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Much can be achieved when you take 60 of the best young leaders in Des Moines and charge them with the task of a service project.

The 60 members of the Des Moines Leadership Institute class 2009/2010 are launching a campaign titled “Give Back Des Moines,” which through community giving hopes to raise awareness and increase support for nonprofit organizations.

“Amongst our discussions we realized all 60 of us had one common thread, and that was community giving,” said Megan Grandgeorge, the project’s marketing co-chair. “So we felt it was important just to work with that and do a day of community giving.”

The campaign soft launches on March 1, and will culminate with a May 22 celebration at the Downtown Farmers’ Market and Principal Park that will raise awareness for community giving by way of a not-for-profit education fair and an Iowa Cubs baseball game.

But the class will be, and has been, busy in the time leading up to May 22.

The class identified a growing list of 25 charitable nonprofits, including Ronald McDonald House and Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, whose mission statements coincided with the Give Back Des Moines mission.

The class identified smaller things – such as toilet paper, food, toiletries and bus tokens – that the community could donate to the charities. To garner those donations, the class is organizing a community-wide collection effort in partnership with local businesses and organizations.

“We don’t have a goal of pounds of items or numbers of items, but we just hope to overwhelm our charities with the amount of things we can give them,” Grandgeorge said.

The class has also set a goal of raising $50,000 from local business and individuals through sponsorships. It plans to use the money to purchase larger ticket items such as computers and beds, which the nonprofits can’t afford with their own budgets.

With leaders from throughout the community it has been much easier to leverage support for the campaign. Businesses such as Meredith Corp, Principal Financial Group Inc. and Hy-Vee Inc. are already sponsors of the campaign.

“We all sit on different committees, but we are pulling from the assets that everyone brings to the table,” Grandgeorge said. “Who they know, who they have good relations with and how we can use those to our advantage.”