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Community Foundations and Rural Development in Iowa

Duration: 05:03

Nearly half the counties in Iowa experience more deaths than births. The median age in many of the state's rural counties is over 40. As the younger generation moves out of rural Iowa, data suggests that they will eventually take the family wealth with them in the form of inheritances when the older generations die.

If you can't "keep 'em down on the farm," can you at least keep some of the family money in the community? That's what many rural communities and counties are trying to do by creating community foundations. And in Iowa, they are establishing the foundations with the help of state gambling tax revenues.

In its three-year existence, the Greene County Community Foundation has a permanent endowment of $236,000. With the foundation's expendable funds, it foundation has awarded 55 matching grants totaling $148,000 to many of the communities in the county, including projects in Jefferson, Rippey and Churdan.

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Post Date: April 7, 2008