The Beginning of Something Big

This story is part of our Transforming Together series, which highlights 20 key moments in our Foundation’s first 20 years. Read more stories in the series.

In the early 2000s, Dubuque on an upswing. During the 1980s and ’90s, the region saw jobs and residents leave, but many dedicated people remained, determined to support the longevity of the community they loved. At the turn of the millennium, their commitment helped attract new employers and residents, along with investment in neglected neighborhoods.

Community leaders wanted to sustain this momentum by creating a way for people to support the community for generations to come. Other cities and regions in the country were home to long-established community foundations that served as anchor institutions that could understand local needs and harness the generosity of residents to address them.

At the time, Dubuque was the only major city in Iowa without a community foundation, and leaders saw the value in establishing one.

“When we started the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque, it was a simple idea: People didn’t have a vehicle for leaving money to the community when they died,” says founding board member John O’Connor, a Dubuque-based attorney. “They lived in this community, they wanted to take care of this community, but they didn’t have the means to establish their own foundation.

“The community foundation concept created a mechanism for them to use, but it has expanded greatly from that little idea to something much bigger and, really, much better.”

Along with O’Connor, leaders Jim Theisen, Tim Conlon, Ken Townsend and William Klauer served on the founding board of directors, drafting the Foundation’s articles of incorporation. They also hired its first — and, to this date, only — president and CEO: Nancy Van Milligen. At the time, Van Milligen was vice president of development at Clarke College, and she jumped at the opportunity to lead the new Community Foundation, calling the role “my dream job.”

Between the time of incorporation in 2001 and the official opening in February 2003, the board members learned just how much interest the community had for such a foundation. A fundraising campaign brought in $950,000, with major gifts from Diamond Jo Casino, Dubuque Bank & Trust, Medical Associates Foundation and American Trust, plus contributions from individual community members.

One of the most significant moments in the Community Foundation’s early days was in 2005, when it partnered with the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce to facilitate ENVIS10N 2010. Through this community visioning process, the Foundation and Chamber solicited ideas from the community that would strengthen Dubuque. Those ideas were narrowed to 10, creating a roadmap for organizations and community members to transform systems that impact all people.

In the wake of ENVIS10N 2010, community members stood up to support the top projects.

“One of the ideas was creating an amphitheater, and a donor wanted to support it with $1 million,” O’Connor says. “I said, ‘That project won’t happen immediately. But what you can do immediately is support the Crescent Community Health Center. They are having trouble getting federal funding, because they don’t have any outside money. If you put $1 million into the center, that would help them get federal support.’”

That information inspired the donor to support Crescent and the health needs of many underserved people in Dubuque.

“ENVIS10N 2010 established us as a community leadership organization,” Van Milligen says. “We are constantly thinking about how to bring people together to solve problems that need resources. If donors are giving to funds hosted by the Foundation, we make grants to organizations that are addressing community challenges.”

Since then, the Community Foundation’s impact has deepened in Dubuque and its seven surrounding rural counties. Its work has helped address children’s academic achievement, access to job training and stable careers, and diversity, equity and inclusion. The Foundation also has granted more than $65 million to nonprofits, helping build their capacity to serve the community.

What initially began as a vehicle for people to leave money after they passed is now something bigger.

“Today, we are trying to build the Forever Fund, which goes back to original idea that money going to the Community Foundation will be endowed and be available to strengthen the community forever,” O’Connor says. “A lot of hard work from our founding board members plus Nancy and her team brought the Foundation from an idea and a post office box to what it is today. That's what I'm proud of – how the initial work has been carried much further than I ever dreamed.”