|
|
|
 |
Summer 2006
The Minnesota Initiative Foundations:
An Experiment at Year 20
|
|
Tom Renier (center), president of the Northland Foundation, presents The McKnight Foundation's Erika L. Binger and Louis Hohlfeld an award recognizing McKnight's leadership and commitment to Minnesota's youngest citizens during the 20 Year Celebration of the Minnesota Initiative Foundations.
Photo courtesy of the Northland Foundation.
|
Initiative Foundations Success Stories
The
Initiative Foundation and Morrison County's partnership to reduce methamphetamine use was selected for one of 12 2006 National Sustainable Communities Awards, presented by the National Association of Counties. The award cited citizen task forces. The foundation held a "Minnesota ICE: A Rural Response to Methamphetamine" conference in November 2005 to educate residents about the rural meth epidemic.
Northland Foundation's major priority of improving the well-being of children and youth from birth to adulthood is evidenced in the foundation's grantmaking and nationally acclaimed KIDS PLUS Program. Recently, Northland welcomed 250 leaders from all 432 northeastern Minnesota school districts and the Grand Portage and Fond du Lac reservations for a Key Leaders Summit on Early Care and Education.
A successful collaboration of higher education, major manufacturers and government agencies, together with
Northwest Minnesota Foundation, created Ingenuity Frontier to help build a continuous pool of qualified manufacturing and engineering employees for regional industries. Scholarships, mentoring and informational programs that dip down into high schools and even middle schools are raising awareness and building industrial careers.
Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, through its Regional Housing Academy, works to build housing development capacity within southern Minnesota communities. The Regional Housing Academy consists of regular training and networking opportunities. Another resource connected to the academy is the "Housing Study Toolkit," designed to help communities effectively plan for the short- and long-term housing needs of their residents.
As a rural regional community foundation, the
Southwest Initiative Foundation seeks to advance renewable energy as an economic asset in southwest Minnesota. The foundation created the Renewable Energy Marketplace as a marketing strategy to help position southwest Minnesota as the premier place for commerce-based renewable energy. Southwest Initiative focused primarily on wind-powered renewable energy.
West Central Initiative has focused on workforce development program investments since 1994. Through these investments, employees increase their marketable employment skills and the company benefits from higher productivity that allows them to be more competitive and profitable. The west central region had about 4,000 manufacturing jobs 20 years ago; today, there are 10,000 manufacturing jobs.
|
In 1986, six innovative funds were launched as an experiment in rural philanthropy. Since then, these foundations have provided 2,800 business loans totaling $130 million and made a combined 12,000 grants totaling $91 million. Taken together, their foundation endowments today equal more than $160 million, with business financing assets of nearly $60 million.
Thus, current total assets of these six Minnesota Initiative Foundations, informally called the MIFs, roughly equal The McKnight Foundation's $200 million investment in them over the 20 years.
"At McKnight, we are extremely proud of our early involvement in the development of the Minnesota Initiative Foundations, as well as our ongoing relationships with them," said Erika L. Binger, chair of The McKnight Foundation. "The thoughtful leaders and community partners in each region deserve full credit, and McKnight's gratitude, for more than 20 successful and productive years."
McKnight created the Minnesota Initiative Funds in response to the drastic decline in the farming, logging and mining industries in the 1980s. The six were created to promote economic and community development, build the leadership and planning capacity of local communities, coordinate and leverage resources, and stimulate local giving throughout rural Minnesota.
Evolved Separately
As independent, philanthropic organizations with local boards of directors, the MIFs developed individually. Each evolved with its own mission and locally driven strategies to respond to regional needs.
"The beauty of McKnight's experiment in rural philanthropy is, the Initiative Foundations were all created with a common framework, and this framework allowed each organization to evolve in a way that reflects the uniqueness of their regions," said Tom Renier, founding president of the Northland Foundation, Duluth.
The Initiative Foundations grew without feeling limited. Each has developed a unique regional focus, although they join together for major statewide initiatives. In 2003, they combined forces around the cause of Minnesota's youngest population. Fifty-one grassroots early childhood coalitions have since sprouted in Greater Minnesota to strengthen early care and education resources.
As Trixie Ann Golberg, who recently stepped down after 13 years as president of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation in Owatonna, said, "The MIFs were new philanthropy before new philanthropy had a name. We need to underscore initiative because these foundations have looked at philanthropy as initiators in community and economic development."
Unique Model
Renier sees the Initiative Foundations as unique not in legal and programmatic structure but in scope. "The MIFs are hybrids: grantmakers and operating foundations," he said. "The ability to make loans to businesses has no parallel model in the country and has allowed them to build relationships across the communities they serve."
Sherry Ristau, who has served a total of 13 years in two stints at Southwest Initiative Foundation
in Hutchinson, first as grants program manager and now as president, often describes the Initiative Foundations as "not government." "The MIFs are entrepreneurial organizations that work across all parts of communities — private, public and nonprofit," she noted. "Our organizations take regional to another level: there is a true sense of regional community and buy-in, not just lip service."
The MIFs nurture rural philanthropy, and some have evolved into community foundations. As Northwest Minnesota Foundation president John Ostrem said, "The concept of building communities through philanthropy overtook us about 10 years ago." Northwest Minnesota Foundation is headquartered in Bemidji.
Some of the Initiative Foundations also establish component funds, or affiliate funds, that offer smaller communities a way for local people to build their own resources so they can take an active role in determining their future.
"Some communities want to see a foundation or the state or federal government come in and save the day with funds for projects," said Nancy Straw, president of West Central Initiative, Fergus Falls. "When the people in a community have funds they can use on their own priority issues, the feeling of hope and empowerment is very strong. Even if the dollar amount is not huge, it contributes to a feeling of self-determination."
Kathy Gaalsywk, founding president of the Initiative Foundation, Little Falls, stated, "It has been an incredible journey to experience the growth and development of not only my organization, but all of the foundations. Tapping into our combined capacity, we have launched a statewide collaboration to strengthen local resources for our youngest citizens through the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative. Over the years, The McKnight Foundation has been a wonderful mentor, partner and champion as we have come into our own."
More
Information from the
Summer 2006 Edition of Giving Forum
|
Thank you to the sponsors of this issue of Giving Forum:
|
| $5,000 Sponsor |
 |
| $5,000 Sponsor |
 |
| $1,000 Supporter |
West Central Initiative |
|
© Copyright 2006 Minnesota Council on
Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher
is prohibited.
|
|
