Kari McCann Boutell, President
Iowa Council of Foundations
It’s hard to believe we are already nearing the end of 2019. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the past year and celebrate the successes we have enjoyed as a network. As you know, this year marked the 15th Anniversary of the County Endowment Fund Program. We celebrated with tailored advertising across the state, a specialized press release during Community Foundations Week, and this video to highlight the imporant ways the program has invested in Iowa communities and grown endowed funds across the state. As we celebrated this success at Connect, we also encouraged participating counties to think even bigger as we move into the next chapter of this program. Be sure to review these slides from Stacy Van Gorp’s session.
We also hosted several trainings and events throughout the year to strengthen and support the network including:
- Two Planned Giving workshops (one in Dubuque and one in Des Moines);
- Community Foundations Boot Camp in partnership with Indiana Philanthropy Alliance;
- multiple Peer-Learning Calls and Webinars; and
- the 2019 Connect Community Foundations Conference.
We also enjoyed our ongoing conversations and partnership with two community foundation networks, the CEO Network and the Affiliate Liaisons Network. These networks allow peers to share ideas and resources with each other and also provide us an opportunity to learn from the network. Thanks to those of you who continue to engage in these meetings throughout the year. We look forward to continued partneship in the year ahead!
