Initiative Foundation To Focus 2009 Grantmaking on Economic Recovery
Feb. 17, 2009
 The Little Falls-based
Initiative Foundation will award $3.1 million in nonprofit grants and business financing
in 2009. Nearly 60 percent of its grants will help distressed families, workers and small businesses.
The foundation is now accepting grant applications from nonprofits, schools and local governments that advance the following priorities:
- Help communities plan for and address barriers to economic development, including transportation, childcare, affordable housing and sustainable energy.
- Build effectiveness of organizations and coalitions that serve children and families in economic distress, especially through planning and partnerships.
- Support training programs for at-risk and displaced workers that lead to employment or advancement in growing industries.
- Help small businesses survive and grow despite economic challenges, by supporting nonprofit consulting services, mentorship and education efforts.
Private businesses and individuals are not eligible for Initiative Foundation grants.
“We felt that this situation called for a quick and decisive response,” said Kathy Gaalswyk, foundation president. “The Initiative Foundation is not abandoning its core programs, but we are tightening our focus.”
The foundation will also invest $2.4 million in business financing in partnership with other lenders. Its goal is to start or expand locally owned businesses that secure quality jobs in technology, manufacturing and green ventures. The foundation defines “quality jobs” as those that pay an average of $18 per hour including benefits, the living wage for a family of four. Since 1986, $34.2 million in foundation business loans have created or secured more than 9,600 quality jobs.
“Now more than ever, we need optimism and leadership,” Gaalswyk said. “In the 1980s, the Minnesota Initiative Foundations were created as a counterpunch to economic hardship. Two decades later, we don’t plan to watch from the sidelines.”
Although the foundation's assets have declined, the board of trustees chose to "stay its course" by approving a healthy budget of grants and business loans to help the regional economy. “We’ve had many great investment years to counterbalance the challenging ones,” said board chair Gene Waldorf. “We see opportunities here among the many challenges. By moving forward instead of pulling back, we’re trying to continue the positive momentum and reverse a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic failure.”
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