IADG Celebrates 25 Years of Groundbreaking Results

A quarter century has passed and Iowa Area Development Group proudly marks the 25th Anniversary of its founding in 2010.

In 1985, the state of Iowa was in the grips of a devastating farm crisis that threatened families, businesses, and communities. It was during this difficult period that Iowa’s Rural Electric Cooperatives demonstrated decisive leadership to help reverse economic conditions for the state and rural communities. Iowa’s electric cooperatives gathered their resources and resolve to form the Iowa Area Development Group, a business and community development organization designed to specifically address rural economic development needs and opportunities. This year Iowa’s Electric Cooperatives celebrate the formation of IADG and recognize 25 years of their collective economic development success.

The IADG model is distinctive and unique in the nation as it is founded and supported largely by four generation and transmission power cooperatives: Central Iowa Power Cooperative, Cedar Rapids; Corn Belt Power Cooperative, headquartered in Humboldt; Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative, Le Mars; and Northeast Power Cooperative based in Palmyra, Missouri that provides power to three distribution cooperatives in southeast Iowa. In all IADG’s sponsors consist of over 60 rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities in Iowa.

Rand Fisher, president of IADG stated, “We are honored to serve our member electric cooperatives, their communities and customers. This unique partnership has forged strong allies over the years including our work with USDA Rural Development. Through the course of 20 plus years IADG and our sponsors have captured over $55 million dollars in USDA funding for rural Iowa development projects. This effort has created 30 rural revolving loan funds across Iowa leveraging over $1 billion in capital investment. IADG’s track record for the past 25 years clearly would not have been possible without the steadfast leadership and support of Iowa’s Electric Cooperatives.”

Partnerships have always been at the foundation of IADG. The formation of the Ripple Effect program, through a partnership with Iowa Network Services (INS) and their 150 independent telephone companies, is a recent example of collaborative development efforts.

Since 1985 the powerful partnerships and economic development efforts of IADG and their sponsoring utilities have helped develop and market 90 industrial parks, build 70 speculative buildings for industries, generate over $5.6 billion dollars of capital investment, and create or retain over 38,000 jobs for Iowa.