The Story County Community Foundation now holds more than $10 million in funds after a flurry of donations late last year.

The foundation reached the milestone after a massive holiday donation season from local nonprofits and residents who hold funds with the group, executive director Jennifer Garst said, along with a local nonprofit moving its money to the group.

“We basically had $900,000 in donations at the end of last year,” Garst said. “It was the last-minute rush, and ours was particularly big this year.”

Contributions to those individual funds are eligible to the Endow Iowa tax credit, a state program designed to encourage citizens to retain their money to benefit their communities instead of leaving it to their family or from moving out of state if they leave Iowa to retire.

Up to 25 percent of money donated to Endow Iowa-eligible groups can be used as a tax credit in addition to federal tax deductions.

Garst said the foundation manages the money within those individual funds and helps fundholders make their own contributions to causes of their choosing.

“They might be buying new hymnals for their church, they might be buying groceries for the food shelf,” said Chuck Glatz, chairman of the foundation’s board.

The foundation itself disbursed $540,570 in competitive grants to local companies last year, mostly from gambling revenue dividends the state gives to counties without casinos. State law restricts foundations using the Endow Iowa tax credit from spending more than 5 percent of their fund on their own grants per year.

Glatz said the Foundation’s major donation in 2016 was a $25,000 for an expansion to the Cambridge Fire Station, along with donations for legal services to mentally ill Story County residents, refrigerators and ovens for local food banks, emergency rent and utility assistance for the Ames Emergency Residence Project and more.

Garst said it’s unlikely the Legislature will consider the credit for dissolution to remedy the state’s $110 million budget shortfall this year. She said as long as the tax credit is in place, Story County nonprofits will continue to reap the Foundation’s benefits.

“This $10 million will shed $500,000 a year forever,” she said. “These dollars will outlive us.”