CORALVILLE, IOWA (September 20, 2022) — The Iowa Women’s Foundation (IWF) is launching the public phase of a campaign that will raise $3 million dollars to establish a Legacy Fund. This will be Iowa’s first and only statewide fund dedicated to shattering the barriers to women’s economic self-sufficiency and improving the lives of all Iowa’s women and girls.
Privately launched in 2019, the Legacy Fund campaign will increase IWF’s current grantmaking capacity by fifty percent while ensuring the long-term stability of its charitable efforts. With 79 percent of its fundraising goal met, the organization is now taking the campaign public to secure the remaining funds by the end of 2022. Anyone can contribute to the Legacy Fund at iawf.org/legacy-campaign.
“The Iowa Women’s Foundation is proof that collaboration is the best tool for supporting women and girls,” said IWF President/CEO Dawn Oliver Wiand. “Although we’ve never had a long-term fund to fall back on, every year we’ve managed to increase our grantmaking thanks to thousands of individual donors across every corner of our state. With the Legacy Fund in place, we can make every contribution go even further while ensuring that even when times are tough, we can continue to make a difference.”
The Iowa Women’s Foundation was formed in 1994 by a group of 27 women who understood the power of pooling their resources and working together. In the last 25 years, IWF has awarded more than $1.3 million in grants to 151 non-profit organizations throughout the state, impacting women and girls in all of Iowa’s 99 counties.
Grant funds have been used to house survivors of domestic abuse, expand after-school programming for at-risk youth, and combat the state’s child-care crisis by supporting community-based child-care centers and entrepreneurs. A complete list of projects funded by IWF can be found at iawf.org/grantmaking/grant-partners/.
“We’ve accomplished a lot in 25 years,” says Wiand. “But with the Legacy Fund up and running, we can build on this work and start a new, even more impactful chapter in IWF history.”
About the Iowa Women’s Foundation:
The Iowa Women’s Foundation is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization committed to improving the lives of Iowa’s women and girls through a diversified mix of funding and action: Research, grant-making, advocacy, education, and collaboration. To achieve its goals and make the most significant impact, IWF brings together and invests in organizations across Iowa that make women and girls more successful. IWF is the only statewide organization working to enhance and improve women’s economic self-sufficiency.
