The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines held its annual Celebration Luncheon last week, where the nonprofit released its 2026 annual report. The nonprofit organization, which housed over 2,700 charitable giving funds for individuals and organizations in 2025, saw donors give nearly $100 million to nonprofits from their funds last year, a 20% increase over 2024. 

Other data featured in the report includes:

• Over $105 million was contributed to Community Foundation charitable giving funds.
• Assets under administration at the Community Foundation: $1.2 billion.
• Total nonprofits supported: 2,930.

The Business Record sat down with Community Foundation President Kristi Knous after the event to discuss the annual report and the Community Foundation’s outlook for nonprofits and giving. Her responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

According to the annual report, grants from charitable giving funds held at the Community Foundation were up nearly 20% year over year in 2025 with nearly $100 million in grants going to nonprofits. What was behind the increase?

I think that our nonprofit sector [saw more giving] throughout the state, really, because I also saw some statewide numbers that were pretty similar that giving out of funds was up. So people giving in general to get out to the nonprofit sector and infused into the causes was up in Iowa last year, and as we shared at the luncheon, ours was up by 20%, it was a record year. That’s fabulous, and I think our nonprofits did a really great job at telling their story. Not only did it link with what people were hearing on the news with some of the uncertainty and some of the executive orders and some of the cuts in funding, but our nonprofits really got on top of it, and donors listened and responded. It was pretty clear. I mean, it was not just at the end of the year, and typically, from Thanksgiving on, we’ll see a lot of grantmaking out. It was pretty consistent throughout the year, as some of the things even started happening last January, we saw people really step up their giving throughout the year, so it wasn’t a huge surprise by the end [of the year] that we were way ahead.

We talked some at our Power Breakfast in February about changes in which sectors donors are giving to and some pullback in corporate giving. Can you share what the Community Foundation has seen on corporate philanthropy?

Honestly, it’s pretty aligned with that conversation. I think increasingly, it is a challenge when businesses perhaps aren’t headquartered here or they may have merged or they may not have the local presence that they used to. I think that our nonprofits have struggled in continuing those relationships, but then you have others you know, like Casey’s … Holmes Murphy, and all of the corporate giving programs that they have in support of United Way and such. They’re thriving, so I think we’re really a charitable community. We’re lucky in that way, but I think there have been shifts in corporate giving that our community certainly has experienced.

We also discussed the increased competition for dollars among nonprofits, and I was curious how that affects the donor perspective?

I think donors are very sensitive that they don’t want duplication. They do want nonprofit organizations to work in alignment and in partnership. We have specific grant funds that are just about bringing organizations together in alignment, we call them strategic alignment grants. But I’d also say we also encourage donors to ask the question ‘Is there duplication or is there saturation?’ because there can also be needs that are met by varied nonprofits serving similar needs, but perhaps in different areas and there’s enough room for many in some of these instances. So I think it’s a careful conversation about what the need is, who’s serving it, can they be aligned or does it makes sense for them to be as they are? But we’ve increased our funding toward strategic alignment grants, where we’ll have organizations explore perhaps coming together or explore shared programming or services, and we help fund that because we want them to be having those conversations.

After the wave of federal funding cuts and freezes placed on nonprofits last year, where do things stand right now from the Community Foundation’s viewpoint?

We don’t have answers on some of those things yet, it’s still very much in play in our community, and I think that from the funding community, philanthropy can’t fill the gap. There’s going to have to be some shifts in either the strategic alignment or increased philanthropic private dollars because there’s just not enough there to fill the gap that we’re seeing in some of those critical areas.

The report mentions the Blueprint to Address Homelessness. What has been the Community Foundation’s role in that effort?

I think we were definitely seeing the need in our community. Following COVID quite frankly, I think a lot of communities saw an increase both in significant mental health issues, but also in homelessness, a bit in some downtown safety concerns as well, and as a community, we just knew we needed to get our arms around that, especially as we were bringing workers back downtown, but also because we have caring hearts and we want people not to be on the street, but in the services that can help them.

We had funded a gaps analysis to look at what the gaps were in our community related to housing, affordable housing, workforce housing and homelessness, and just knowing what the gaps were and having that data and information it really spurred on then we need a plan, and the blueprint became the plan. That’s where the Community Foundation with other partners provided funding, but also the convening table to have those conversations with a consultant and hoping to guide the work. And now, we’ve helped kind of reformat what was the Homeless Coordinating Council into a new Housing Solutions Alliance focusing on Polk County, and that has become sort of its own entity to drive the blueprint and carry out that plan. … There’s definitely a coalition around now driving the blueprint forward.

I think the neat thing about the blueprint, too, is increased engagement by the business community. I think some business leaders were really very concerned about downtown safety, and not to say that homelessness is the only cause of any safety issues downtown. That’s not it at all, but they’re [increasingly] taking note of it and wanting to find a solution. I’m really proud of the way the business community has stepped in to fill the seats on the Housing Solutions Alliance and come around the table as board members.

Last year there were some changes to the Endow Iowa tax credit as part of the state’s broader revamp on incentives. Can you share more about what effect the changes will have on philanthropy?

Endow Iowa is a wonderful program that is the envy of so many other states. It’s been around for over 20 years and the thought of our Legislature was to offer a state tax credit as long as donors started an endowment for an Iowa charity or charitable cause, so it was to grow Iowa’s permanent endowment, which is super smart because then it’s there forever, and then offer this tax incentive to make it happen. It’s been an extremely popular program, in fact, we for many, many years used the credits up even by summertime that were allocated for the year and then there would be this waitlist, which became difficult for the Iowa Department of Economic Development to manage over time, and so there were just some changes made last year that would sort of right-size the program in some people’s minds.

There used to be a cap on how much each individual or couple could receive in tax credits. That cap has been lowered, which opens the door to more Iowans then to receive the tax credit if some aren’t receiving such large tax credits, but it also lowered the amount of tax credits that are available. Last year, we utilized all the tax credits, we continue to be utilizing them this year. I think it’s still a really relevant program, but the Legislature as they face issues within their own budget, it was smart to ask the question: Is this meant to be a forever program? Is this meant to spur charitable giving? Has it done its job? So it’s some shifts made to, in their mind, right-size the program.

As the Community Foundation is sharing stories of legacy donors in the community, how are you thinking about building the next generation of donors?

It’s something we think about a lot. We have seed funds that people can start with with the Community Foundation. We try to get to the Greater Des Moines leadership groups, the African-American Leadership Academy, other up-and-coming younger professionals in our community to help them know about the Community Foundation and offer those seed funds as an opportunity to get started where they can start with just $1,000 in the fund and just commit to growing it every year, and we don’t charge any fees on those funds, but there’s no grantmaking out of the fund until it hits the $10,000 mark when it converts to a traditional donor advised fund. I think that that’s one way for donors to start growing their giving fund — that’s how I started with the seed fund. I think if you looked at the table of Capital Crossroads Roadmap and the regional council that’s a part of that, and you looked at the table that was part of Capital Crossroads almost 15 years ago now, you would see a very different circle of leaders around the table. I think we’ve been very intentional in our community to both diversify, add [the] number of seats at those tables and really reach behind us to bring the next generation into the leadership fold of our community, and I think the roadmap is a really concrete example of that. I’ve been engaged since the beginning of that and it is a very different group of people now leading it by intention.

Editor’s note: This article was updated at 1:08 p.m. on Friday, May 1 to correct the link to the Community Foundation’s 2026 annual report.