With the launch in 2014 of a new endowment for the Telligen Community Foundation and the recent round of grant giving announced by the Storey Kenworthy Foundation, Editor Chris Conetzkey wondered whether there’s a trend in more Greater Des Moines companies forming nonprofit foundations for giving.  And when Chris wonders about something, it often means I end up writing about it.

I sat down recently with Angie Dethlefs-Trettin, chief community impact officer for the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, to better understand the local grantmaking landscape.

Lesson one from our conversation: There are no tidy statistics that definitively suggest a rise in foundation giving. But there is a pretty cool mechanism that not all companies may be aware of called the Funders’ Forum. It’s a networking venue of the Community Foundation that lets grantmakers literally take a seat at the table in conversations about the community’s needs.

Finding ways to spur more charitable giving by Iowa companies has been part of the ongoing conversations at the monthly meetings, Dethlefs-Trettin said. The meetings are held at the foundation’s conference room in the historic Finkbine Mansion.

The forum is open to grant makers of all types, whether connected with the Community Foundation or not. “It’s just getting individuals together who are giving, so they can be well-informed, well-connected and purposeful about their grant making, and I think that’s where we are able to provide services to corporations and businesses,” she said.

Discussions within the Funders’ Forum, whose attendees vary from month to month, are also an opportunity to dig deeper on community issues. Topics have ranged from the type of training that nonprofits need, to collectively discussing key charitable organizations that may be undergoing challenges and finding ways to help, as well as how corporate givers can encourage more corporate giving.

Storey Kenworthy and its foundation is a great example of an entity that’s seeking to be more purposeful in its giving, and there are many ways the Community Foundation has worked with companies of all sizes, Dethlefs-Trettin said.

“We’ve been able to support them either through a fund at the foundation, or through more customizable supports – whether it’s helping them think through the types of questions they want to ask a nonprofit when they’re considering making a grant, to fully facilitating the process of the grant making.”

Some examples of other partnerships between the Community Foundation and corporate givers include a longstanding relationship the foundation has had with Kum & Go, as well as a more recent role in facilitating Facebook’s charitable giving in Iowa.   

Most recently, the Community Foundation has been working with The Iowa Clinic, whose foundation is preparing to launch a $100,000 giving campaign called Rise Up Iowa on Sept. 1.

The campaign represents a new direction in giving for The Iowa Clinic Health Care Foundation, said Amy Hilmes, the clinic’s marketing director.

Since its launch 12 years ago, the foundation has focused on providing new and rehabilitated clinic locations for the Free Clinics of Iowa, Hilmes said. Now, after having renovated every free clinic that needed help, it sought out a new mission in the community.

The foundation came up with a campaign to make up to $100,000 in funds available that community members can apply for to fund charitable projects. And for the first time, it’s partnering with the Community Foundation for its assistance in carrying out the campaign. The first group of winning ideas to be funded will be announced by Thanksgiving.