2012 Valspar Paint Program

In 2012 Valspar Corporation will once again be offering nonprofits and communities a chance to apply for free paint and coatings through its “Minnesota Beautiful” partnership with the Initiative Foundation.

Representatives from the Initiative Foundation and Valspar will select 8-10 restoration or beautification projects to receive paint and coatings based on their visual impact, public benefit, volunteer participation and support, intended use and benefit to the needy. 

Projects that may qualify for a grant include historic buildings, community centers, public buildings, facilities for seniors or people with disabilities, murals or other visual impact projects.  Ineligible projects include denominational churches, city maintenance, schools (except murals) and privately owned buildings.  Projects must take place in one or more of the counties in the Foundation's service area.

Applications are due by March 5, 2012. For more information or to apply download the fact sheet/application or contact Dan Frank at (877) 632-9255 toll-free, dfrank@ifound.org.  

Java & Jobs

As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), the Initiative Foundation has been given a great opportunity to invest in locally-owned companies - delivering responsible, affordable lending to help low-income, low-wealth, and other disadvantaged people and communities.  


Since being certified as a CDFI, we have been awarded nearly $2 million from the CDFI Fund to provide loans and assistance to technology-based and green business ventures in central Minnesota.  The Foundation is also proud to be a member of the Opportunity Finance Network, a national network of CDFIs.  


And now we have another great opportunity...


Starbucks and the Opportunity Finance Network (OFN) teamed up to launch the Create Jobs for USA Fund on Nov. 1, 2011. Seeded with a $5 million donation from The Starbucks Foundation, Create Jobs for USA allows concerned citizens to help create and sustain jobs in America. OFN, a nationwide network of 180 CDFIs, oversees the fund which provides financing to community businesses in underserved markets. One hundred percent of contributions are pooled and awarded as loans for community businesses including small businesses, microenterprises, nonprofit organizations, commercial real estate, and affordable housing groups who are committed to creating and sustaining jobs all across the country. Donations are accepted online at www.CreateJobsforUSA.org and at nearly 7,000 U.S. company-operated Starbucks stores. Donors who contribute $5 or more receive a red, white, and blue wristband with the message “Indivisible,” designed to serve as a symbol of Americans uniting to help create jobs.


So next time you're in a Starbucks, we hope you'll consider a donation.  Not only will you be getting a delicious beverage but you'll be helping to create jobs!


To learn more about Create Jobs for USA, download the fact sheet or visit www.CreateJobsforUSA.org. 

25th Anniversary Commemorative Wall

This past summer we commissioned Paramount Theatre and Visual Arts Center to create an original work that would link the Foundation's accomplishments with the generosity of its donors.  

What artists Anne Meyer and Melissa Gohman created is an amazing work of art!  The 25th Anniversary Commemorative Wall skillfully translates 25 symbols of regional identity and achievement - one for each year of the Foundation's existence.  The 70-piece clay wall was unveiled and dedicated to our donors at a special event on July 13, 2011.  It's now installed at our office and is awaiting one essential element...  the river.

Any donor who has given or pledged $1,000 or more between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2011 will ensure that their name is forever displayed at the Foundation.  Displayed names, the size of which will correspond to the level of gift, will be installed on tiles that will fill the river portion of the wall in early 2012. 

If you're a donor, please contact Katie to learn more about ensuring that your name will be displayed.  Or to learn more about our wall and its 25 symbols, download and read the "Viewer Interpretation Guide".

(click to view full-size photo)

2012 Grant Making Changes

In an effort to make it easier and more efficient for grant seekers to apply for Innovation Fund grants, the Initiative Foundation will be transitioning to an online grantmaking system in 2012.

This coming year the foundation will award over $1 million in grants.  The majority of these grants require participation in one of our leadership programs and the remainder will be awarded through our Innovation Fund.  Through this discretionary fund, the average grant size will be $5,000 and projects must address at least one of seven different criteria.

As with 2011, we will be reviewing and awarding Innovation Fund grants four times throughout the year, according to the following schedule.

Inquiries and full proposals will be accepted and processed through this new online system. More detailed instructions and the link to our new online system can be found on our website at www.ifound.org. As always, thank you for your continued partnership, and please don't hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns!

Breaking records on GiveMN!

This past Wednesday was a day for the philanthropy history books as GiveMN.org's Give To The Max Day, a 24 hour online giving campaign, raised a total of $13.4 million dollars!  

Records were broken as 47,535 individuals donated to 3,978 organizations - compared to last year, that's 4,939 more donors that gave, and 342 more organizations that benefited, from this annual event.  Here at the Foundation, we're so grateful to the donors who contributed over $2,400 to the Foundation's endowment, two of our community funds and the Wadena tornado relief fund!!

GiveMN is such a fun and easy way for people to contribute to the causes that matter to them.  And it's unique to the nation, firmly putting Minnesota on the 'giving map'.  Thank you to everyone for supporting all our region’s worthy causes and helping to spread the word about this great opportunity for Minnesota’s nonprofits!

Here's a little snippet from an email that the GiveMN staff sent out yesterday:

"Yesterday, Minnesotans once again showed unparalleled generosity. Together, 47,535 people gave a total of more than $13.4 million for 3,978 organizations in just 24 hours. This is the result of our collective effort - we are so proud to collaborate with thousands of nonprofits from Red Wing to Moorhead to Grand Marais.  Though words are not enough, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you."

They also put together this fun two minute video:

2011 Initiative Awards - Thank You!

We hope all of those who attended our 2011 Initiative Awards event on Friday, October 28 were just as ‘inspired’ as we were!

Thanks to our friends at Adventure Advertising, photos from the evening are available online.  To download any of the photos (and then save, email, print, etc.), simply click the disk icon next to the photo. 

Thanks to our friends at QuarterTon Productions, the videos are also available on our event website.  (And also on the Foundation’s YouTube channel.)

Other partners who helped pull it all together include:
•    Range Printing
•    Grand View Lodge
•    Events Extraordinaire

One last BIG thank you to all of our sponsors and of course, the award recipients:

•    Larson Boats
•    Wadena, Minnesota
•    Jack & Betty Thomas
•    Stearns-Benton Employment & Training Council

We had a great time putting it all together and being able to honor some of central Minnesota's best examples of outstanding leadership and community service.  Until next time...

2011 Award Winners Announced

We're excited to officially announce our 2011 award winners!

Outstanding Community — Wadena
The foundation chose Wadena to receive its Outstanding Community Award, sponsored by the Minnesota Power Foundation.  The city was selected because of their community development work and recovery and rebuilding efforts after a June 2010 tornado.

Outstanding Enterprise — Larson Boats, Little Falls
Larson Boats, a boat manufacturer in Little Falls, will receive the foundation’s Outstanding Enterprise Award, sponsored by Schlenner Wenner & Co. Founded in 1916, Larson Boats started by manufacturing small wooden boats.  It has since survived the economic recession, while retaining 170 jobs, and has established itself as an internationally-known company. 

Outstanding Generosity — Jack & Betty Thomas, Hackensack
Jack and Betty Thomas will be the recipients of the foundation’s Outstanding Generosity Award, sponsored by Bremer Bank. The couple started Mann Lake Ltd in 1983 and has set up a real estate gift so that proceeds will help build the first modern animal shelter and training facility in Cass County.

Outstanding Nonprofit — Stearns-Benton Employment and Training Council, St. Cloud
The foundation selected Stearns-Benton Employment and Training Council for its Outstanding Nonprofit Award, sponsored by Xcel Energy.  This organization coordinates education and training for dislocated workers while working with local employers to address critical workforce needs. 

----------------------

The winners will be honored at our 2011 Initiative Awards on Friday, October 28th at Grand View Lodge in Nisswa.  Our red-themed event, "inspired", is sure to be fun! 

Winners were selected based on their leadership, innovation and community impact.  Each will receive a recycled glass sculpture by artist, Michael Tonder, and $1,000 for the charity of their choice. The recipients will also be featured in a video revealed during the October 28th event. 

To read stories about the winners, purchase tickets or get more information about sponsorships, attire, etc. just visit our website at www.ifound.org/awards. Hope to see you there!

 

Smude's Sunflower Oil Featured in Star Tribune

In 2009 we helped the Smude family with a start-up loan to build a 'seed oil crushing facility' on their farm. Great things have been happening since then!  The following is an excerpt from the Star Tribune’s June 3, 2011 article, “The Taste 50”:

On their Pierz, Minn., farm, Tom and Jenni Smude are making a Minnesota-made cooking oil, and a superior one at that. After switching out soybeans for 500 acres of drought-tolerant sunflowers, the entrepreneurial couple imported German-made equipment and began producing their cold-pressed, filtered, hand-bottled product. Their gamble has been a win-win situation. Not only have the Smudes created a fragrant, amber-tinted sunflower oil, but their process also turns byproducts into feed for the farm's 400 head of Black Angus cattle.

On the market for just over a year, Smude's Natural Sunflower Oil is catching on with chefs and cooks across the state, including chef Marshall Paulsen of the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, who has been going through "a ton" of it since he discovered it last fall, using it for sautéing as well as embellishing the restaurant's popular granola. At home, he mixes it with lemon juice and splashes it on greens, or blends it with butter when preparing eggs. "It has a complex flavor, and it tastes a little more nutty when it's cooked a little," Paulsen said. "The bottom line is that it tastes great. I met the guy, and I liked him. That goes a long way."

Way to go, Tom & Jenni!  

To learn more about Smude Enterprises visit their website www.smudeoil.com.

More great support from USDA!

The other day we received word that we were awarded a $175,000 grant from the USDA's Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI).  

This brings our total support from this program to almost $1.5 million since 2004!  It's been an incredible resource for us as we work to support our region's rural, low-income communities and nonprofits.  

This particular grant will enable three communities to participate in our Healthy Communities Partnership program - helping a group of citizen leaders develop a plan and implement community and economic development projects.  It will also support a solar energy project with the Region 5 Development Commission and the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL). 

Thank you to USDA for their continued investments in the Initiative Foundation and central Minnesota - we're proud to be a grant recipient once again!

To learn more about what this funding will be used for, feel free to download/read the news release that was issued earlier today.  Or visit USDA's website to learn more about the RCDI program and the other organizations who received grants.

Welcome Dan!

The picture frames are on his desk, his laptop is fired up and his business cards have arrived....

It is our pleasure to announce that Dan Bullert has joined our team as the new Business Finance Officer!  Dan comes to us with over 20 years of commercial lending experience with both national and community banks and is eager to work with local businesses, lenders and economic development professionals joint loan projects.  Dan and his family reside in rural Stearns County.  We look forward to introducing Dan to you over the next several months!

Get to know Dan by browsing through his bio or contacting him at: 320-631-2013 or dbullert@ifound.org.