When Mike Earley and his wife adopted their first child, Matthew, they were new to the Des Moines area. Though they may not have known many people at the time, they were fortunate enough to know Johnny Danos.

“Johnny hosted a baby shower for us at his house,” Earley said. “He went out of his way. That still stands out in my mind.”

Earley, president and CEO of Bankers Trust Co., has known Danos for 30 years and it is that kind of compassion that has made Danos successful with his most recent venture as president of the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation.

“He has an extraordinary interest in making Des Moines a better place to live for everyone,” he said.

Fred Weitz, a longtime member of the foundation’s board, agrees.

“He made that foundation what it is today,” Weitz said. “It was still small when he took over, and he’s really developed it and made it into an integral part of the Des Moines community.”

And after years as an accountant, Danos will agree that the numbers speak for themselves.

When Danos became the foundation’s president in 1998, the organization’s total assets were $19 million. By last year, those assets had grown to more than $150 million, and the foundation administered more than 420 charitable funds and distributed more than $20 million in grants.

In recognition of his achievements with the foundation, the Business Record selected Danos as one of the Central Iowa Business Leaders of 2006.

But Danos is quick to point out that the organization is more than one man.

“We have the best board in this city, hands down,” he said. “And we have an extremely talented staff of employees.”

And to think that Danos wasn’t even pursuing the job when he was selected to be president.

“I hadn’t thought about ever doing it until I was asked to,” he said. “In 1998, when the president decided to retire, we began a search for a new president. I was on the search committee and we came up with a candidate or two. Ultimately, we were unable to engage anyone that the board was satisfied with. I had been retired at that stage for three or four years and one of my friends on the board came up with a brainstorm: ‘Hey, why don’t you do this?’ They wound up asking me to take the job, so I really came into it quite accidentally. If we’d found a candidate in our initial search, I probably wouldn’t be here today.”

Weitz said eventually the conversation turned to Danos.

“He had been retired for a few years and everyone knew he was capable,” he said. “I think neither he nor the board looked at this at the time as a long-term thing. He was just an interim.”

Now almost a decade later, Danos, 66, said his work with the foundation has been both rewarding and exciting.

“We’re doing some very good things and have had a lot of success,” he said. “It’s been way beyond my expectations.”

Danos points to past and present projects in which the foundation has acted as fiscal agent, such as Gray’s Lake, the Fleur Drive beautification and the Principal Riverwalk, as being the biggest examples of the impact it can have bettering the community.

“Our role in the community is really expanding,” Danos said. “We are venturing into so many different areas now that the word has spread and people are beginning to recognize what we are capable of providing.”

Expanding the public’s awareness of the foundation was one of his goals.

“When I took over, there was only one full-time employee,” he said. “Part of the deal I cut with the board was that if I was going to do this, we were going to find the money to staff this thing at a level to ensure its success. If you didn’t have adequate staff you would never go to where we wanted it to go. We also needed money to advertise so people could begin to understand what our mission was.”

Danos said his main goal now is to increase the amount of unrestricted endowments, which is money left in estates to the foundation not earmarked for any specific charity.

“Unlike other public charities that raise money for a specific purpose, the monies we raise in this unrestricted pool are designed to be flexible and responsive to community needs, which may be much different now than they will be 10 years from now,” he said. “We do manage a lot of specifically designated funds, but one of our main goals is to build this unrestricted pool so that our future boards will have even greater resources to impact our community.”

Earley said the success of the foundation has been in large measure due to Danos’ efforts.

“He’s taken a very important civic organization and grown it into a significant component in our community,” he said. “This will be a part of his lasting legacy. He’s helped make this a better community for generations. The community is lucky to get him.”

The number of wealthy people who wish to do something positive with their money has grown in Des Moines, Danos said, and the foundation is a place that can offer them a chance to have an impact on their community for years to come.

“I’m very proud of the work we’ve done and looking forward to seeing what more we can accomplish in the future,” he said.