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Iowa West Foundation awards $4.6 million in grants targeted to Pottawattamie County programs
Summary
Brenda Mainwaring, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, told the board the foundation awarded about $4.6 million in this grant cycle, including roughly $1.35 million to expand four-year-old preschool access across Pottawattamie County and smaller awards for community centers, libraries and rural first-responder training.
Brenda Mainwaring, president and CEO of the Iowa West Foundation, briefed the board on the foundation’s Cycle 2 grant awards, saying the total was roughly $4,600,000 and that a large portion supports preschool access in the county.
“Our grant awards this year were for, or this cycle, dollars 4,600,000,” Mainwaring said, and she later told supervisors the preschool initiative totaled about $1,350,000 with roughly $1,000,000 directed to local school districts to ensure classroom capacity for four-year-old preschoolers.
Mainwaring listed locally focused awards that the foundation funded this cycle, including support for the Crescent community center renovation, North Bar South Bank renovation in Imogene, a Family Crisis Center rural call-in service, Friends of the Griswold Library, Food Bank of Iowa programming that reaches outlying counties, and the Green Hills Area Education Agency’s signature preschool program. She also described work with a Nebraska philanthropic trust and a new Metro Community College training center in Gretna aimed at expanding first-responder training access for rural volunteer departments.
Supervisors asked how award amounts were calculated for volunteer fire departments; Mainwaring said awards are based on documented expenses and receipts and that local departments inside Pottawattamie County can qualify for up to $10,000. Board members thanked Mainwaring and asked staff to follow up with contact names for specific local projects.
