Den Hartog started as the director of affiliates and charitable partners at the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines six weeks ago. Before joining the Community Foundation, Den Hartog worked at the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI) as the foundation development director, where he worked on the organization’s various leadership programs and networked with statewide business leaders. He also lived and worked in Colorado for 4 1/2 years at the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association, working with former and current players, setting up speaking engagements, and putting on free baseball clinics and charity golf tournaments. “That was really more of a hobby than a job,” he said.

So what brought you back to Iowa?

I moved back to Iowa to be closer to family, and there were more opportunities. When I was a student at Drake, I was involved in the athletics department and in the recreational services department as a graduate assistant. So as a college student, I had a pretty good network in Iowa, and it was hard to move and start over. So that’s one of the things I wanted when I moved back, to create that network again. Des Moines is really just like one big small town – I grew up in a small town of approximately 5,000 people, but it’s amazing the connections you can make within Des Moines. And a lot of them are basically those who have migrated from rural Iowa or outside the state as well.

Moving also let me look at Iowa from a different perspective. When I first moved back, I was involved with YPC (Young Professionals Connection), and there’s always that discussion of the brain drain of college students leaving the state. I initially thought retaining them and not letting them leave was the right approach, but I think it is a good opportunity to let those individuals leave the state and see what’s out there, gather knowledge and information and then bring it back to our state and reinvest it. And, you know, growing up in Iowa is similar to growing up in Florida or in California – you get used to your surroundings, and that becomes your normal. But getting out and experiencing other things and then coming back is helpful as well.

So what does your job entail?

My role is working with the 34 county community foundations across the state: educating them on building their endowments, helping them utilize tax credits with their donors and building an endowment base.

Another area with the position, too, is working with corporate foundations and educating them on what the Community Foundation does and who we are, as well as opportunities for them to invest, either in creating a corporate foundation or utilizing a foundation under our umbrella. This is something the Community Foundation has done for a while, but it really hasn’t gotten out there and educated the corporate arena on what’s available.

What are some goals you’ve set for yourself?

Learning the ropes and processes and networks – I’m trying to understand those and build upon the successes that have been created within the counties and across the state, as well as utilizing some of my connections that already exist. I want to get out and meet a lot of those working across the state. I want to create more corporate connections, so they understand the breadth of what the Community Foundation does and can make more of a lasting impact.

What are some challenges with the new position?

There are a lot of great people, and one of the biggest challenges is understanding the breadth of all we do. There’s so much that goes on here; if you’re not already involved or educated about what we do, it really is an extensive network of things going on. The community foundation world is different than a traditional nonprofit organization – and then each community foundation is its own organization as well, which has its own look and feel. One of the best practices is to look at what others are doing, too.

We have a good network of community foundations, but many are in different growth stages, so being able to leverage their resources to share among themselves but then pairing them up to help each other is important.

There’s an opportunity for us to pull in rural Iowa and to leverage its resources to invest in Iowa’s future. Just being able to educate others of the opportunities they can participate in and collectively give back to their communities is an important part of the mission. The people I’ve spoken to have been very excited and gracious to be a part of the team, just like I’m excited to be a part of the team.