Initiative Foundation

Economyloans: the Foundation approved 42 small business loans totaling $3,935,975 in 2022, including 17 microloans totaling $700,500 to diverse entrepreneurs. As a result of these loans, $44,527,000 in private financing was leveraged through other lending institutions. We estimate this lending volume contributed to the creation of 94 jobs and helped to retain 104 jobs. To strengthen and sustain our microlending network, we maintain funding and referral relationships with many partners, including economic development organizations, local and regional banks, credit unions, nonprofits, small business development centers, and more. Initiators fellowship: the program welcomed eight individuals for its third two-year cohort (2022-23). The fellowship serves 53 counties and six native nations in regions represented by the Initiative Foundation, southwest Initiative Foundation, west central Initiative, and norwest Minnesota Foundation. The program has granted 19 fellowships since inception, with participants benefiting from more than $1.3 million in direct program investments, ranging from stipends to professional development to mentorship, and have leveraged more than $1 million in outside investments. The initiators fellowship is the premier program in the state serving rural changemakers with a two-year suite of supports including training, mentoring, and funding for beginning or early-stage social entrepreneurship. These greater Minnesota leaders are helping to build the economy and quality of life in their hometowns by developing purpose-driven, for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations with a positive social or environmental impact.enterprise academy and small business support: the enterprise academy program provides business training, one-on-one technical assistance, and direct lending to diverse and underserved entrepreneurs. This program has served more than 300 low-income or minority entrepreneurs since its inception in 2018, including 150 graduates of its 12-week intensive business training program, and helped dozens of participants launch businesses and build wealth. The program graduated its 15th and 16th cohorts at the end of 2022 and celebrated a significant expansion by doubling the number of classes offered in the st. Cloud region. The program is one of only a few in greater Minnesota dedicated to accelerating the success of underserved entrepreneurs with wraparound support and training. The entrepreneurship programs team delivered more than 2,000 hours of free one-on-one and group business coaching to more than 260 underserved entrepreneurs. Workforce development: attracting and retaining a skilled workforce continues to be a strategic priority for the Foundation. To support these efforts in the region, the Foundation provided funding and other supports for locally driven strategic planning initiatives, linking funders, educational institutions, and employers. Focused outreach with community banks, chambers of commerce, and volunteer business groups, combined with targeted economic development grants, remains a priority to increase loans and technical assistance opportunities in all communities.

Generositypartner fund performance: the community philanthropy team assisted the Initiative Foundation's 128 partner funds in facilitating 444 grants for a total of $1.7 million in awards across the region. Total partner fund grantmaking increased by 13 percent over the prior year, resulting in an increase of $215,000 in grants awarded in 2022. Two hundred forty-five applications were received by the 18 funds that hosted open grant rounds. The average partner fund grant in 2022 was $3,878. In 2022, donations to endowed and quasi-endowed funds increased by $183,000 for a total of $1,115,000 in donations to partner funds. Multiple virtual events for nonprofits and partner fund advisors provided training in fundraising, board recruiting, and effective meeting management. Staff-led planned-giving presentations were hosted by nonprofit organizations in chisago city and buffalo.

Communitychild care solutions: Foundation staff continue to support improved access to quality, affordable, economically sustainable childcare through various strategies and partnerships. Our highest-profile Initiative involves our relationship with three regional community colleges. The partnership assures that a student seeking credentials in the childcare field can graduate without debt through a combination of financial aid and Initiative Foundation grant support. We continue to administer the governor's emergency education relief (geer) fund program on behalf of the Minnesota department of education, which provides grants ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 to programs serving vulnerable children age birth to 8. Energy transition: our long-standing support continues for economic diversification in becker and other communities associated with the decommissioning of the sherburne county coal generation station. Efforts in 2021 helped to leverage $26 million in state bonding. We built on that success in 2022 to secure new funding from the morgan family Foundation and mcknight Foundation to support clean energy pilot projects that provide economic benefits to their hosts. Our most recent clean-energy project supports a cost-benefit analysis of renewable energy investments at food shelves in elk river (sherburne county) and walker (cass county). This analysis will help both partners secure grants to quickly retire debt and to generate revenue.environmental initiatives: Foundation staff have participated in assessments and assisted in developing recommendations to support the reauthorization of Minnesota's environment and natural resources trust fund, commonly called "the lottery fund." The fund is due to expire in 2024. Since indigenous people often are unrepresented in traditional conservation groups, we have provided a grant to give indigenous people a voice in the reauthorization discussions. A primary goal is the creation of a "community grantmaking pool" to include diverse representation to overcome the barriers to access that have existed in the current system.we continue to support the northern lands and waters trust's exploration of how to use easements to encourage woody biomass restoration in marginal lands to capture carbon before it enters the atmosphere. Discretionary grantmaking: the Initiative Foundation's traditional grantmaking is distributed from its innovation and economic development funds. Innovation fund grants are generally awarded to nonprofits, schools and local units of government to support projects and programs that empower people across central Minnesota to build a thriving economy, vibrant communities and a lasting culture of generosity. Grants from the economic development fund are invested in eligible projects that advance workforce initiatives. The discretionary nature of these grants allows us to be creative, flexible, and responsive to community needs. Collectively, these efforts supported about $377,800 in 2022 grants. For more on grants awarded in 2022, see our generosity section.nonprofit development: the nonprofit academy suite of programs, including executive roundtable, vibrant and equitable communities, fundraising week, continuous improvement, and various single-day trainings and lunchtime learning sessions, served 146 total organizations and more than 400 individuals from across the region and beyond. The vibrant and equitable communities program is supported by the mcknight Foundation with a focus on organizations led by and serving underserved communities. The program provided consulting, training and grants to participants. Nonprofit academy piloted a continuous improvement program, offering participant organizations the opportunity to develop and test process-improvement tools. As a result, several participants identified and implemented organizational improvements that increased their efficiency and effectiveness.in continuation of a prior-year grant from the otto bremer trust, the Initiative Foundation in 2022 delivered nearly $1.1 million in grants to area nonprofits for transformative operational changes.

Pandemic relief and recoverygrants to underserved: a grant from the nashville-based center for disaster philanthropy supported community-based needs assessment and response with two partners: the somali-led central Minnesota community empowerment organization and the latino economic development center. This effort focused on covid-19 response needs in meat-processing communities, where the workforce is largely new americans. It resulted in the administration of rent relief, culturally appropriate foods at local food shelves, medical transport, and similar aid. The Foundation continues to participate in the funders network philanthropic preparedness, resiliency, and emergency partnership (pprep), which provided $45,000 to support homeownership for 10 families that had previously experienced housing insecurity on leech lake band of ojibwe land. Small business relief: in continuation of a prior-year grant from the otto bremer trust, the Initiative Foundation delivered $675,000 in grants to microenterprises across the region that had demonstrated negative impacts from the pandemic. Grants focused on ventures run by people of color, those operating in rural areas, and those who had not accessed other forms of pandemic relief. In partnership with the Minnesota department of employment and economic development (deed), the Foundation verified and administered 607 small business relief grants for a total of $6,815,000. Grants ranged from $10,000 to $25,000 based on business size. These grants were distributed to central minnesota-owned and -operated businesses that closed due to executive orders and/or demonstrated financial hardship due to the pandemic. The program delivered more than $8.8 million to 784 businesses in 2021 and 2022. The effort was the single-largest grantmaking effort in the Foundation's history, comparable only to the 2020 round of state relief grants, where the Foundation delivered $7.4 million to 740 businesses.

Communications & iq magazineiq magazine: the Foundation published two editions of iq magazine in 2022. Since late 2019, just prior to the onset of the pandemic, iq magazine circulation has climbed by nearly 40 percent an important uptick as we work to elevate the Foundation's partner-based work and garner regional and statewide attention. Equally important is the role that iq magazine plays to fill the growing void as traditional news outlets shrink or disappear from the media landscape. The magazine serves as a content engine for the organization's marketing and communications messaging by providing inclusive, solutions-based editorial content and photography to promote programs, partnerships, outreach efforts, and regional/statewide initiatives that focus on economic development, community development and generosity. Iq magazine content is augmented by a robust digital communications strategy, including email marketing, social media marketing, video content and website messaging. Working together, these story-driven mediums convey to readers the continued need for ongoing generosity and endowment-building for the benefit of central minnesotans. In addition to its public-facing media work, the marketing and communications team provides cross-team support for the Initiative Foundation's programmatic work from entrepreneurship training to childcare to nonprofit development and clean energy efforts. The team began work in late 2022 to refresh the brand's logo and to modernize the organization's website. The goal of the website makeover is to reimagine the user experience and to increase calls to action and engagement. The project is anticipated to launch in 2023.