The Daily NonPareil says Tulipana emphasized that currently the reduction in the number of grant cycles will not impact the amount the foundation provides to grantees, which annually amounts to approximately $20 million. He says the change will allow their staff extra time to do the work necessary and provide an overlap between grant periods.

The outreach resulted in the development of four primary focus areas for the foundation, including “place making” – supporting efforts that make the region a desirable place for families to live and work; economic development; education; and “healthy families” – in general, programs that strengthen families, foster essential life skills and address critical human and social service needs while helping individuals reach their full potential.

Kathleen Rapp, vice president of grants and initiatives for the foundation, summarized other changes, which include:

• Programmatic and general operations grants being limited to a total of six years in any eight-year period of time.

• An allowance for greater review of information, beginning in 2015, the letter of inquiry period will be reduced from four weeks to two weeks, and the grant application period will be increased from two weeks to four weeks.

• Organizations may submit applications a maximum of two grant cycles per calendar year.

• In-kind support may be used to leverage funding but it is limited to 15 percent of the program or project costs rather than 25 percent.

Additional information on changes in the foundation’s grant making policies and procedures can be found on the Iowa West Foundation website at www.iowawestfoundation.org. In addition, foundation officials have scheduled a number of informal question-and-answer sessions to discuss the new policies and procedures.

They include: Friday, Nov. 7, at Iowa School for the Deaf at 8:30 a.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the Walnut Fire Station at 2 p.m.; Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Carson Community Center at 10 a.m.; and Friday, Dec. 5, at Iowa School for the Deaf at 8:30 a.m. Other dates and times are being worked out for Council Bluffs meetings.