Community Foundation

2015 MCICF Grant Applications are Due January 15th.  Download application here.


Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation - "Building a Strong Foundation For the Future"

The Foundation's Mission:

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."    -Winston Churchill


About the Foundation. . . .

The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation serves donors who wish to make an investment in our county or communities that will be carried out both during and beyond their lifetime. Its primary advantage is to assure donors the most lasting good in the most efficient way possible.

By creating a fund sustained by charitable gifts of all sizes, the Foundation builds and manages a permanent yet flexible pool of funds -- a growing endowment -- with which to meet our changing needs as our people and institutions respond to changing times.

Acting as an umbrella organization, the Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation channels funds in the form of grants to all types of community projects, from the needs of underprivileged children to the construction of large community facilities.

As a tax exempt public foundation, we seek private gifts for public good from any individual, family, group, organization, corporation or private foundation. A knowledgeable board of directors serves as trustees of these funds; supervising all investments to produce a good return, investigating and monitoring grant opportunities, and distributing all income earned in accordance with the terms of any gift.

Priorities for Funding

The Foundation has identified seven broad categories in which needs are known to exist:

  • Educational Program Development and Scholarship Programs
  • Arts and Cultural Programs including Historic Preservation
  • Wellness / Recreation Programs serving all age groups
  • Health Care and Social Service Programs serving all age groups
  • Public Affairs and Community Development Programs
  • Public Facility Construction, Rehabilitation and Maintenance
  • Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental Programs

In reviewing proposals for funding, the Foundation's directors look for projects that:

  • increase citizens' commitment to meet community needs;
  • eliminate duplication of services and encourage cooperation;
  • develop self-reliance or eliminate dependency;
  • address new and emerging needs or incorporate new approaches to meeting recognized needs;
  • address themselves to prevention as well as to treatment;
  • are models that have a strong possibility for replication, or have demonstrated significant success elsewhere;
  • increase the managerial and financial capabilities of non-profit organizations and public agencies;
  • develop, disseminate, or follow up on seed research concerning the region and its people.


Policy for Grantseekers:

The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation hopes to identify projects where a grant will solve some problem in addition to meeting a need and will have a lasting effect beyond the immediate purpose of the grant.

The Monroe County, Iowa Community Foundation uses its resources to enable non-profit organizations and public agencies to explore or undertake new missions and to find ways of fulfilling old missions more effectively. It thus emphasizes one-time grants rather than continuing support, seeking to provide that increment of funding that will help applicants to more effectively address the needs before them and adapt to the decades ahead.

Board of Directors

Kevin M. Kness, President
Linda Davis, Vice President
David A. Johnson, Treasurer
Daniel J. Tometich, Secretary
                    , Director
Carroll Rhine, Director
Brenda Wynn, Director