(Council Bluffs) Pottawattamie County Community Foundation announced Tuesday that they received a gift of $100,000 from the Banks family of Glenwood in support of the Women’s Fund of Southwest Iowa.
The Women’s Fund of Southwest Iowa is focused on programming designed to improve the quality of life and well-being of women and their families throughout eight counties in southwest Iowa: Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby.
Donna Dostal, President and CEO of Pottawattamie County Community Foundation, said Jerry Banks, founder of the Jerry Banks Group, is a current advisory committee member of the Women’s Fund of Southwest Iowa and former Pottawattamie County Community Foundation Board Member. Dostal said Banks has been a tremendous advocate in helping to create solutions for women across southwest Iowa. The fund will award grants to nonprofit organizations who provide services within the geographic area and can demonstrate need and ability to create change to the benefit, growth, education, and welfare of women.
“We are so grateful to Jerry and his leadership in the endeavor,” said Dostal. “As far as starting the fund and really kind of launching it, we received a great grant from the Iowa West Foundation as matching funds; we received a lovely grant of $50,000 from Doll Distributing; a great grant of $50,000 from Lozier, so we are well on our way to making a significant impact.”
The grant applications process will open in April 2020.
The goal of the Women’s Fund of Southwest Iowa is to reach out and work closely with organizations to identify needs and design tangible solutions.
There are four focus areas: “Access to affordable, quality childcare; Women’s safety and wellbeing, particularly around human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault; Aging in place; and the final one is Access to education for women of all ages,” explained Dostal.
For more information on the Women’s Fund of Southwest Iowa, visit www.ourpccf.org/womens-fund.
