From mentee to mentor

6/4/2025

Helping build leaders for the future is no small task. That is what Lead DSM has been trying to do for 40 years. Lately, the organization has had the help of a mentor from its Community Connect Program, Brianne Fitzgerald. 

Fitzgerald has bounced around Iowa her entire life. She grew up in Newton, completed her undergraduate work at Simpson College and earned her master’s degree at UNI. Since then, she has been committed to working for nonprofits. Currently, she is the senior director of affiliate relations for the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines.

“We have 46 other county and community foundations that roll up underneath Des Moines’ umbrella. I get to work every day with our rural staff, contractors and volunteer board members across the state of Iowa. Rural philanthropy is the name of the game,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald was a part of the mentorship program in 2014 as a mentee. She says the old model did a solid job of making connections with powerful mentors. Now, the focus is more on developing future leaders to better serve Des Moines by helping them look inward. 

“What do you want to do when it comes to giving back to the community, and then how are you going to continue to move forward in that direction to make Des Moines, or your specific community, a better place to live?” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald became a mentor in the program three years ago. She never thought when she was in the program that she would end up on the other side of it. 

“I think what I learned back in 2014, and what I’ve learned in this community so far, is that it’s been a great opportunity for me to give back in this way to other people,” Fitzgerald said.

Those in the program go through a sort of speed-dating-like process to choose who their mentor will be. Mentors provide a bio of themselves and get chosen from there. Fitzgerald stressed the importance of purpose statements. She says to think of it like a mission statement that a business would have, but for yourself.

“Our job is to get into their heads a little bit. Who really are you and what talents are you really bringing forward to the community? And let’s take and dissect the words that you’ve chosen in your draft for your purpose statement and get to the root of who you are and how this statement defines you as a person,” Fitzgerald said.

Too often, people focus their statements on who they are at work and not who they are inside, she said. Separating the two and focusing goals on who you would like to be is where she and other mentors come in. 

“The intention is to figure out where their interests are and how we can start having them think about where that would fit with their interests, their experience, their goals, and have them start thinking a little bit more specifically about making a meaningful impact with our nonprofits and other community organizations,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald read to us a thank-you card she keeps at her desk that she received from someone she helped mentor. 

“She went from a very kind of bland, vague purpose statement to really understanding who she is as a parent of a child that happens to have some special needs and how she can use that superpower to continue to support the community,” Fitzgerald said. 

As someone who spends most of her time with her job in rural communities, being able to work with people within the city of Des Moines allows her to reach another group of people she normally does not get to support. 

“I am getting to meet with wonderful leaders in different communities, but I’ve kind of taken a step back from spending some of my time in Des Moines. To me, that gets me in front of a new group of people every single year that are anxious and excited about what they can do to contribute to our wonderful, vibrant community,” Fitzgerald said.

The program can be great for those looking for mentorship but also the mentors themselves. Fitzgerald says she and other mentors gain just as much as the people they are working with.

“If you are someone who loves to connect with a group of people who are wanting to figure out how to continue to invest in the place that we all call home, and you’re good at digging deeper and asking some questions and probing a little bit to figure out who people are, you’re perfect for this,” Fitzgerald said. n