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2020 Annual Report
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Sharing smiles. Caring for our communities.

2020 Delta Dental of Iowa Community Impact and Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation Annual Report

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While 2020 was not business as usual, our team continued to provide exceptional quality service to our dental and vision customers. We also recognized the impact of the pandemic on our providers, customers and communities. I invite you to learn more about how we lived our mission throughout 2020.

Jeff Russell, President and CEO
Delta Dental of Iowa

At Delta Dental of Iowa, we are on a mission to improve the health and smiles of all Iowans. We deliver on this promise by providing dental and vision benefits to 1.3 million members and supporting Iowa nonprofits through the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation and our corporate giving.

In 2020, Delta Dental and our Foundation provided more than $3.8 million to support oral and overall health projects as well as funding to meet the urgent needs of our community due to the COVID-19 pandemic and derecho.

$3.8MIn Giving
330Organizations Received Funding
$12.9MINVESTEDIN Covid Relief

MISSION & VALUES

We are dedicated to improving the health and smiles of the people we serve.

  • Improve Lives
  • Exceptional Quality Service
  • One Team
  • Leadership at All Levels
  • Embrace Change
  • Bring Smiles
  • 1.2 million members in Iowa and across the country
  • 3,800 Iowa-based employers choose Delta Dental and DeltaVision for their employees
  • A member of the Delta Dental Plans Association serving more than 80 million members

Learn more on our website

About the Foundation

Delta Dental
of Iowa Foundation

Through the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation and Community Impact funding, we invest in projects that support oral health, overall health, and improve our communities.

Mission: Strengthen and transform the health and smiles of all Iowans.

How we define our work through an equity lens:

Oral health - Activities that promote healthy smiles for all Iowans

Oral and overall health integration- Activities that strengthen connections between dental, physical and emotional health

Overall health - Wellness, vision & related activities that enable Iowans to live healthy and active lives

  • All IowansAll Iowans deserve to be healthy. We address barriers within health care systems and strive for statewide reach with an equity lens.
  • Systems ChangeWe focus on strengthening and transforming systems. We pursue our mission to shift conditions to improve health.
  • PartnershipsWe recognize that our grantees’ and partners’ success IS our success, and we are committed to engaging with partners in a spirit of transparency and goodwill.
  • LeadershipWe are a leader in the sector. We aim to be a catalyst for change, a builder and an innovator. We actively engage partners in the philanthropic, public, and private sectors to advance our mission.

2020 Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation and Community Impact Funding Distribution

2020 Highlights

  • $3.8 million provided to support our community, oral health and overall health initiatives
  • 4 FIND Loan Repayment recipients in 2020
  • 326,000 toothbrushes donated in all 99 Iowa counties
  • New mission and strategy introduced in 2020

Learn more on our website

Oral and Overall Health Funding

Sharing smiles, improving lives

Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation proudly supports projects through direct investments to increase healthy activities to improve the oral, mental and physical health of Iowans. Here are a few highlights of programs that were funded in 2020.

Vision Health

Vision to Learn, Iowa Kids Sight and Prevent Blindness received a total of $52,000 to provide vision screenings for Iowa children.

Toothbrush Giving

The Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation donated more than 326,000 toothbrushes and provided educational materials to Iowa schools, clinics, hospitals, I-Smile™ coordinators and Head Starts in all 99 counties.

More About Toothbrush Giving

To continue to advance oral and overall health, the Foundation supported the Rethink Your Drink program providing water bottle filling stations and supplies to 27 schools (12,000 students and staff), two older adult community centers and three outdoor parks/trailheads for a total of $174,755 invested. Rethink Your Drink promotes drinking more water throughout the day to support oral and overall health.

More About Rethink Your Drink

System & Capacity Building

Through our System and Capacity Building grants, we focus on strengthening and transforming health systems to shift conditions to improve health with the following grants:

The University of Iowa College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics: Improving access to dental care in nursing facilities via Teledentistry: A demonstration project - $200,000

Community Health Center of Southern Iowa:
Osceola Dental Clinic - $49,999

Iowa Department of Public Health:
I-Smile™ @ School - $200,000

River Hills Community Health Center:
Keokuk County Expansion - $49,932

Iowa Department of Public Health:
I-Smile™ Silver Pilot Project - $169,936

Primary Health Care:
Ames Dental Clinic - $250,000

Ignite Planning & Innovation

In 2020, the Foundation funded $248,000 in Ignite Planning and $251,000 in Innovation grants. Projects funded through these grants provide up to $25,000 to organizations seeking to advance oral, oral and overall health integration and overall health through innovation.

Spring 2020 Grants Fall 2020 Grants

2020 Relief Efforts

Changing Lives Helping Others

For 50 years, Delta Dental of Iowa has been on a mission to improve the health and smiles of the people we serve. During these uncertain times, Delta Dental and our Foundation supported providers, customers and community partners.

Together, Delta Dental of Iowa and the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation invested more than $12.9 Million in COVID relief and recovery efforts.

Community Partners

The Foundation provided $1.36 million in COVID-19 relief to Iowa nonprofit partners.

Supported immediate relief for the needs of Iowans, such as food insecurity and mental health needs.

Supported nonprofit dental and health providers impacted by COVID-19 and clinic closures.

Health equity funding for nonprofits addressing populations disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

More About COVID Relie

Employers

Delta Dental provided customers with a premium relief credit for their April and May premiums. More than $4.3 million was provided to these customers in premium relief credits.

Iowans Helping Iowans

More than 2,300 individual plan members donated their premium credits to be given to the Iowa Food Bank Association. With a matching donation from Delta Dental, more than $140,000 was donated to the Iowa Food Bank Association.

Dental and Vision Providers

Delta Dental provided $2.6 million for Advance Claims Payment and DeltaVision Provider Relief Programs to support dental and vision providers during the pandemic.

To assist our dental partners as they reopened their practices, Delta Dental provided dentists $10 for each Delta Dental of Iowa member claim over a four-month period totaling $4.4 Million.

Disaster Assistance Grants

Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic bring challenges to our state and community health partners, many also experienced significant loss during the derecho storm that passed through Iowa in August. In response, Delta Dental provided $66,000 in disaster assistance grants to dentists who had a significant or total loss to their practices.

More About Grants

The Fulfilling Iowa’s Need for Dentists (FIND) Project is committed to connecting dentists and underserved communities with the resources needed to combat Iowa’s dental workforce shortage and ensure dental care is close to home for every Iowan.

Recipients received up to $100,000 each for the repayment of dental education debt.

Since 2002, 52 private-practice dentists have participated in the Loan Repayment and FIND programs to provide 223,000 patient visits and more than 638,000 dental services to underserved Iowans.

2020 FIND Recipients

Dr. Ames Cross Stuart Family Dental Stuart

Dr. Sarah Gingrich Pipho & Gingrich Family Dentistry Dysart

Dr. Kristi Ouderkirk-Bock Broadway Dental Denison

Dr. Alexander Walls Walls Family Dentistry Missouri Valley

FIND project partners include Delta Dental of Iowa and its Foundation as well as numerous organizations like these. For more information, visit www.iowafindproject.com.

Iowa Area Development Group Aureon College of Dentistry and Dental Clinics Iowa Department of Public Health Iowa Dental Association Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines

Charitable Giving &
Employee Engagement

Making a Difference

Delta Dental’s corporate giving program supports giving back and helping bring smiles to Iowans. In 2020, we provided more than $700,000 in direct contribution funding across the state to community organizations for health-related and charitable programs and events.

More than $700,000 in corporate giving

Healthy Activities

Healthy Communities

Social and Emotional Wellbeing

Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation

How to Apply for Funding

The Foundation invests in projects that support its Community Impact Program goals and programs that support oral health, oral health and overall health integration, and overall health, including vision and behavioral health. Funding will also focus on three critical areas: education and advocacy, access and prevention, and policy and research.

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