Wright County Charitable Foundation: helping fill gaps in community needs

In 2015, the Wright County Charitable Foundation hit its 10th anniversary and also reached $1 million dollars in total assets. Though the milestone is a big number, many people don’t realize how those funds work to help the community through projects and long-term giving. Denny Bowman and Duane Asbe, two people who’ve been with the foundation from the beginning, spoke with the Monitor about the organization’s history and goals.

“Gaming in Iowa was starting to grow, and they wanted to equalize the funding to non-gaming counties in some way,” Bowman, president of WCCF, said. In 2004, the legislature decided that .5 percent of the state’s gaming revenue would go to each non-gaming county to be granted out to a qualified foundation. Under the umbrella of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, the Wright County Charitable Foundation was born.

To help determine how the money should be used, WCCF formed a board of community members. “We had two representatives from each community in the county,” Bowman said. Those residents of Eagle Grove, Clarion, Goldfield, Woolstock, Dows, Belmond, and Rowan brought attention to the projects the communities needed that couldn’t be covered.

“We help fill those voids when normal dollars within the community would not be available to do those things,” Bowman said.

For the full story, see the March 10 edition of the Monitor.