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Opening its doors more than six years ago, Best Buddies Iowa’s mission is to enhance the lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities, mainly by creating one-on-one friendships through high school and college mentor match-up programs.

Launched in July 2002 with federal funds, Best Buddies Iowa is now a self-sustained nonprofit that is trying to make the adjustment from being government supported to independent.

“We started out with a federal grant, and any sort of government money comes and goes, and of course it went,” said Missy Collins, the state director of the organization, noting the money the organization received through the federal grant was just enough to open its office.

“When you start from being 100 percent federally funded to now 100 percent on your own, it’s a big switch.”

Collins, who is responsible for the organization’s fund-raising efforts, said the nonprofit held its largest event of the year on Nov. 14: the Giving Thanks Gala. Each year, the Gala honors an individual for his or her support of the organization, and this year’s honoree was Drake University President David Maxwell. Last year, former Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson was the Gala’s honoree. This event usually generates enough funds to sustain the organization into the following year, yet its budget still remains tight.

However, Collins said Best Buddies Iowa is trying to secure state funding, though she admits, it’s “a horrible time right now” to do so. Still, she remains optimistic that the nonprofit will get sufficient state money in the future so it can broaden its base of participating schools, which currently stands at 32.

As of now, 20 high schools and 12 colleges participate in Best Buddies’ one-on-one friendship match-up, up from the organization’s humble beginnings of just one school – Drake, which started its Best Buddies chapter in 1990 before the nonprofit was even formed.

“We would like to grow and bring in more schools, but because of the fact that we don’t have any state funding, we really don’t have the resources financially to expand,” Collins said. “So our number at 32 is where it has just kind of stayed for the past couple of years until we can find other funding sources.”