The Ankeny Community Foundation is a tax-exempt public charity that serves to assist individuals, organizations, and businesses who share a common interest: improving the quality of life in the community.
We create charitable funds and provide grants that help meet local challenges. Donating to the community foundation is an investment in the future of Ankeny.
We partner with local entities as their 501(c)(3) non-profit fiscal sponsor/fiscal agent, helping them collect donations and secure outside grant funding for their community betterment initiatives.
We work with families, individuals, organizations, and professional advisers to design donation plans that fit every economic situation, ensuring that our donors make the most impact with their philanthropy.
We award grants to local nonprofits through three field of interest funds: Educate Ankeny, Enhance Ankeny, and Serve Ankeny.
We offer several types of funds to help donors achieve their charitable goals and to meet community needs. Our expert advisers use responsible investment practices to ensure our donors’ gifts will keep giving for years to come.
In the early 2000s, former Ankeny mayors Merle Johnson and Steve Van Oort recognized that several nearby communities had formed “community foundations” to promote local charitable giving, and they realized that Ankeny did not yet have a similar organization. Larger regional groups like United Way do important work that benefits Ankeny and the surrounding area, but they also draw upon donors from Ankeny with dollars spread throughout the central Iowa region. Steve and Merle thought perhaps there should be a local mechanism focused on uplifting Ankeny nonprofits and initiatives, encouraging even more wealth to do even more good work right here in Ankeny. They worked to create the Ankeny Community Foundation.
In 2012, the City of Ankeny, Ankeny Kiwanis Club, and a steering committee of community members partnered to raise funds for the Ankeny Miracle Park project. Soon after, the City, Rotary Club of Ankeny, and a steering committee began to work to create the Ankeny Market & Pavilion. It was time to seat a board for the Ankeny Community Foundation, and the ACF served as fiscal agent for both projects.
For the first few years, ACF served primarily as a pass-through and additional layer of fund oversight for the projects, with $1.3 million and $1.7 million eventually raised for the creation of Ankeny Miracle Park and Ankeny Market & Pavilion. Soon after its formation, though, the ACF began supporting additional community groups and initiatives.
We focus on initiatives that meet immediate and future needs within the following fields of interest:
