By Zach Jensen,
Northeast Iowa RSVP Director Deana Hageman asked Winneshiek County for $5,000 more than the organization received last year. She said the increased ask will help cover the cost of a new employee, Michelle McLain-Kruse, who was recently hired as the organization’s volunteer coordinator. (Photo by Zach Jensen)
A pair of northeast Iowa service-oriented nonprofits asked the Winneshiek County Board of Supervisors for funding Monday morning during its regular meeting.
Lisa Wetzel, director of grants and development for Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging, and Deana Hageman, director of Northeast Iowa RSVP, presented their proposals to the supervisors, requesting funding support for their Fiscal Year 2025-26 programs.
Both organization rely on each other to a degree. Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging coordinates services for individuals hoping to maintain their independence, Wetzel said during her presentation. The services NEI3A provides include counseling, case management, meal programs, caregiver support, respite services, evidence-based health programs, advocacy and recreation and education programs, she said.
“We are one of six area agencies on aging in the state of Iowa and one of over 626 across the United States” Wetzel said. “Area agencies on aging use federal, state and local funds under the Older Americans Act to provide services to help aging individuals remain living independent in the community of their choice.”
Wetzel said NEI3A is considered a “quasi-governmental agency,” which is largely responsible for ensuring the organization gets enough funding to serve their communities.
“Our mission is to help older persons respond to their evolving needs and choices,” Wetzel said. “A lot has changed in the last 30 years in aging. It’s not the same as it was back then, where you got to a point that you maybe wanted to go to a nursing home. Folks now are more active, so they want to remain active, and they want to remain living in their own homes, and we really strive to help folks do that in a dignified way.”
A small portion of the funding the organization receives, Wetzel said, is used to pay for services in clients’ homes.
“We do that based on a level of need,” she said. “It’s not, unfortunately, the amount of funding where we can hope to fund everyone that comes in, so we do have a prioritization system. But, we will always provide our information and referral services.”
Wetzel said NEI3A is charged with reaching out for funding to help support the aging in all the communities it serves in Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Grundy, Hardin, Howard, Jackson, Marshall, Poweshiek, Tama and Winneshiek counties.
“We are reaching out today on behalf of the 6,135 older persons residing in Winneshiek County,” Wetzel said.
NEI3A served 320 people in Winneshiek County in Fiscal Year 2024, Wetzel said — an investment of more than $157,600.
To help continue offering services to Winneshiek County residents and fulfill the Older Americans Act requirement of obtaining state and local matching funds, Wetzel said NEI3A is requesting $4,700 from the county for the FY2025-26 year. The request is an investment of approximately 3 percent of the funds NEI3A invested in Winneshiek County in FY24, Wetzel said.
NEI3A also works closely with Northeast Iowa RSVP, which is part of AmeriCorps.
“We really have three clients,” said RSVP Director Deana Hageman. “Our stations, who need volunteers, are clients. Our volunteers, who are looking for things to do, are clients. And, the people that our stations serve are our clients as well.”
More than 600 people volunteered for Northeast Iowa RSVP in FY2024-25. The organization serves Allamakee, Howard and Winneshiek Counties, according to information Hageman presented. Additionally, an average of more than 1,300 individuals and 3,840 family members were served each month at five food pantries in two of the three counties. The information said RSVP also helped area residents file more than 600 tax returns in the 2024 tax season, which totaled $547,125 in tax dollars returned to the counties via the program, and more than 150 meals deliveries were arranged each month by one location in each of the three counties.
Information from the organization says 383 volunteers serve in 52 other community settings, such as schools, childcare, youth services, museums and historical research, hospitals, nursing homes, emergency management and community events. RSVP partners with more than 80 other organizations, including NEI3A, to provide services in the three counties.
Northeast Iowa RSVP received $10,000 in county funding for FY2024-25 and made a request Monday for $15,000 from Winneshiek County for FY2025-26.
“We had over 42,000 hours this last year,” Hageman said. “An independent sector values a volunteer hour in Iowa at $28.88, so if you do the math, it’s over $1.2 million that our program has contributed to our area. If you take our budget, to calculate the return on your investment … your return on investment is about 776 percent. So, we run on a really tight budget, and we do the absolute most that we can with it.”
Hageman said the additional $5,000 will help cover the cost of hiring a new employee, Michelle McLain-Kruse, who was recently hired as Northeast Iowa RSVP’s volunteer coordinator. McLain-Kruse focuses on volunteers, which enables Hageman to focus on the organization’s stations — where RSVP and its partners are located throughout Howard, Winneshiek and Allamakee counties.
More supervisors coverage in the January 16 Decorah Leader.
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