Community Foundation Announces Endowment Payouts for FY 2013

The Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque (CFGD) recently authorized $983,580 in agency and donor-advised endowment payouts for fiscal year 2013. The endowment payouts provide critical operating assistance to local nonprofit agencies.

Contributions to endowments at the Community Foundation are invested over time and annual earnings are then paid out and directed by fund advisors to meet community needs. The annual endowment payout is and has been 5% of the fund’s average value. Endowments—and future earnings from endowments—are a permanent source of community capital, helping do good work today and in the future. Donors who give to endowments also benefit from the 25% Endow Iowa state tax credit in addition to federal charitable income tax deductions.

Nonprofit leaders look to the Community Foundation to hold their organizations’ endowments because they know that having a constant source of funding helps them respond to emergency needs as well as plan for the future and sustain the good work they do.

“More than 130 nonprofit organizations have established agency endowment funds with the Community Foundation,” says Nancy Van Milligen, CFGD president and CEO. “These funds help to diversify nonprofits’ funding and make their operations secure so they can continue to provide a critical safety net and enrich life in our community forever.”

This year’s total endowment payout—more than ten times the amount distributed just seven years ago in FY 2006—reflects the Foundation’s phenomenal growth since its inception in 2002. Over the past 10 years, the Community Foundation has given $13.5 million to nonprofit organizations in Northeast Iowa, including $3.8 million granted out over the past year alone.

"CFGD is a relatively young foundation but it has grown at an astonishing pace,” says Tim Conlon, chair of the CFGD Board of Directors. “This success speaks to the generosity of our donors and the commitment of local nonprofits, both of which make it possible for the Foundation to provide the community leadership and nonprofit support essential for the future of our region.”

Van Milligen adds that the exceptional growth of the Foundation would not be possible without strong investment returns and the continued support of long-time donors and new members of the Community Foundation family, which includes affiliate foundations in Allamakee, Clayton, Delaware, Jackson County together with the Dyersville Area.

"As experts in philanthropy, we provide strategic advice to donors while simultaneously addressing this region’s problems through our own grantmaking and community initiatives, such as Every Child/Every Promise and Green and Healthy Homes.  Every day, we are working to learn more about the needs of our community in areas ranging from early childhood education to the arts.”