Community Foundation holds annual cook-off

The Community Foundation of Washington County hosted its third ?chef cook-off? fundraiser Tuesday at Holy Trinity Parish Life Center in Richmond. The foundation will distribute the money raised at the event to various local charities.

For the past three years, the Community Foundation has held a cook-off at its annual dinner in which one team of chefs is pitted against another team of chefs. Both teams prepare a four-course meal of appetizers, soups, entrées and desserts. The attendees eat both meals and then score each one according to its creativity, presentation and taste. The team with the most votes wins.

This year, Jerry and Margie Sweeting, who won the contest last year, made it two victories in a row by besting challengers John and Shelley Blakeney. The defending champions are invited to the next year?s cook-off to compete against a new challenger.

?All the chefs did an excellent job,? said Steve Olson, who has been the foundation?s president since its inception in 2006. ?The purpose of the fundraiser is to promote awareness of our foundation as well as raise funds to increase our unrestricted endowments and to reserve funds to eventually hire a part-time executive director. We?ve had some nice growth, and now we need to take it to the next level with an executive director. We?d like someone on a part-time basis always turning the wheels and trying to grow our foundation.?

Olson said the foundation began because of a program called Endow Iowa, which was created by the Iowa Legislature in 2004.

?Endow Iowa allows Iowans who make a permanent endowment to a certified foundation to be awarded a 25 percent tax credit,? he said.

For instance, Olson said that if a person donated $10,000 to a certified foundation in the form of a permanent endowment, the person would receive a check for $2,500 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development to deduct from their taxes.

When Endow Iowa was created, Olson was the treasurer on the Washington Betterment Foundation. The betterment foundation became interested in what Endow Iowa had to offer.

?We realized it was much larger in scale for us to take on, so I broke away from the board and started a separate foundation to take advantage of Endow Iowa?s tax credit program,? he said.

The Iowa Council of Foundations has distributed $15.5 million since the creation of Endow Iowa, Olson said. He said that money has in turn leveraged $75.3 million in charitable endowments.

The Community Foundation of Washington County handles 10 endowments totaling $500,000. The foundation uses earnings from those endowments to distribute grants to charities. Since its inception, the foundation has given out about $58,000 in grants.

?That is outstanding,? Olson said. ?We preserve the initial gift and then give away future earnings. We try to be the connection between the individual who wants to be philanthropic and the charities. Most of our referrals are from attorneys who do estate planning. They have to ask their clients, ?Do you want to leave any of your estate for a cause? We know of an organization that sets up endowments that could handle your request.??

The organizations that benefit from the Community Foundation?s grants are Camp Reece, HACAP, PAWS ?N? More, the Kalona Historical Society, the Washington Betterment Foundation, the Parkside Activities Center, the Leo and Martha Hall Fund and the John and Phyllis Jackson music scholarship.

The Community Foundation of Washington County consists of 10 board members. Seven of the towns in the county are represented on the board: Washington, Riverside, Kalona, Wellman, Ainsworth, Crawfordsville and Brighton. The Community Foundation of Washington County is also affiliated with a larger parent foundation called the Community Foundation of Great River Bend in Bettendorf.