MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa — Marshalltown residents are finding toilets on their front lawns, but it’s to help raise funds for a serious cause.

The Traveling Toilets fundraiser started earlier this summer to help raise funds for the Marshalltown Area United Way. This group helps around 15,000 residents and offers 30 programs, including things like child care programs, counseling services, developmental disabilities, grief support, housing assistance, legal aid, senior services, and more.

Executive Director Kendra Sorensen said their goal is to raise $900,000 this year to be able to support all of their programs. They had the same goal last year, but felt short and had to decrease the amount of community programs they could support.

That’s why they came up with a unique fundraiser this year.

Residents who are met with toilets can choose one of three options:

• Pay $25 to have United Way remove the toilet
• Pay $50 to have the toilet removed and to choose who the next recipient is
• Pay $100 to choose the next recipient and ensure you don’t receive the toilet again this year

Residents can also choose to pay $150 to be placed on the “party pooper” list and be ineligible to receive a toilet this year.

There are four different toilet designs. Each represents one of their impact areas, including financial security, youth opportunity, healthy community, and community resiliency.

Shauna Smith is one of the residents who received a traveling toilet.

“It was on my driveway, so it made me laugh,” she said. “And I was wanting to figure out who was it that targeted us.”

Local businesses also aren’t safe. The Marshalltown Animal Rescue League had a toilet this week.

“Being an animal shelter, pretty much everything out here [in our lawn] is a toilet for our clientele, but having the human toilet was definitely new,” said Austin Gillis, the executive director of the Marshalltown ARL.

United Way installs the toilets at new homes early in the morning every Wednesday until September.