Community Partner Spotlight

Community Partner Spotlight

Best Buddies Iowa

Best Buddies International, founded in 1989, is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-on-one friendships, integrated employment, and leadership development for people with intellectual and development disabilities (IDD). With programs at the elementary, middle school, high school, college, and adult levels, the organization has grown to more than 2,300 chapters across the United States and 50 countries throughout the world. Best Buddies has impacted nearly 1.2 million individuals with and without IDD worldwide.

Sammons Financial Group began partnering with Best Buddies in 2012, and established the first-ever Best Buddies Citizens Chapter in the state of Iowa. The Iowa chapter is comprised of employees who collectively volunteer over 800 hours a year. Employees also volunteer at several Best Buddies events throughout the year, including the Friendship Ball, Friendship Walk, Biking for Buddies, and the signature Chef Challenge.

In addition to employee volunteers, Sammons Financial Group supports Best Buddies through monetary donations. Since 2012, the company and its employees have contributed over $200,000 to Best Buddies Iowa. This includes a $50,000 transformational grant that was given to the organization in 2014 to grow the Citizens Chapter program in the state of Iowa. Furthermore, since 2014 Sammons Financial Group has been the presenting sponsor of the Best Buddies of Iowa Chef Challenge, which has raised $750,000 over the past five years.

Learn more about Best Buddies by visiting their website . 

Visit our Community Partner Spotlight archive to read about other Sammons Financial Group community partners.