President, United Way of Central Iowa

Shannon Cofield has a little motto she turns to when a situation is looking a bit more daunting than usual – “It is what it is.”

Simple, yes, but the words serve as a powerful reminder for a United Way of Central Iowa (UWCI) president who has consistently been met with challenges and yet has consistently batted them aside.

“I tend to accept situations for what they are and then find another way to move forward,” she said.

Like the way she moved past the obstacles facing her when she first arrived in Iowa in 2004 with a clear vision of what UWCI should be. Her task: Change the perception of UWCI from an organization that just raises money to a leadership organization that works to solve tough community problems.

“I knew that there had to be the change,” she said. “But the ‘how’ part? I didn’t know how I was going to complete that.”

Seven years later, she’s still relentlessly pounding away at the perception she first faced. But look at what she’s accomplished in such a short time and it’s easy to see how she has moved the needle in the eyes of her fellow Des Moines leaders.

In 2006, Cofield reached out to fellow United Ways across Iowa in an effort to develop a statewide legislative policy agenda – an effort that hadn’t been tried before. As a result, the group leveraged $17 million of available federal money to ensure that 26,000 Iowans had access to food.

She also helped focus the resources of the organization on specific community problems (income, health and education) with the release of the 2020 goals. The goals now give UWCI specifically targeted areas to show potential donors how their donations will make an impact.

And then there’s the bottom line. She helped increase UWCI’s fund-raising campaign revenue, despite a recession, by 40 percent, from $17.2 million in 2003 to $24.1 million in 2010.

Cofield is quick to point to Iowans’ giving nature, her amazing staff and an army of volunteers for the successes. But there’s a reason community leaders Suku Radia, Steve Zumbach, Steve Lacy and Cara Heiden all pointed back to one person.

“Shannon’s leadership has been the primary factor in moving United Way in a new direction,” said Zumbach of Belin McCormick P.C. “United Way could not have achieved its record of remarkable achievement without Shannon. Few individuals in our community touch more lives than (she does).”

UWCI is annually in the top three nationally in per capita giving, it has received a four-star charity rating from Charity Navigator every year since 2004, and Cofield has done it all while balancing her responsibilities to her two teenage daughters and more community involvements than could ever fit in this article.

So, for the record, Cofield’s impact… well, it is what it is.