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Kristi Knous, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, says the organization "was made for times like these."
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Giving Reached Record Levels in Response to COVID-19
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Central Iowans stood tall last year in supporting nonprofits that met the many food and security challenges posed by the pandemic. They also contributed mightily to arts and cultural organizations whose finances were ruined when shows were canceled, theaters were emptied and basically the world shut down to await better, post-pandemic days.
The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines reported that donors contributed a record $86.6 million in 2020. A total of $70.1 million was disbursed to charitable groups by those donors – again, a record. (2019 was also a solid year, with $78.7 million coming in and $51.4 million disbursed.)
At United Way of Central Iowa, data is still being analyzed from its fundraising campaign (which relies upon staffers at companies making payroll checkoffs – potentially a problem if those employees are all working from their homes). Still, Andy TeBockhorst, chief strategic communication officer at United Way, said overall corporate support, “particularly around special initiatives focused on current need, was incredibly generous and allowed us to create innovative strategies, try new things (many of them virtual), and ultimately exceed our campaign goal.”
Donor generosity was widespread in Iowa. In Cedar Falls, Kaye Englin, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, called the response to the pandemic unprecedented. Grants overall rose 12% from 2019, but in the human service sector, grants rose 41%.
At the Des Moines Area Religious Council, which distributes food to dozens of food pantries and mobile food delivery sites, CEO Matt Unger said a boost in demand for its services was met by an increase in financial support. As early as April 2020, DMARC received funding from the Community Foundation’s Disaster Recovery Fund to not only acquire adequate supplies of food but to develop a method to convert food packaged for commercial clients to sizes more amenable to families.
Of course, the foundation and United Way don’t tell the whole story, as tens of thousands of individuals and companies made donations on their own. There’s no practical way to tally up their benevolence. But in at least one instance, at DMARC, Unger said that “individual gifting broke records.”
Overall, the challenges the pandemic created appear to have been recognized – and are being addressed. As Kristi Knous, Community Foundation president, summed up: “The Community Foundation was made for times like these. We are here to serve, support and lead, no matter the challenges or opportunities before us.”
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Iowans Contribute CARES Act Checks to Charity
BY STEVE DINNEN
Congress is poised to soon dole out a third round of stimulus money to Americans. In a small way, perhaps, that could be good news for the nonprofit world.
As the pandemic first took hold of the nation around this time last year, the stock market tanked, the economy took a nosedive and jobless rates went through the roof. Congress responded with the CARES Act, which pumped $2.2 trillion into the economy. Individually, most American adults ended up with checks of $1,200 each, and some of those checks found their way into the coffers of charitable organizations such as the Quad Cities Community Foundation.
Sherry Ristau, CEO of the foundation, said that late last spring all hands were on deck to address the pandemic and handle the disaster recovery fund that her organization launched. Ristau even got pressed into opening the mail, and found check after check for $1,200. Attached notes indicated the money was indeed CARES funds, with the donors hoping the foundation could find a way to put it to use.
“I just see people being more and more generous,” Ristau said. And soon they will have to decide what to do with a fresh batch of $1,400 checks. She’ll be waiting for the mail.
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I believe we are at the precipice of values-centric budgeting like we’ve not seen before, and I expect we’ll all be better off for it.
... Read more »
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How Much Should You Pay a Financial Planner?
BY CHRIS TAYLOR FOR MONEY.COM
One constant theme of the financial world in recent years has been declining fees: lower expenses for mutual funds and ETFs, zero-commission trading.
But when it comes to fees for financial advisers? Not so much.
That’s the conclusion of the 2020 Kitces Research Financial Planning Process Study, from popular planner, speaker and author Michael Kitces. The report surveyed more than 800 planners about how they do business, and found no evidence of the so-called “race to the bottom.”
“We are not seeing the fee compression that has been so commonly talked about,” says Derek Tharp, lead researcher for Kitces.com who helped compile the report. “People feel like it is coming, but it hasn’t really happened yet.” READ MORE
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Why Investors are Jittery About Economic Recovery
BY MATT PHILLIPS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Investors had no trouble gliding past the death and economic devastation wrought by the pandemic last year to drive the market to record highs. An increasingly healthy economy is what’s making them panic.
In recent days, the S&P 500 stock index has wobbled, suffering its worst weekly performance in a month last week, before rising on Monday, only to dip again on Tuesday and fall 1.3% on Wednesday. The bond market, too, is showing anxiety, with yields rising sharply as returns in the market for Treasury bonds have fallen roughly 3% this year.
The market conniptions are a direct result of several developments that point to the brightening prospects of economic recovery. Vaccinations are rising, retail sales and industrial production have been surprisingly solid, and perhaps most important, the Biden administration is expected to push its $1.9 billion stimulus plan through Congress in the coming days.
“We haven’t seen this scale of fiscal response before, and the market is struggling with how to process that,” said Julia Coronado, founder and president of Macropolicy Perspectives, a markets and economics consulting firm. Because the United States has never before pumped so much money into the economy, Coronado said, the market is “questioning what some of the unintended consequences could be.” READ MORE
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