South Central Iowa Community Foundation no longer accredited
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Once a nationally accredited foundation, the South Central Iowa Community Foundation (SCICF) is considering regaining their accreditation, but it is not a requirement to operate as a foundation.
“They have a list of things they would like to see,” said SCICF Board Chair Dennis Jeter, while discussing accreditation in a phone conversation “a list of criteria.”
However the board does not see great value in being accredited.
“It hasn’t been a big priority,” stated Jeter. “The Iowa Legislation doesn’t grow the [Endow Iowa] fund.”
Presently, SCICF is not receiving any funds from Endow Iowa, or the County Endowment Fund program, as they do not meet the standards of a qualified community foundation (or an affiliate of a qualified community foundation) because of their accreditation status.
If the SCICF board were to vote to pursue accreditation again, Jeter estimated it would take a year or two to get everything in order.
According to Jeter, one of the necessary steps in meeting accreditation was paring down their board.
“They said we had too many board members,” Jeter said in a telephone conversation. “They were also concerned about making sure the board is [equitably] represented.”
While the national accreditation standards include diversity provisions to ensure all ethnic backgrounds are fairly represented, Jeter noted the lack of the diversity in the five counties SCICF covers makes the requirement particularly challenging.
SCICF once had a larger 25 member board prior to losing their accreditation. Their bylaws now specify they should have 10 voting board members, two from each county.
Presently, SCICF only has nine board members, with one vacant seat for a Ringgold County representative.
Jeter estimated the position has been open for over a year, and they are also trying to fill out all the advisory committees so they have at least 4-5 advisory members in each county.
SCICF recently established a nomination committee to help find members. Anyone interested in helping SCICF as an advisory member can reach out to Diane Ross, SCICF President and CEO, at 641-217-9105 or by email diane@scicf.org.
“Diane and I met with Morgan Quick just before Christmas,” Jeter noted.
Quick is now an advisory board member for Ringgold County along with Tracy Barnes.
According to the SCICF website, current members that represent each county include:
Ringgold Co.
Tracy Barnes is presently the only voting board member.
Two advisory board members, Tracy Barnes and Morgan Quick, would benefit from the support of additional Ringgold County representatives.
Clarke Co.
Dennis Jeter and Melissa Snell serve on the board of directors.
Advisory Board Members include Dennis Jeter, Liz Justice, Larry Keller and Melissa Snell.
Decatur Co.
Mike Frost and Shannon Lecy are voting board members.
Advisory Board Members include Mike Frost, Teresa Greenwood, Dan Heffron, Shannon Lecy, Maggie Lindsey and Beka Mendenhall.
Lucas Co.
Ray Thurlby and Hanna Gwinn serve as voting board members.
Advisory Board Members include Adam Bahr, Bill Baynes, Hanna Gwinn, Dave Hobbs, Mark Morrison, Lynn Stuart and Ray Thurlby.
Union Co.
Erik Niggemeyer and Sarah Long serve as voting board members.
Advisory Board Members include Erik Niggemeyer, Judy Hopkins, Dannie Stephens, Rhonda Giles, Peg Anderson and Sarah Long. Meggen Weeks and Jake McGehee are also mentioned.
SCICF exists to grow endowment funds and award charitable grants and educational scholarships benefiting Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Ringgold and Union Counties in south central Iowa. As a public charity, their mission is to improve the quality of life in the five south central Iowa communities they serve. They are continually looking for people and projects they can financially support, and welcome ideas from all five counties.
“We take a proactive grant funding approach,” said Ross in a phone conversation.
Each year, they select projects in each county, rather than requesting grant applications. For example, after seeing a newspaper article about the Princess Theater seeking donations for a new marquee sign last year, SCICF helped support the project financially.
SCICF was originally established in 1993 when the DEKKO Foundation issued a $500,000 matching challenge grant to the five counties they served.
Although it took members of Clark, Decatur, Lucas, Ringgold and Union counties five years to match the challenge grant, SCICF prevailed and became the fiscal agent for the five counties’ grant, scholarship and endowment funds. Then in 1995, state legislation created the County Endowment Fund, in which a small percent of adjusted gross gaming revenue is equally distributed to the 84 Iowa counties that do not have a licensed gaming facility. Collection of state gambling taxes began in 2004, and SCICF managed the state-distributed County Endowment Funds for the five counties it represented until 2020.
Beginning with the 2020 -2021 County Endowment Fund program year, Ringgold County was forced to select a new host foundation to manage the gaming revenue when SCICF no longer met the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations.
“A few years back, South Central Iowa Community Foundation lost their accreditation,” stated Jacey Roy, Affiliate Relations Associate for the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, in an email to the Record News, “they no longer met national standards as a community foundation. This caused a few counties to transition their state gaming dollar funds to new host foundations. Ringgold County was one of them, and they selected us as their new host foundation for these funds.”
Ringgold Foundation
While Ringgold County still has permanent endowment funds established and managed by SCICF, roughly 90% of all grants are now issued by Ringgold Foundation, a separate organization started in 2020. The grant cycle for Ringgold Foundation, an affiliate member of Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, begins April 15 with grant applications due by May 15 each year. Funding depends on the yearly allocation of gaming money. All grant awardees are announced each year at the Ringgold County Fair, and issued checks from the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines on behalf of Ringgold County.
Presently, Ringgold Foundation grant applications are reviewed by five advisory board members that include Kristen Akers, Michele Beck, Tracy Barnes, Ann Schlapia and Barb Stephens. Several of the Ringgold Foundation advisory team members were previous SCICF board members, and Tracy Barnes is presently a board representative of both foundations.
Additional grant and contact information for the Ringgold Foundation can be obtained by emailing foundationringgold@gmail.com or online at: www.desmoinesfoundation.org/affiliates/ringgold-county
