15E.311  County endowment fund.
  1.  The purpose of this section is to enhance the quality of life for citizens of Iowa by providing moneys to new or existing citizen groups of this state organized to establish county affiliate funds or community foundations that will address countywide needs.
  2.  A county endowment fund is created in the state treasury under the control of the department of revenue. The fund consists of all moneys appropriated to the fund. Moneys in the fund shall be distributed by the department as provided in this section.
  3.  a.  At the end of each fiscal year, moneys in the fund shall be transferred into separate accounts within the fund and designated for use by each county in which no licensee authorized to conduct gambling games under chapter 99F was located during that fiscal year. Moneys transferred to county accounts shall be divided equally among the counties. Moneys transferred into an account for a county shall be transferred by the department to an eligible county recipient for that county. Of the moneys transferred, an eligible county recipient shall distribute seventy-five percent of the moneys as grants to charitable organizations for charitable purposes in that county and shall retain twenty-five percent of the moneys for use in establishing a permanent endowment fund for the benefit of charitable organizations for charitable purposes. Of the amounts distributed, eligible county recipients shall give special consideration to grants for projects that include significant vertical infrastructure components designed to enhance quality of life aspects within local communities. In addition, as a condition of receiving a grant, the governing body of a charitable organization receiving a grant shall approve all expenditures of grant moneys and shall allow a state audit of expenditures of all grant moneys.
  b.  If a county does not have an eligible county recipient, moneys in the account for that county shall remain in that account until an eligible county recipient for that county is established.
  4.  As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
  a.  “Charitable organization” means an organization that is described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code or an organization that is established for a charitable purpose.
  b.  “Charitable purpose” means a purpose described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or a benevolent, educational, philanthropic, humane, scientific, patriotic, social welfare or advocacy, public health, environmental conservation, civic, or other eleemosynary objective.
  c.  “Eligible county recipient” means an endow Iowa qualified community foundation or community affiliate organization, as defined in section 15E.303, that is selected, in accordance with the procedures described in section 15E.304, to receive moneys from an account created in this section for a particular county. To be selected as an eligible county recipient, a community affiliate organization shall establish a county affiliate fund to receive moneys as provided by this section.
  5.  Notwithstanding section 12C.7, subsection 2, interest or earnings on moneys deposited in the county endowment fund shall be credited to the county endowment fund. Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys credited to the county endowment fund shall not revert at the close of a fiscal year.
  6.  Three percent of the moneys deposited in the county endowment fund shall be used by the lead philanthropic organization identified by the authority pursuant to section 15E.304 for purposes of administering and marketing the county endowment fund. Of the amounts available to be used by the lead philanthropic organization pursuant to this subsection, seventy thousand dollars is appropriated to the economic development authority each fiscal year for administrative costs related to the endow Iowa program.
2004 Acts, ch 1136, §1; 2005 Acts, ch 150, §78, 79, 81; 2006 Acts, ch 1151, §4, 5, 8; 2011 Acts, ch 118, §85, 89
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