Kari McCann Boutell, President, Iowa Council of Foundations
October was a busy month for Iowa Community Foundations! Many of you attended the Annual Connect Conference on October 5th. As you know, the next day we learned the 2016 Endow Iowa Tax Credits were depleted. This is the earliest point in a given year that the tax credits have been used. Community Foundations have been asked to adjust their messaging for the remaining days of 2016.
A group of representatives from the Iowa Community Foundations Initiative met with Governor Branstad on October 17 to discuss the Endow Iowa Tax Credit program. This year, we will be asking for a $2 million increase in the program, so we do not continue to run out of credits and amass a large number of carryover gifts/credits from year to year. We used this Endow Iowa Fact Sheet for our conversation with the Governor and invite you to use it with your board members and local legislators as well.
In addition, the Iowa Council of Foundations has recently launched a new project to collect data to help us articulate the value and benefit of the Endow Iowa and County Endowment Fund programs. We will be sure to share information with everyone once the project is complete.
We have scheduled our Community Foundations Legislative Breakfast for March 28, 2017 from 7:30 – 9:00 am at in the Capitol Rotunda. Please mark your calendars! We hope you can join us to help demonstrate the positive impact this program makes throughout Iowa. We will share additional information with you as we move closer. Thank you for your continued partnership and advocacy for this important legislative program.
