Northeast Iowa Funders Network
For sustainable communities
The Northeast Iowa Funders Network was established to connect community foundations and other philanthropic organizations as they collaborate to leverage regional and national funding opportunities in northeast Iowa.
Goals of the Network:
- Learn more about the FFI initiative at the regional and community level
- Understand how each funder's goals fit with the initiative
- Collaborate to support regional policy-focused approaches to meeting initiative goals
- Support grant-making which reflects and leverages the work of the initiative
Latest News:
Northeast Iowa Funders Network Honored at Iowa Nonprofit Summit
The Northeast Iowa Funders Network, an emerging collaborative of six county community foundations recently received the Nonprofit Collaboration Award at the Iowa Nonprofit Summit in November. The summit brought together more than 600 leaders of nonprofit organizations from across the state to discuss management, fundraising, training, governance and other issues. As part of the Summit,organizers also presented five individuals and non-profit organizations with awards honoring their work. (Read more.)
$14,750 in Grants Received for Regional Projects
The Northeast Iowa Funders Network expresses sincere thanks to Winneshiek, Clayton, Allamakee, and the Fayette County Community Foundations' Board Members for their confidence and strong financial support of this regional effort to facilitate an open, creative and participatory network for funders around the issues related to building strong and vibrant communities. These contributions of $14,750 to our grantmaking pool, will serve the families and communities six-county region, and brings the Funders Network balance to $20,509.
First Grant Awarded
The members of the NE Iowa Funders Network approved a $9720 request from the Food and Fitness Intitative for the Farm to School Cross-Age Teaching Folios. The folios will be used by high school youth to teach 1-3 graders about where Iowa food comes from and what, that any of the foods we eat are grown in NE Iowa. The focus is on the importance of purchasing foods locally in order to support local jobs, local producers and local communities.
Through this project, students and families will strengthen their knowledge about agriculture, local foods, nutrition and the environment. This project will touch 1400 first graders and high school youth together with 120 teachers and the families of the children in the six county region including schools in Decorah, Postville, Turkey Valley, Howard-Winneshiek, Oelwein and Starmont. This grant leverages $7740 in costs plus the in-kind match from the FFI Regional Team for development of the folios. Folio topics are diverse and include information on local fruits and vegetables, dairy, meat and grain products.
PE4Life
The Northeast Iowa Funders Network is reaching out to the Iowa Business Council and its PE4Life program. The Northeast Iowa Funders network has much in common with the Iowa Business Council as we seek to gather funders committed to building a healthy future for Iowa through partnerships with our schools. Does your school district participate in PE4Life? To learn more, visit: www.pe4life.org.
Aspen Institute Presentation
The Aspen Institute, a nonprofit organization serving missions around the globe, hosted Northeast Iowa Funders Network Convener M.J. Smith as a presenter in April for a symposium of the Kansas Community Foundation. Aspen Community Strategies Co- Chair John Molinaro commended the Northeast Iowa Funders Network for being a model for regional cooperation for other rural states. Most noteworthy to conference participants was the willingness of counties to come together around a common vision for the future, and overcoming barriers to dialog and sharing of financial resources for the benefit of all.
Membership:
The NEIFN is comprised of representatives from community foundations in the region, including Allamakee, Winneshiek, Howard, Chickasaw, Clayton, and Fayette as well as host foundation representatives in Waterloo and Dubuque.
The role of community foundation representatives is to become educated about projects and funding opportunities and then officially communicate the networkıs business back to the county boards as well as bring the county boardıs needs to the network.
Funding Partners:
Allamakee County Community Foundation
Clayton County Foundation for the Future
Chickasaw County Community Foundation
Howard County Community Foundation
Fayette County Community Foundation
Winneshiek County Community Foundation
Community Foundation of NE Iowa
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
For more information, contact:
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Nancy Van Milligen, President/CEO
Dubuque Building, Suite 195
700 Locust Street
Dubuque, Iowa 52001
Phone: (563) 588-2700
Fax: (563) 583-6619
