Quad City Community Foundation To Help More Nonprofits With $10-Million Gift
Moline native Hunt Harris – a successful businessman, photographer and tireless volunteer – put in countless hours and dollars in supporting Quad Cities nonprofits his entire adult life. Nearly two years after his death at 74, his family is ensuring his legacy will live on for decades.
The Harris family is making a transformative, historic $10-million endowment gift to permanently name the Quad Cities Community Foundation’s Hunt and Diane Harris Center for Nonprofit Excellence. That investment will greatly expand the number of area nonprofit professionals and volunteers who learn from Center programs, workshops, and resources.
“Their extraordinary act of generosity ensures that the Harris Center, which the couple originally dreamed about creating more than a decade ago, will have permanent operating resources needed to strengthen and sustain the nonprofit sector across the Quad Cities region,” according to a foundation release Wednesday morning. “The gift is a powerful investment in the family’s lifelong dedication to building a vibrant, strong, generous community across the Quad Cities region.”
Community Foundation president/CEO Sue Hafkemeyer, left, Alex Harris, Diane Harris, and Anne Calder (Community Foundation vice president of development).
“The Harris family’s foresight and generosity are nothing short of remarkable,” said Sue Hafkemeyer, Community Foundation’s president and CEO. “This gift demonstrates their confidence in our region’s nonprofits and ensures the Harris Center will always be here as a connector and capacity builder for the sector. It will impact every nonprofit in the Quad Cities and, by extension, our entire community.”
Built “by nonprofits, for nonprofits,” the foundation’s Center for Nonprofit Excellence was launched in 2023 to serve as a hub where nonprofits can come together to collaborate, strengthen operations, and expand their reach. Since its launch, more than 1,250 people have participated in the Center’s wide range of educational workshops, peer networking sessions, and other learning opportunities.
More than 85 individuals representing 50 organizations enrolled in the Center’s first two flagship programs, which focus on nonprofit management and board training. Outcome assessments show that participants are already putting the lessons and tools from these programs to work and making an impact in their organizations and the community.
“The Harrises have been invested in the Community Foundation for a very long time. Their leadership and investment in this community has been nothing short of truly amazing,” Hafkemeyer said Thursday. “We’ve really built a strong relationship with them over the years.”
Sue Hafkemeyer speaking at the foundation’s “Celebration of Generosity” event Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025 at the Figge Art Museum.
The $10-million gift will provide annual funding for programs, but it is yet to be seen how much will be available each year, she said. “We anticipate this will only increase the number of nonprofits we can serve. We can be more nimble, depending on the needs of the day.”
“It’s really good timing,” Hafkemeyer said of staggering federal funding cuts to nonprofits nationwide, noting the funds will help make center programs more affordable and accessible.
“When our nonprofits are strong, our whole community benefits,” Diane Harris said in Wednesday’s release. “Hunt and I watched our local organizations grow stronger and smarter by working together. This gift, and the programming it makes possible, is meant to ensure that learning, collaboration, and growth continue for the good of our entire community.”
The Harrises are visionary philanthropists, whose decades of leadership and generosity have helped shape a stronger, more vibrant Quad Cities. Diane previously served as board chair for the Community Foundation and as a leader on many nonprofit boards across the region. She continues her charitable work in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, where she now lives close to family. Hunt, who was president of Star Forms and Isabel Bloom, and a former Community Foundation committee member, passed away Dec. 20, 2023. The couple formed the Hunt and Diane Harris Family Foundation in 1986.
Alex Harris (as his mother Diane Harris looks on) speaks about his family’s $10-million gift to the Center for Nonprofit Excellence at the Community Foundation event Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025 at the Figge Art Museum.
They worked closely with the Community Foundation for years, eventually converting their private foundations to funds that, through their grantmaking, have reached every corner of the Quad Cities, from economic development to education to health and the arts.
“Our parents have always believed in the power of nonprofits to transform communities,” said Alex Harris of Naperville, son of Diane and Hunt. “With the Community Foundation, they have championed local organizations and worked to give them the tools and resources they need to grow. I’m proud that this gift indelibly names their incredible legacy of generosity.”
Hunt Harris attended Moline public schools where he graduated co-valedictorian of his 1967 class. In 2005, he was inducted into the Moline High School Hall of Fame.
He and his wife founded the Hunt and Diane Harris Family Foundation in 1986 with proceeds from the sale of Star Forms. In 2000, they and their children founded the John H. Harris III Memorial Foundation in honor of their son and brother who died that year. Over the years the foundations have donated over $8 million to non-profit organizations based mainly in the Quad Cities. The foundations are now the Harris Family Foundation Fund at the Quad City Community Foundation.
Involvement with charitable organizations was a focus for both Hunt and Diane during their lifetimes. Hunt served on the United Way of the Quad Cities board for over 25 years beginning in the mid-1980s. He chaired the 1989 United Way campaign and was chair of the board from 2007-2009 when he led an effort to reorganize the board for increased effectiveness. He and Diane founded the Leadership Gifts Program and the De Tocqueville Society and served as their chair for several years.
The Harrises endowed a fund for Board Governance Training in conjunction with the United Way and the Community Foundation to encourage better governance of QC area nonprofit organizations.
During their years of board and committee service with the Community Foundation, the couple were among the first to imagine a space dedicated to resourcing nonprofit organizations, a collaborative center that would help them grow stronger and serve the community with greater impact, according to Wednesday’s release. Their early contributions, alongside those of other community funders, laid the groundwork for what is now the Harris Center.
First director success
The Center’s first director, Daisy Moran, marked her second anniversary in the job this month and she loves it, supported by administrative assistant Michaela Gryzlo.
It was modeled after similar centers at Northern Illinois University and University of Iowa.
“We are deeply committed to listening to the nonprofits,” Moran said Thursday. “The center is essentially a hub, led by nonprofits, for nonprofits. We have an advisory committee of 15 nonprofit professionals of very diverse perspectives, who meet monthly.”
In her first couple months, she did a listening tour of about 20 similar centers, finding out their strengths and challenges, comparing them to the QC, customizing the new organization to local needs.
Community Foundation board chair Kent Pilcher, left, Diane Harris and Alex Harris.
The center here works closely with area private universities, including Augustana and St. Ambrose, Moran said. Before she was director, she worked at Augie, the Rock Island liberal arts college, as assistant director of student inclusion and diversity.
“My main role is overseeing our capacity building programs,” Moran said of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence. “The philosophy is: listen, learn and then lead.”
Some of those programs are CEOLink and DevelopmentLink – offering workshops and networking opportunities for nonprofit leaders in those positions, and the center’s main flagship programs are Effective Nonprofit Management and Strong Board Governance.
Moran had met with over 60 area nonprofits to determine their needs and how the programs could best meet them. “Capacity building” includes scrutinizing group structures, resources and systems to see how to improve them. Center programs and workshops address fundraising, board leadership, management and storytelling – “what makes a nonprofit effective,” she said. “What is really unique about it is the cohort model. We encourage teams of three, from each organization, to come from multiple levels.”
“The idea is to not only support each other in implementing their learning, but they’ll have the tools and the documents from them to stay at the organization,” Moran said.
Moran became center director in early September 2023.
Existing QC organizations that link nonprofits include QC Open Network and the local chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, with which the center collaborates.
Center programs have always tried to be affordable and accessible to a wide population, Moran said, noting the Harris gift should expand the number of scholarships available and the budget for the center to hire top consultants (nationally and regionally) to lead workshops. Traditionally, financial aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Community Foundation community room can typically handle up to 50 attendees at a time. They emphasize offering programs in a series – focusing on continuous learning, Moran said.
Effective Nonprofit Management was five sessions (four hours each, led by national consultants) and Strong Board Governance was six sessions (with on-demand videos offered on top). The latter were hour-long sessions ($50 per person, per session), led by QC firms Wastyn & Associates and Iman Consulting. The Effective Nonprofit Management was offered on a sliding fee scale, based on organizations’ budgets.
That will change in 2026, with a flat rate of $1,000 for three members per organization and if they complete the program, they get half that back. “The hope is it’s only $500 if they complete the program,” Moran said. The registration for the two programs next year will open on Nov. 3.
Daisy Moran is director of the Harris Center for Nonprofit Excellence.
Program attendance grew significantly in the second year compared to the first, she noted. “I witnessed people shift their mindset, which is truly profound, when we can help organization leaders see how can I communicate to my board, for example, what is my role in fundraising? What are different diverse strategies when it comes to long-term fundraising?”
“It’s demystifying these myths in the nonprofit sector,” Moran said. “There’s many different ways to be involved and support nonprofits.”
The center is still determining over how long a period the Harris $10 million will be given, but the gift will not go to hire new staff or give out direct grants to nonprofits, Hafkemeyer said.
“We do have this beautiful gift that ensures our sustainability for the center, looking at our operations…and still being mindful that there’s still room for others to join in supporting this,” Moran said.
She hopes the huge Harris gift will be a catalyst for others to give in whatever amounts they can.
“I think especially now, in the state of the nonprofit sector, it truly is important for folks to understand the economic impact that nonprofits have on our community and how — more than ever — we need to continue to invest in these organizations and people, and continue to create an equitable community for our members,” Moran said. “Ultimately, if we have stronger nonprofits, we’ll have a longer reach, stronger offerings, and serve more folks in the community.”
Reacting to funding cuts
A report by Wastyn & Associates in late June showed that federal funding cuts will impact local nonprofits, including massive reductions in Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
More nonprofits anticipate the need to make changes to programs, services, and staffing with more nonprofits anticipating the need to make changes than did in March, the report said. The most significant increases emerged in the need to diversify funding streams (19% increase), higher client demand for services (12.5% increase), and need to change or cut services (12.1% increase). Also notable, nearly one-third of organizations anticipate the need to lay off or furlough staff.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been disbanded and QC public media institutions WVIK-FM and WQPT Quad Cities PBS face funding cuts.
Coordinated by AFP-QC, a new campaign launched at the Nonprofit Legislative Roundtable on June 30, OneTable QC transforms today’s dialogue into tomorrow’s awareness, advocacy, and action, according to www.afpquadcities.com/onetable. When federal budgets shift, local lives shift. QC leaders are invited to see the data, hear the stories, and take action as local nonprofits, donors, and legislators respond to federal budget changes.
Community Foundation president/CEO Sue Hafkemeyer, left, Alex Harris, Diane Harris, and Anne Calder (Community Foundation vice president of development).
“It weighs heavy on my heart when I see how it’s impacting our nonprofit sector,” Moran said Thursday. “Our basic needs need to be met. How is that impacting our arts sector, our environmental sector? Our hope is with this gift, it’s truly an investment to the whole nonprofit sector, and making sure that no one and no sector gets left behind.”
“We’re hoping through our flagship programs, we’re equipping nonprofits and board members with the tools and resources that they need to be able to fundraise in these times,” she said. They hope the Harris gift will allow them to create more offerings.
“The Center for Nonprofit Excellence helped me think about fundraising and supporting my organization in different ways,” said Clare Tobin, assistant director of the German American Heritage Center & Museum, Davenport. “I was quickly thrown into an interim director position and the lessons learned from these workshops have helped me communicate with donors and board members in ways that I never thought I would.”
“Nonprofits can do more when they do it together,” Jerry Jones, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence advisory committee chair, said. “The Center for Nonprofit Excellence creates the spaces and moments where true collaboration can happen. When nonprofits learn together and share resources, it means that dollars go farther, and we can do more for our community.”
While the center doesn’t give direct grants, it provides access to learning from national consultants, Moran said. “Consultants are not always affordable or accessible, so our hope is with our investment, we are able to have it be accessible for nonprofits to have that coaching and leadership.”
The center will also expand its digital library, so people can have access to online videos and tools, if they can’t attend workshops in person.
“We’re also hearing that folks want collaboration, want to be in partnership, putting resources together to have a greater impact,” Moran said. “That’s another reason why our offerings are mainly in person, so nonprofit professionals and board members can make those genuine connections, build on those relationships – and know, ‘I can call so-and-so from this organization.’ They have a connection.”
Becoming a more connected, collaborative sector also not only combines resources and expertise, but eliminates duplication of time, effort and services, she said.
The center always wanted to create an endowment, and the Harrises also “had this long vision, for many decades, to strengthen this sector, so I think it was one of those opportunities, and happy coincidences that our goals aligned,” Moran said.
An upcoming free event at the Community Foundation (852 Middle Road, Bettendorf) is a listening session Thursday, Oct. 2 at 2:30 p.m. It’s an opportunity to share perspectives, explore challenges, and spark ideas that will strengthen the charitable sector. The goal is to work to identify structural barriers and uncover policy and practice solutions that help nonprofits—and the communities they serve—thrive.
For a calendar of more events and information on the center, visit its website HERE.
The logo for OneTable QC, which was formed in June 2025 to respond to federal budget cuts impacting local nonprofits.
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