Iowa Council of Foundations

08/31/2026

We have two opportunities listed on our Philanthropy Career Center right now:

- Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque | Chief Executive Officer | Full-Time | Dubuque, IA
- Hometown Pride | Community Coach | Part-Time | Hamilton County, IA

Learn more here:

The Philanthropy Career Center features professional opportunities in the field, both nationally and in Iowa.

07/27/2026

We hosted our Summer Membership Meeting in Ankeny last week in partnership with Capital Crossroads. This was all made possible through generous sponsorship from Mid-Iowa Health Foundation. Our invited guests from Camber Collective shared their new research, Federal and Philanthropic Funding Trends in Economic Mobility, with our members. We were also able to celebrate the success of Central Iowa's Basic Income Pilot, a project of UpLift- Research to Inform Economic Mobility Solutions, and learn more about their upcoming Central Iowa Emergency Rental Assistance Study (CIERAS). A funder panel also discussed the "why" behind their investment in research to inform action. We closed the day learning about the work of the Iowa Credit Union Foundation.

Members also had a chance to tour the Community Crate, a mobile housing exhibit that brings the realities of housing stability to life. You can learn more here: https://upliftiowa.org/the-community-crate/

A sincere thanks to all of our partners, speakers, panelists and collaborators who made this possible: Nalo Johnson, PhD, Kaity Patchett, Joseph Zhang, Joseph Jones, Matt McGarvey, Jo Christine M., Jalena Babic Barnes, MPA, Ashley Ezzio, MPH & Brianna Deason!

05/11/2026

We had a jam-packed room and a jam-packed agenda for our Spring Quarterly Membership Meeting last week! A sincere thank you to our meeting host and sponsor, Grinnell College.

Our members had the opportunity to hear from local, state and national experts in news, journalism and philanthropy about the important role local media plays in supporting civic engagement and a healthy democracy.

A special thank you to the following guest speakers: Becky Vonnahme – Executive Director, Western Iowa Journalism Foundation; Caroline Merenda – Director of Chapter Advancement, Press Forward; Mary Jo Jean-Francois – VP of Impact, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque; Grinnell College President Anne F. Harris; Debbie Anselm – Iowa Newspaper Association; Bob Woodward – Press Forward Northeast Iowa; Trevis & Nancy Mayfield – Owners, Sycamore Media; and Peggy Pinder Elliot – Co-Owner, Grinnell Herald Register.