Civic Participation

Helping Strengthen Our Communities

We are proud to be associated with such fine communities in which we live and work. In fact, we believe that we have a responsibility to our communities to give back. Our firm encourages and supports its attorneys and staff to be actively involved in their neighborhoods and with causes of interest – and we do so in a variety of ways.

Firm's Charitable Action Committee
Iowa Legal Aid
United Way
Mark S. Cady Day of Public Service
Wellness Initiatives
Individual Attorney Involvement

Firm’s Charitable Action Committee

Through the leadership of our firm’s Charitable Action Committee, our attorneys and staff collectively work together on activities throughout the year in support of our designated charity. We believe that engaging in activities together as a firm fosters great teamwork and rapport among our colleagues.

Every few years, the attorneys and staff select a new charity to support both financially and with volunteer hours. With full-office participation, we are able to make a nice impact in the community, as well as have fun working together on important causes.

Our current designated charity is Variety, the Children’s Charity of Iowa. Variety’s mission is dedicated to improving the lives of children who are at-risk, underprivileged, critically ill, or living with special needs.

One way Variety accomplishes this mission is by providing traditional bikes to underserved children and personalized mobility equipment to children living with special needs. We hold staff fundraisers aimed towards providing a brand-new bike, lock, and helmet to a child, and get involved in other volunteer events through Variety. We also support Variety recipients during our annual United Way week and currently have an attorney serving on Variety’s Young Professionals Board of Directors.

In past years, we have supported:

• Ellipsis (merger of YESS and Youth Homes of Mid-America), where we worked on a variety of projects, including coordinated activities with the children, or providing maintenance/landscaping at the facility. We also raised money for Ellipsis by allowing attorneys and staff to wear jeans to work one Friday each month.
• Meals from the Heartland, where we packaged meals on several occasions to help feed the hungry, and raised monies on monthly jeans days at the office.
• Children & Families of Iowa (CFI), including food & healthcare drives, run/walk/bike events, and painting, landscaping, and yard projects at CFI housing facilities.

Iowa Legal Aid

Our firm supports and contributes to United Way on an annual basis. In 2004, we formalized our efforts and assembled a committee made up of attorneys and staff to lead this annual initiative.  

More importantly, our attorneys and employees are better educated about the needs of our community and look forward to the campaign each year as an opportunity to work together to improve our community.

We have a lot of fun throughout the process, too. We build the firm’s annual campaign around a theme aligned with our designated charity and provide some fun incentives for our attorneys and staff as we engage them in the process for United Way Week.

Mark S. Cady Day of Public Service

Ahlers & Cooney is proud to have participated in the inaugural Mark S. Cady Day of Public Service. This special Day brought together the state's legal community to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of the late Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark S. Cady and his commitment to public service, access to justice, and civil rights. Before joining Ahlers, attorneys Eric Boehlert and Maria Brownell had the honor of working as a judicial law clerk to Justice Cady; and both speak highly of his commitment to serving others.

As part of the Cady Day of Public Service, Ahlers attorneys and staff assisted on October 23, 2020 in an environmental cleanup and removal of brush at Gray's Lake in Des Moines, which was upcycled into clippings to be used as animal feed at the Blank Park Zoo. This service event was organized by the Iowa National Heritage Foundation, Trees Forever, the City of Des Moines Parks and Recreation, Blank Park Zoo, and Drake Law School.

Wellness Initiatives

As part of our Wellness Committee’s efforts, many of our attorneys and staff participate in community-wide wellness initiatives in support of such fine charities, such as the Susan G. Komen Walk for the Cure, the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb, Drake’s Grand Blue Mile run, and the Healthiest State Initiative’s annual walk.

As part of the Drake Relays Corporate Wellness Challenge, the Firm received the 2022 trophy for the Medium Employer Division for employees participating in Drake's Grand Blue Mile run or the Drake Road Races.