Companies look for ways to get the most out of charitable donations

Even when they're giving away millions for a good cause, Corridor businesses and their leaders like to see a good value.

What's a good value for around $20 million? That's about how much Russell Gerdin, who founded truckload carrier Heartland Express in North Liberty, and wife Ann Gerdin have donated to major university projects since 1998.

The Gerdins launched the project to build a new business college building at Iowa State University in 1998 with a $10 million lead gift. They later donated $1 million that enabled ISU's College of Business launch its first doctoral program, and gifts of $100,000 each to launch ISU's Gerdin Citizenship program and ISU athletics.

Russ Gerdin liked the job College of Business Dean Labh Hira and his staff had been doing, he said later, acknowledging students' appreciation for the new building.

“The thing that impresses me most is the students and how much they really care,” the trucking company founder said. “The whole culture has always been very good and that just impresses me.”

It was one shining moment in the life of one of Iowa's greatest philanthropist couples, who also have made large gifts to the University of Iowa and Morehead State University in North Dakota. But how do they decide where to give their millions?

The Gerdins' key principle is making sure the money makes a lasting difference, said Julie Durr, the daughter who serves as director of community and employee relations for Heartland Express.

Durr said her parents target their giving carefully. “They aren't big fans of saying, ‘Here's some money. Use it for whatever you want.'” Durr said. “They definitely want to buy something with their money. They'd rather see a building built, or a new program created.”

A less focused approach with small gifts seems to be working for Dubuque-based Theisen's home, farm and auto stores. Theisen's two-year-old More for Your Community program gives away 5 percent of the company's profits annually, or $125,000 in 2010.

Each Theisen store gives a minimum of $5,000. The company gave away at least $15,000 each at openings of new stores in Cedar Rapids and Coralville in October, and a special gift from the Coralville store for Johnson County Fairgrounds building project.

CEO Leo “Jim” Theisen said the program was set up deal with the multitude of community requests made to its local store managers each year.

“Somebody would say, ‘4-H kids in Wyoming (Iowa) need money, or a teacher would apply for books,'” Theisen said. He asked the Greater Dubuque Community Foundation to administer the special fund because of its specialized knowledge in the area.

Recipients must be a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization or a governmental entity. The foundation evaluates and scores the applications. Then, the Theisen family makes final revisions in an attempt to balance the needs so that one does not take up an entire store's allocation, or another store doesn't have enough requests to reach its $5,000 giving goal.

“Some people have treasure and some people have talent,” Theisen said. “Maybe have some treasure that can help somebody with talent fill a need.”

Some larger Corridor companies administer their own grant programs. Rockwell Collins, the Corridor's largest private employer, donates to green projects in communities throughout its global footprint through the Green Communities program. It gave away $85,000 in grants to green projects in 49 communities last year.

Rockwell Collins Chairman and CEO Clay Jones gave the University of Tennessee credit for his personal development in 2009 when he and wife Debbie donated $1 million to the old alma mater.

NCS Pearson has given employees time off to volunteer in community causes and joined an American Red Cross initiative to train a dozen of its employees in local disaster response. The Pearson Foundation provided books for a local school library, offered $500 worth of materials for a group starting an English as a second language program, and donated hundreds of books to the preschool for needy families at Waypoint in Cedar Rapids.

Giving comes with many secondary benefits, often including tax benefits and image enhancement.

One big reason for Theisen's More for Your Community program was to show customers the company gives back to all their communities, Jim Theisen said.

Companies that want to maximize tax benefits of their giving should consult their tax accountant before making sizable donations, said tax practitioner Dick George, of RSM McGladrey in Cedar Rapids. Family foundations typically are set up for estate planning reasons and have no direct benefit to the business, he said.

George said a requirement that often sneaks up on donor companies is documenting gifts for tax purposes. Surprising to some are a rule that gifts of property worth more than $5,000 be accompanied by an appraisal and form signed by the appraiser, and a requirement that cash gifts of more than $250 be documented by an acknowledgment from the recipient.

Documentation should be in hand well before the tax filing deadline. “Documentation is probably more of a hassle than anything else right now,” he said.