, “you’re able to get a lot more value out of your donation,” he says.

He adds that partnering with the Community Foundation offers other major advantages as well, including professional fund management and guidance and expertise in grantmaking.

The endowment’s first grant, awarded in the spring of 2010, was made to the Massena Library to buy computers and enhance its Internet capabilities, says Maas, who, because he’s a member of the board at both the company and the Community Foundation, stepped away from the decision-making process. The grant “successfully accomplished what it was intended to do,” he says. The company “was able to do something that serves many people and strengthens our community.” n

Peoples Savings Bank Elma Area Community Foundation (an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa)

A

fter the Elma Area

Community Foundation

was established in 2005,

Peoples Savings Bank

saw an opportunity to boost the number of funds held at the Foundation. The bank initiated a creative challenge program that provided a match to permanent endowed gifts.

Specifically, Peoples Savings and the local community betterment group each contributed $1,000 toward an individual or business effort that resulted in a $5,000 unrestricted endowment fund at the Community Foundation, says Bruce Weigel, the bank’s president. That meant individuals, families or businesses only had to put in $3,000 of their own money.

What’s more, the bank offered a 0 percent interest loan to those who preferred to borrow that money until they received

the Endow Iowa Tax Credit and a federal tax deduction the next spring. That made starting an endowment affordable to many people, Weigel notes, with the Endow Iowa Tax Credit providing a “significant” added incentive. The challenge was a success, and over the next several years, funds at the Community Foundation grew to $150,000.

After that successful partnership, Peoples Savings continued to find ways to be an active partner with the Community Foundation. In 2007, the bank established a designated endowment that supports scholarships for high school seniors planning to attend college. So far, one $500 scholarship has been awarded; the number of scholarships will increase as the endowment grows, Weigel says.

Another endowment supports Elma Elementary School.

A major benefit of partnering with the Community Foundation for the two education funds is the administrative and management support, he says. For the scholarship award, the Community Foundation “contacts the schools, gets the applications and makes the decisions,” he explains. “I don’t want to have a say in who gets the scholarships because of fairness issues.”

The growth and visibility of the Community Foundation also has served to encourage volunteerism in Elma, a town of about 600 people in northeastern Iowa. “In the long term, the Community Foundation will be a resource to address community needs without volunteers having to raise all of the money for each project,” Weigel says. “Our volunteer base has increased significantly since we started the Foundation.” n

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Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company Kossuth County Community Foundation (an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa)

W

ith a strong

philanthropic

tradition,

Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company has long had a private corporate foundation. Even so, the 100-year-old Algona-based company established an unrestricted endowment at Kossuth County Community Foundation in 2008. President and CEO Edward Berg views the endowment as an extension of Pharmacists Mutual’s commitment to giving back to the community and hopes it will inspire local companies to do the same.

“We certainly want to set an example for other businesses and

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individuals,” he says. “In the long run, endowments at the Community Foundation will help fund improvements in Kossuth County, in terms of both the social framework and the physical environment. Endowments will continue to benefit the county in perpetuity.”

Pharmacists Mutual chose to establish an unrestricted endowment because it allows the community’s most pressing needs to be addressed—now and in the future, Berg says. Dollars from the endowment are pooled with all other unrestricted funds designated for Kossuth County. Recent grants have supported, for example, a mentoring program at the YMCA, an outdoor learning environment, workshops for area artists and the local 4-H club.

“We trust the Community Foundation to make the decision on how

to use the funds to best serve the county,” Berg says.

A major advantage to partnering with the Community Foundation is that “they do all the administrative work,” he says. “It was a simple process to establish the endowment. We had to do very little to get it up and running. It’d be a heck of a lot more work if we had to set it up ourselves.”

Berg says he hopes to establish a personal endowment at the Community Foundation when he retires. “There’s a lot of flexibility with the Community Foundation,” he says, “for people to support the kind of charitable work that’s important to them.” n

Platinum Ethanol, LLC Ida County Community Betterment Foundation (an affiliate of the Siouxland Community Foundation)

W

hen Platinum Ethanol, LLC

established its

business in Ida

County, company leaders saw the area as more than just a place to produce alternative fuel. “We’re a business in rural Iowa, and we have a commitment to see rural areas thrive,” explains Nick Bowdish, general manager of Platinum Ethanol, which opened its doors outside Arthur, a town of some 300 people in northwestern Iowa, in 2008. “We wanted to be a leader in helping to make the community where our employees live better. Even though we were fresh to the area, we wanted to give back right away.”

That goal led the company to the Ida County Community Betterment

Foundation. “We were impressed with the people who run the Community Foundation and the board,” Bowdish says. “The Foundation provided a formal vehicle to get dollars back into the community.”

Platinum Ethanol pledged to contribute $10,000 a year for 10 years to the Community Foundation’s unrestricted endowment. Earnings from the endowment fund have helped to support fire department equipment, children’s reading programs, library computers, playground equipment and community signage, plus a number of other projects related to education, arts and culture, the environment, health and human services and civic improvement.

“The overall picture is that we wanted the dollars to flow back into the communities where our employees live,

but as newcomers, we didn’t know the best ways the dollars could be used to make a difference,” Bowdish says.

The Community Foundation, on the other hand, has the experience and expertise to effectively screen the grant applications and make the funding distribution decisions, he says. “The board members have been residents of the county for decades and know the people’s and the community’s needs,” he says.

Another advantage of partnering with the Community Foundation is that the endowment will continue to serve the community in perpetuity, he says.

Overall, the Community Foundation “is a good match for us,” Bowdish says. “We appreciate being able to work with them to make a positive impact on the community.” n

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United Airlines Siouxland Community Foundation

I

n July 1989, United Airlines flight

232 made an emergency crash

landing in Sioux City, a tragic

accident that claimed the lives of

112 people on board. But, thanks to a quick and valiant rescue and recovery operation, 184 passengers and crew members survived.

After the accident, United wanted to make a financial donation to the community to honor those who died as well as to show appreciation to the emergency rescue teams who saved so many lives. “United wanted to contribute in a way that was meaningful and long-lasting,” says Gary Brown, director of Woodbury County Disaster and Emergency Services. “We’re fortunate that we had a Community Foundation in place that had the vision of how the gift

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could serve the community in the long-term.”

United Airlines agreed. The fact that the endowment would benefit the community in perpetuity “was very enticing to United,” says Linda Phillips, who directed the Siouxland Recognition Committee, which was formed after the crash to coordinate community-wide efforts related to the incident.

United decided to establish a field of interest endowment at the Siouxland Community Foundation with a $600,000 contribution. Since 1990, more than $730,000 has been awarded in grants and scholarships. Each year, two-thirds of the funds available are distributed to three local colleges to assist students pursuing studies in emergency rescue, medical care and related fields. To distribute the remaining third, the Community

Photo © Sioux City Journal Used With Permission

Foundation awards grants to organizations that are first responders in emergency and disaster situations.

“This really shows the power of endowment,” Phillips says. “Much more has been given out than the amount of the initial gift.”

The endowment’s positive impact has served as an example for other businesses and individuals, she says. In 1999, the captain and crew of Flight 232 established an endowed scholarship fund at the Community Foundation to express their appreciation as well.

“Twenty years ago, not in my wildest imagination could I envision the impact United’s gift would have on the community,” Brown says. “It will continue to give for generations.” n

Van Meter Industrial Inc. Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation

A

s a major company with

a strong tradition of

giving back to the

communities it serves,

Van Meter Industrial (VMI) often gets requests from organizations seeking grant assistance.

“We want to help where it’s needed the most,” says Heather Fleming, manager of health, wellness and safety at the Cedar Rapids-based company. To accomplish that, VMI draws on the knowledge and expertise of the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, where the company established a donor advised fund in 2005.

“We see the Community Foundation as a partner in helping us reach our philanthropic goals,” Fleming says.

“They see a lot of different needs in

the community that we might not be aware of.”

For example, in 2008, when the city was hit with devastating floods, the Community Foundation “had hands-on involvement with a lot of the flood-relief efforts,” she says. “We looked to them for guidance on where funds were most needed.”

In addition to flood relief assistance, grants from the fund have supported the arts, youth-related groups such as Girl Scouts, and hospitals and health organizations such as the American Cancer Society. VMI, which is an employee-owned company, has a charitable giving committee that meets regularly to consider grant requests, often reviewing eight to 10 requests a month.

When a request comes from an organization that the company isn’t

familiar with, the Community Foundation serves as a valuable resource in vetting the group and verifying its legitimacy, Fleming notes. The Community Foundation “does all the due diligence on the organizations that knock on our door,” she says. “They also ensure the funds are used for their intended purpose.”

VMI also has established donor advised funds in each of its other business regions in Iowa, partnering with the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines and the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend in the Quad Cities.

“Working with a Community Foundation gives us that much more of a sense of community,” Fleming says. “We greatly value our partnership.” n

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WaterlooCedar Falls Courier Communications Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa

W

hat do you give

to long-time

community

leaders to honor

them for their legacy of community service? That’s the question David Braton, publisher of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, was pondering recently. He was trying to figure out the best way to recognize the individuals selected for the newspaper company’s first annual “8 Over 80” awards.

“Think about the 80-year-old who has everything and has already downsized,” Braton says. “What do you give a person like that? We knew it needed to be something unique.”

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That led Braton to the idea of establishing an unrestricted endowment at the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa to honor the award recipients. “We thought, ‘Why not do what these people have taught us to do?’ ” Braton says. “Why not give something back to the community as they’ve done all these years?”

The Community Foundation “made it extremely easy” to establish the fund, Braton says. He adds that he has a high level of confidence in the Foundation’s staff and trusts their investment choices.

“We know they’ll be prudent in their investments and protect the (fund’s) assets,” Braton says. “They deal with all the administrative and management aspects of the endowment.”

Honoring the “8 Over 80” leaders

Photo courtesy of courier communications

with an endowment “really struck a chord with them,” Braton says. “They were all thankful that we were supporting the Community Foundation and giving back in a way that will benefit the community in perpetuity.” In fact, Braton adds, after the event, four of the eight honorees made separate, individual contributions to the endowment.

The Courier plans to add to the endowment each year when it honors a new group of “8 Over 80” leaders, and Braton hopes that individuals and other local companies also will make contributions to the fund in recognition of the award recipients. The endowment, he says, “ensures the legacy of those honored will go on forever.” n

www.IowaCommunityFoundations.org

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Meets standards of excellence.

Contact your local community foundation or visit www.IowaCommunityFoundations.org

Iowa Community Foundations is an initiative of the Iowa Council of Foundations 24