When the youngsters of Spirit Lake, Iowa, took to the ballfield this past spring, their baseball and softball diamonds had new infield mix, freshly sodded outfields bordered by new fencing, and newly constructed dugouts where they could hang their bats. “The fields had been here since the 1980s,” said Luke Donnenwerth, market president at Spirit Lake-based Bank Midwest. “I played on them, and I’m old,” the 40-year-old banker quipped.
Upgrading the playing facilities for the local Little League was a passion project for Donnenwerth, who serves as treasurer of the Spirit Lake Youth Athletic Association, one of several volunteer roles he’s embraced in northwest Iowa’s Lakes Region.
Donnenwerth is being honored as a BankBeat magazine 2023 “Rising Star in Banking.”
Rebuilding the ballfields was also a major fundraising lift, requiring the group to raise between $400,000 and $500,000. “But we’re 90 percent fundraised,” said Donnenwerth, whose three children are amongst the many to play on those new fields this summer. Bank Midwest was a field sponsor. “When you work for a place that gives so generously to projects in the area, it’s pretty cool,” he said.
Bank Midwest’s reputation for benevolence is well-burnished in the markets it serves, which include communities in southwestern Minnesota along with Sioux Falls, S.D. And, it was a great part of the appeal for Donnenwerth in 2010 when he moved home to Spirit Lake — wife and new baby in tow — after working as a commercial lender in Iowa City for a Des Moines-based bank.
Not even half a dozen years into his banking career at the time, Donnenwerth admitted he wasn’t 100 percent sure what he wanted to be when “he grew up,” he said. “But I knew Bank Midwest was a great family-owned bank and a great organization.”
Donnenwerth jumped into his lending role with enthusiasm and engaged himself in community outreach — at the YMCA, with the Kiwanis, now as chair of the Good Neighbor Fund, which raises money annually for a multitude of community nonprofits.
“Luke is well-known throughout our local community and he is one of the first names you think of when looking for strong leadership on nonprofit boards and fundraising,” said Mary Kay Bates, president and CEO. “His volunteerism represents the essence of what it means to be a community banker.”
Donnenwerth is just one year into his promotion to market president, with oversight over the bank’s Spirit Lake, Okoboji and Wall Lake, Iowa, offices. Moving from a producer role into leadership comes at the right time, and with the right amount of challenge, he said. Leadership is something he’s promoting by example, while “realizing you need to help those people grow so you’ll be successful too,” he explained. He engages in weekly check-ins to provide people with strategy and support. “You’ll only be successful if those around you are.”
Bank Midwest invests in its culture. Roughly 10 years ago, it adopted the tenets of “Fierce Conversations” — a program designed to foster accountability, courage and compassion in a workplace — in order to iron out the wrinkles in employee-customer, coworker and employee-manager communications. Two years ago, it engaged the Anthony Cole Group to build up its sales culture. For Donnenwerth, who went from zero direct reports to a half dozen, that outside support has been invaluable. “I do a lot more coaching,” he said.
Bates characterizes Donnenwerth’s leadership style as humble and creative. “Luke exhibits the many qualities that make for a great leader,” she said. “He is a continuous learner and his future in banking is bright.”
Life-long learning, Donnenwerth explained, is a bank value, and he’s embracing it for the good of the industry. In the past year, he joined the “Leaders in Advocacy” program established by the Iowa Bankers Association. He’s engaged in two advocacy trips to Des Moines and was scheduled to visit Capitol Hill in June.
“Advocacy is a learning process,” he said. While admitting he’s just gotten started engaging in issue conversations, he believes in its value. “The more issues (such as tax parity with credit unions or increased reg burdens) get talked about, the more [legislators] understand.”
Everything that happens at the state capitol or in Washington ultimately impacts community banks, and trickles down to affect customers, he said. “Hopefully down the line, those conversations will have an impact.”