Stories from the 2025 Celebration Luncheon

View the 2025 Annual Report to the Community here.

At the Community Foundation, we help turn passion into impact. Big hopes and dreams are certainly possible with the right players – because we ARE better together. It’s been our distinct honor to walk alongside one very beloved team player from Des Moines who had big dreams when she was a little girl. 

Legacy leavers have a long-term impact on the places they love and the places we call home. And we have found that what drives people to make a lasting difference can be the very community they live in. Rick and Laura Kozin, may have been transplants to the Greater Des Moines community, but their impact during their professional careers and their plans for the future are a gift that will keep on giving.

Activating on the grantmaking power of the Better Together Fund inspires us to leverage resources to transform issues and opportunities in our region. It cultivates innovative approaches and creative solutions. And it continues to bring us together, working across sectors, to provide a better quality of life for all. 

Partnership and collaboration are what build strong communities. This was evident in 2004, when the Iowa Legislature crafted a unique structure to build philanthropy around the state by investing a portion of state gaming revenue in communities throughout Iowa without access to it. Through the County Endowment Fund Program, counties receive gaming revenue to both build an endowment for their forever future needs but also to make local grants in support of local needs and opportunities.