IOWA COUNCIL OF FOUNDATIONS’
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION NETWORKING SUMMIT
Hilton Garden Inn
8600 Northpark Drive, Johnston, IA
October 28, 2015
8:15 am - 9:00 am
Registration Area
Registration & Continental Breakfast
Light Refreshments Available
9:00 am – 9:30 am
Ballroom
Welcome and Introductions
Kari McCann, President of the Iowa Council of Foundations
9:30 am – 10:30 am
Ballroom
Opening Session: Trends in the Community Foundations Field
Aaron Schill, Director, CF Insights and Foundation Center
What level of growth is occurring across the community foundation field? What are some of the
most pressing challenges and promising opportunities for community foundations? How are
community foundations adapting to meet changing donor expectations and community needs?
CF Insights, a service of Foundation Center, exists to support the community foundation field in
answering just these types of questions. Using data from the field-wide Columbus Survey and
the CF Insights member database, Aaron Schill, Director of CF Insights, will provide an overview
of key trends among community foundations; highlighting important considerations for
community foundations across the State of Iowa. He will also share some of the tools and
resources available to help community foundations understand their current operations,
achieve business model sustainability, and pursue growth to realize greater community impact.
10:30 am – 10:45 am
Break
10:45 am – 12:00 pm
Ballroom
Impact Philanthropy: Let Us Show You the Way
Andy Carroll, Senior Program Director, Exponent Philanthropy
We all want to have impact—or, in simpler terms, make a real difference. Wanting impact,
however, doesn’t mean it can happen immediately. During this session, we will use Exponent
Philanthropy’s 10-Minute Impact Assessment & Guide as a framework for discussing five key
behaviors—thinking about impact, focusing for impact, planning for impact, learning about your
impact, and amplifying your impact—that will help you be more intentional and position you for
greater impact. We will also share practical guidance on how to use a framework like the impact
assessment to facilitate more honest, strategic and effective dialog with your staff, trustees and
community around where you are on your impact journey, where you want to go, and how you
can move toward greater impact over time.
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch / Roundtable Discussions – Exchange of Ideas and Networking
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Review of Legislative Session and Preparation for the 2016 Session: What You Can Do to Help
David Adelman, Iowa Office, Cornerstone Government Affairs and Legislative Consultant for Iowa
Community Foundations
Ballroom
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Ballroom
Rural Philanthropy: The Art and Science of Legacy Donor Development
Don Macke, Co-Founder and Director of Entrepreneurial Communities, Center for Rural
Entrepreneurship
Don Macke with the Center for Rural Development will address the keys to identifying, developing
and growing legacy donors. Legacy donors are those donors who give part of their estate to create
and grow permanent endowments. His talk will explore how to increase unrestricted legacy
giving. Don works with foundations across the country and was a co-founder of the Nebraska
Community Foundation.
2:30 pm - 2:45 pm
Break
2:45 pm - 3:45 pm
Ballroom
The Journey to YES: Marketing that Moves People
Lori Bower, Principal, BowerComm Marketing Communications
Feel like your communications are scattered? Wishing people knew your Foundation exists?
Creating awareness and moving people to action takes careful thought and planning. Using
Hutchinson Community Foundation as the example, Lori will show you how to develop a killer
communications plan that makes real impact. You'll see how to set measurable objectives, get
inside your audiences' heads, create a compelling narrative, and deploy tactics that move your
targets from awareness to consideration to action to recommendation.
3:45 pm - 4:00 pm
Ballroom
Report outs from Lunch Round Table Discussions and Closing Comments
Complete evaluations, mileage forms, and Idea Implementation Grant forms
4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Ballroom
Informal Networking / Individual Consults with Speakers / Complete Surveys
* This event is sponsored in part by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
SESSION SPEAKERS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
David Adelman, Cornerstone Government Affairs
David Adelman joined Cornerstone Government Affairs in 2010 bringing over 10 years of substantial experience in grassroots
advocacy, developing and implementing strategic legislative campaigns, drafting and analyzing legislative language and reports and
establishing, administering and advising political action committees. David leads the firm’s operations in the State of Iowa, managing
the Des Moines office and providing state government relations and business consulting services to a broad and diverse set of
clients.
Andy Carroll, Senior Program Director
Andy develops resources and programs on grantmaking, leadership, and trends in small-staffed philanthropy. One of Andy’s goals
and passions is to empower more foundations and donors to take advantage of their unique freedom, assets, and powers to provide
leadership on important issues they feel passionate about. Andy also writes “The Pulse” blog series on trends and is a trained
facilitator in civic reflection. Prior to joining Exponent Philanthropy, he developed programs at the National Center for Family
Philanthropy, and before that at the Council on Foundations. Andy has an MBA from the University of Michigan Business School, and
has 30 years of experience in management, training, and program development for nonprofit organizations.
Lori Bower, BowerComm Marketing Communications
As chief of BowerComm Marketing Communications, Lori Bower helps organizations large and small figure out the 5 W's of
communication: with whom are we communicating, what are we saying, why should they believe us, and when and where should
we reach them. Lori lives on a family farm in central Kansas, yet commutes via Skype most days to Chicago, where she moonlights as
an account director for Slack and Company, a leading b-to-b communications agency. There she plans and oversees campaigns for
companies like General Electric and the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. Lori spends the other half of her time helping
nonprofits market themselves, including Hutchinson Community Foundation, Western Kansas Community Foundation, TECH Inc. and
the Hutchinson Public Library. Lori holds degrees from Kansas State University and Wichita State University, and started her career
as 4-H agent in Butler County, Kansas, before working at Armstrong|Shank in Wichita and Chicago ad agencies FCB and Fathom
Communications.
Don Macke, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
Don Macke is a Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. The Center works throughout the United
States and Canada supporting research, outreach, professional development and policy work related to rural entrepreneurship.
Don has over 40 years of experience in the field of community economic development. He has served on the staff of the Nebraska
Legislature, the Cabinet of the Nelson Administration in Nebraska, worked as a consultant in 45 states, Canada and the Caribbean.
Since joining the Center, Don leads the Center’s Entrepreneurial Communities solution area. E Communities helps regions and
communities grow more prosperous economies through entrepreneur-focused economic development. Another part of Don’s work
focuses on Community Development Philanthropy and America’s transfer of wealth (TOW) opportunity. The Center’s TOW team has
completed over 40 studies, covering over one-half of the counties and communities across the nation. Don is a co-founder of the
Nebraska Community Foundation and served as its first Executive Director. Don has a MA in Regional Economics and a BS in
Environmental Science from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.
Aaron Schill, CF Insights and Foundation Center
Aaron Schill is the Director of CF Insights, which transitioned to the Foundation Center at the beginning of 2015. This April, he
brought his experience in the non-profit, public, and private sectors to Foundation Center to manage CF Insights. Prior to directing
CF Insights, he most recently served as the Director of Research and Data Services for Community Research Partners, a nonprofit
research, evaluation, and data center located in Columbus, Ohio. Aaron is a native Ohioan, and holds a Master's Degree in City and
Regional Planning and a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology, both from The Ohio State University.
* This event is sponsored in part by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.