Business Record innovationIOWA: Great Outdoors Foundation, the innovationLEADER of the Year, combining recreation and conservation

The Business Record’s 2025 Lean Techniques innovationLEADER Award recipient is the Great Outdoors Foundation. The organization is only the second nonprofit to receive the award.

The West Des Moines-based organization has found a way to maximize its impact by utilizing its Conservation Acceleration Fund, a new way of obtaining capital by matching donors with a curated conservation portfolio. These donations double as investments and allow the Great Outdoors Foundation to access federal water quality grants, which the state of Iowa previously would not have had the infrastructure to utilize. In doing this, donors on average received an “eight-times multiplier” on their investment.

Projects taken on through the fund guarantee at least a 4-to-1 public to private dollar match. Through the program, CEO Hannah Inman said the organization was able to leverage $28 million for water quality projects in 2024 alone.

To read more, visit the Business Record innovationIOWA.