Annual Report
Our 2025 Annual Report: Celebrating Community
Our 2025 Annual Report is a celebration of what makes our community so special. We celebrate the people who give so generously, the nonprofits who provide much-needed services and the places we all cherish and call home. We celebrate bringing peopel together for a common purpose: Our Community.
Read more from President Andy Patterson.
Cover Artwork: "Take Me to the River" by Linn Skoglund Thygeson.
Celebrating People
Leaving a legacy
Winker children carry out their parents' plans
James and Marlene Winker knew what they wanted their legacy to be. Their children were proud to carry it out.
2025 Friend of the Foundation
Core values inspire giving
Joe and Jennifer Kirby give back in ways large and small, visible and private.
Whether through high-profile philanthropy or behind-the-scenes leadership, Joe and Jennifer Kirby have spent decades strengthening the Sioux Falls community.
Sometimes their name is on it – the Jennifer Kirby Dance Floor at Levitt at the Falls or the Kirby Dog Park downtown. Other times, their impact is felt in quiet conversations, encouraging others to lend support or rally around a cause.
In recognition of their lasting influence, Joe and Jennifer Kirby are the 2025 Friends of the Foundation honorees. Each year, the award celebrates individuals, families or businesses whose generosity and commitment have shaped Sioux Falls in meaningful ways.
Interpreting the Falls
'Take Me to the River'
Artist Linn Skoglund Thygeson describes her style as deconstructed, where meaning shifts and interpretations become multifaceted.
You can see that in “Take Me to the River,” the cover piece for our 2025 Annual Report.
“It’s abstract, but it’s based on the Falls,” Thygeson said of the work. “The pink and the orange are the granite, and the blue is the water. The white is the thinness of the water when it splashes over the Falls.”
Celebrating Services
Inspiring Student Leaders
Leadership Academy inspires kids
If you’ve been looking for people to change the world, chances are you’d find a few of them in a group of students at the Service Leadership Academy in Sioux Falls.
The academy, led by Gregg Talcott and Kim Bartling, works with high school and middle school students to spark conversation and expose them to different needs in the community.
Connecting the dots
Network of Care streamlines systems
The Network of Care is, at its core, a shared software system that can show what services people have connected with – and where there might be gaps.
The network launched in 2016 and continues to use a data-driven approach to creating a collaborative system to help people in need.
Feeding the hungry
Food rescue provides hope
For nearly 15 years, Bread Break, a local nonprofit, has been recovering unused food like that and redistributing it to those in need in the community.
Last year, Bread Break kept 300,000 pounds of food out of the landfill, and they anticipate they’ll rescue more than 400,000 pounds this year.
Healing through sharing
'You need to talk to others'
Karri and Denny Allen know the power of shared experience. As parents who have lost a child, they know firsthand how connection and conversation provide healing and comfort. Now, they run Healing Hope, a nonprofit to help other parents.
Celebrating Places
Adapting to the future
A great future for Great Bear
The recreation park in Sioux Falls continues to grow - expanding with year-round programming from music to festivals to mountain bike trails. But it's also still a great place to enjoy winter sports - all close to home.
Inspired by art
Downtown art sparks joy
For more than two decades, downtown Sioux Falls has hosted the area’s biggest art gallery in the form of sculptures.
A performer bowing to the crowd, a basketball player, a little girl sitting on a globe. And, of course, things that are less identifiable but no less stunning – all as part of the largest sculpture gallery in the state.
SculptureWalk, now in its 22nd year, spans 80 pieces of art across downtown Sioux Falls, continuing to fulfill its mission to bring art to the people.
Our Year in Review
For good, forever
Celebrating Community
By evaluating community needs and opportunities, building engagement around important issues, and connecting donors with purpose, we stand as a champion for philanthropy — transforming generosity into impact and improving the quality of life for all.