Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation
"Building a Strong Foundation For the Future"
2008 Grants | Foundation Brochure | 2005 MCICF Reports
The
Foundation's Mission:"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." -Winston Churchill
About the Foundation. . . .
The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation serves donors who wish to make an investment in our county or communities that will be carried out both during and beyond their lifetime. Its primary advantage is to assure donors the most lasting good in the most efficient way possible.
By creating a fund sustained by charitable gifts of all sizes, the Foundation builds and manages a permanent yet flexible pool of funds -- a growing endowment -- with which to meet our changing needs as our people and institutions respond to changing times.
Acting as an umbrella organization, the Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation channels funds in the form of grants to all types of community projects, from the needs of underprivileged children to the construction of large community facilities.
As a tax exempt public foundation, we seek private gifts for public good from any individual, family, group, organization, corporation or private foundation. A knowledgeable board of directors serves as trustees of these funds; supervising all investments to produce a good return, investigating and monitoring grant opportunities, and distributing all income earned in accordance with the terms of any gift.
Priorities for Funding
The Foundation has identified seven broad categories in which needs are known to exist:
• Educational Program Development and Scholarship Programs
• Arts and Cultural Programs including Historic Preservation
• Wellness / Recreation Programs serving all age groups
• Health Care and Social Service Programs serving all age groups
• Public Affairs and Community Development Programs
• Public Facility Construction, Rehabilitation and Maintenance
• Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Programs
In reviewing proposals for funding, the Foundation's directors look for projects that:
• increase citizens' commitment to meet community needs;
• eliminate duplication of services and encourage cooperation;
• develop self-reliance or eliminate dependency;
• address new and emerging needs or incorporate new approaches to meeting recognized needs;
• address themselves to prevention as well as to treatment;
• are models that have a strong possibility for replication, or have demonstrated significant success elsewhere;
• increase the managerial and financial capabilities of non-profit organizations and public agencies;
• develop, disseminate, or follow up on seed research concerning the region and its people.
Types of Funds:
Unrestricted Funds.
Income from unrestricted funds is distributed at the discretion of the Board of Directors. Perhaps the most important of all foundation assets, unrestricted funds enable the Board to respond to changing needs as they arise.Field-of-Interest Funds.
These are funds whose income is used to support programs or organizations in a field specified by the donor. Funds could be designated for education, health care or the arts, for example, or for meeting needs in a particular community.Designated funds.
These funds are designated by the donor to support an established organization or program.Donor-Advised Funds.
These funds allow for donors to make suggestions as to how the income from their fund is spent. The Board welcomes this form of involvement and makes every reasonable effort to follow the donor's wishes.Combined Funds, Pass-Through Funds, and Administrative Endowment Funds.
For more information on these funds and ways to earmark a gift for a particular community, consult the Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation.
Why Become a Donor?
As a donor to the Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation, you will benefit in these ways:
• Permanence.
Your gift may establish or add to a permanent endowment.• Commemoration.
You may create a fund in your name, memorialize another person, or draw attention to a charitable field by using its name.• Recognition.
All grants made from named funds can be identified to the recipients by the name used for your fund.• Investment expertise.
You are saved the time and expense of investing by assured professional investment expertise that guarantees a good return for charity.• Supervision.
Grant opportunities are investigated and monitored by the board.• Giving Options.
Some funds let you direct how grants will be made each year.• Flexibility.
If a field or a beneficiary that you designate should become obsolete in the future, your designation may be appropriately modified to meet the needs of Monroe County.• Simplicity and Convenience.
Creating a fund from your gift is not complicated.• Tax advantage.
Your gifts to the Community Foundation are accorded maximum tax advantage by the Internal Revenue Service. By making gifts through the Foundation, you can achieve business, family and estate planning objectives; assist the charitable agencies and causes that you favor; and produce maximum benefits for the communities of the Monroe County area.
Ways of Giving:
The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation can accept almost any kind of charitable gift including:• cash
• securities
• real estate
• life insurance
• life income trusts
• charitable lead trusts
• bequests
• private foundation assets
We welcome gifts of any size from individuals, corporations, private foundations and nonprofit organizations. Even family - managed trusts and small foundations can find it advantageous to transfer their assets to a donor-advised fund with the Foundation. In so doing, they benefit from the tax advantages of a public foundation and its efficiency.
Whatever their charitable interests, all donors have in common a strong attachment to the Monroe County area and an enduring commitment to meet its present and future needs.
Policy for Grantseekers:
The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation hopes to identify projects where a grant will solve some problem in addition to meeting a need and will have a lasting effect beyond the immediate purpose of the grant.
The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation uses its resources to enable non-profit organizations and public agencies to explore or undertake new missions and to find ways of fulfilling old missions more effectively. It thus emphasizes one-time grants rather than continuing support, seeking to provide that increment of funding that will help applicants to more effectively address the needs before them and adapt to the decades ahead.
Board of Directors
Kevin M. Kness, President Linda Davis, Vice President
David A. Johnson, Treasurer Daniel J. Tometich, Secretary
Norm Braun, Director Carroll Rhine, Director
Brenda Wynn, Director
For More Information . . .
Contact Dave or Dan:
Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation
Bates Building
1 Benton Avenue West
Albia, Iowa 52531-1942
Tel. 641.932.7233
Fax. 641.932.3044
E-mail. aidc@iowatelecom.net
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