Allamakee Forever: Giving back is a way of life

Diana Johnson grew up watching her mother, Donnalee Osland, enjoy her job at the community bank in Waukon. She got to know the local bankers as friends, and those relationships helped shape her view of community. “I always knew giving back was important,” she says. “It was my sense that volunteering your time, energy and resources is a way of life.” 

Diana started her own career in banking, and still works with local banks regularly through her job at Upper Explorerland Regional Planning Commission. She has also served for nine years on the Allamakee County Community Foundation advisory board. So when the Foundation learned of an opportunity to build a fund that will support community vitality for generations to come, Diana had no problem stepping into the role of fundraiser, using her background to connect with bankers across the county. 

Her work has been in service of the Allamakee Forever effort, part of the Community Foundation’s Small-town Dreams Initiative. This program is helping communities across Eastern Iowa build their capacity to address future challenges and opportunities. Allamakee County is among those selected to leverage a $100,000 challenge grant from an anonymous donor and build a $450,000 endowment that will pay out every year to support community-building efforts. In the process, local leaders like Diana gain the skills to organize a successful capital campaign as well as assess and respond to local needs. 

The response to the campaign was swift and generous. With the support of many local donors, the team reached their fundraising goal in just two years. This ease of fundraising speaks to the passion many rural residents have for their towns. Through Small-town Dreams, communities channel that passion to create vitality and achieve what is important to them. In Allamakee, these dollars will meet needs that arise through the Foundation’s annual grant cycle, which sees hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual requests. 

Diana will leave the Foundation board at the end of her term in 2024. She thinks of the Small-town Dreams effort as one of the highlights. “When I joined the board, we didn’t have much to grant out to nonprofits,” she says. “It’s been fun to successfully get the fund jump-started and seed projects in our communities. It’s exciting to be able to help.”