ECONOMY
Going Green & Clean
St. Cloud area showcases electric vehicles, clean energy possibilities. Pg. 8
COMMUNITY
Rallying Around Randall
When disasters strike, long-term support is key to community recovery. Pg. 22
GENEROSITY
Generosity in Full Bloom
The late Jim Kurpius honors his roots and his beloved hometown of Staples. Pg. 46
Nearly $26 million helps small businesses, nonprofits survive two-plus years of uncertainty. Pg. 15
Granite Partners is a private investment and holding company founded in 2002 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, with a mission to grow companies and create value for all stakeholders. As trusted partners, innovative leaders, and responsible stewards, we are committed to 100-year sustainability, and we aspire to world-class wellbeing for all people in and around the Granite community.
Nearly $26 million in grants help small business, nonprofits survive more than two years of uncertainty.
A special grant round is helping regional nonprofits use lessons learned from the pandemic to transform the ways they deliver services.
Economy: Going Green & Clean St. Cloud area showcases electric vehicles, clean energy possibilities.
With Housing Grants help Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe counter homelessness, create pathways to housing stability.
Business: Revitalizing Main Street Special funding helps 6 Central Minnesota communities revive downtown corridors.
Read our 2021 Annual Impact Report and learn about investments in regional prosperity.
ON THE COVER: Since the onset of the pandemic, the Initiative Foundation has delivered 2,400 relief and recovery grants to Central Minnesota businesses and nonprofits to help them survive uncertain and economically challenging times.
After two years of mostly meeting via computer screens, it is truly a joy to be back out in the world, meeting face-to-face again with people who are changing our region for the better.
On an early September visit to Cambridge, I had the opportunity to stop at Family Pathways, which provides healthy food access for people in need, support services for victims of abuse, supervised visitation, and services for older adults and caregivers. To my eye, the staff and volunteers delivering these critical services truly are angels among us.
I was delighted to hear Executive Director Tony Buttacavoli’s excitement about his plans to use a $55,000 grant from the Initiative Foundation, made possible by the Otto Bremer Trust. Family Pathways will use the funds to creatively make food available to more people in need, including pop-up food markets, doorstep delivery, and work with local colleges to ensure food security for students.
Later in September, I had the honor of kicking off a town hall meeting hosted by Minnesota Public Radio’s Kerri Miller on the challenges and opportunities of launching a business in Greater Minnesota. Nearly 100 business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs and support organizations joined the discussion at Krewe Restaurant in St. Joseph. Thanks to the circular arrangement of the chairs, I enjoyed a sense of being embedded in a crowd of people eager to take our region to new heights—and I believe small business owners in the room felt similarly embraced by supporters in what can sometimes be a lonely endeavor.
In this edition of IQ Magazine, you’ll read about more inspiring people and organizations, including other nonprofit recipients of $1 million in transformative grants like the one made to Family Pathways; people in the Leech Lake area who are working to create housing stability; and special funding that is bringing renewal to six Central Minnesota downtown corridors. We’ll also take you to Randall, where residents continue to recover from devastating June flooding.
I hope you enjoy these stories and that you, too, may come face-to-face with the many changemakers in our region.
Yours, Matt Varilek, PRESIDENT
Are you receiving extra copies of IQ Magazine at your home or place of business? Is the magazine addressed to the right person?
Let us know by sending an email to Allison Norgren at anorgren@ifound.org. Thank you!
Initiative Foundation President | Matt Varilek
Marketing & Communications Director | Bob McClintick
Marketing & Communications Specialist | Allison Norgren
Editorial
Managing Editor | Alicia Chapman
Writer | Laura Billings Coleman Writer | Lisa Meyers McClintick
Writer | Elizabeth Foy Larsen Writer | Gene Rebeck Writer | Maria Surma Manka Writer | Kevin Allenspach Writer | John Reinan Writer | Suzy Frisch
Art Art Director | Dan MacLaughlin Photographer | John Linn Photographer | Paul Middlestaedt Photographer | Michael Schoenecker Photographer | Zack Swanson Illustrator | Chris McAllister
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VOLUME 36, FALL 2022 Printed at Deluxe
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IQ Magazine unlocks the power of Minnesota leaders to understand and take action on regional issues.
Toss out any preconceived notions that extracurricular activities are limited to football, volleyball and baseball: Robotics has become the fastest-growing Minnesota extracurricular activity for middle and high school students. A $5,000 Initiative Foundation challenge-match grant helped the new Royalton team raise the same in local sponsorship. The end goal is to compete at the 2023 state competition this spring in St. Cloud.
Some of Minnesota’s most rural communities are home to large, shuttered schools. A project to use the former Eagle Bend school for senior housing, a community gathering space, an auditorium and more is on a roll. The building already is home to Hilltop Regional Kitchen, where staff and volunteers produce thousands of meals annually for seniors and shut-ins. Volunteers are coordinating the senior campus project, and an Initiative Foundation grant will advance planning, coordination and an economic feasibility study.
You may go to the Wadena Farmers Market for fresh green beans and delicate new potatoes, but thanks to the work of Lead for Minnesota Fellow Lillian Norman, you may leave with a dried flower project and a song in your heart. The Wadena Development Authority partnered with several organizations and the Initiative Foundation to hire Norman to elevate the arts. In addition to the Farmers Market expansion, she has worked on a murals project, created an arts and culture plan and more.
When the COVID pandemic hit, food pantries had to find innovative ways to distribute food while meeting needs as people lost jobs and children were left without school lunches. Second Harvest North Central Food Bank shifted from a food pantry model to pop-up distributions. Donations are needed to fuel this more expensive model. A $5,000 Initiative Foundation grant will serve as a challenge match for funds raised during November’s Give to the Max Day. Support the food bank at givemn.org/Secondharvest.
Up to 17,000 Central Minnesota children and families lack access to child care. Innovative solutions will help to address the shortage. The Brainerd Family YMCA’s answer: the purchase of a neighboring building to add up to 85 infant and toddler slots to their program. A proposed center for up to 63 children in Onamia (in Mille Lacs County) is also taking shape with support from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Both projects also received Initiative Foundation grant funding.
The advent of fish houses on wheels has driven more people onto the ice, and with more people comes more trash and other waste. The Mille Lacs Area Community Foundation, a Partner Fund of the Initiative Foundation, recently adopted the Keep it Clean Campaign, to encourage a leave-no-trace mindset for ice anglers. The campaign provides simple tips like using colored trash bags, securing garbage while traveling and checking the ice before leaving.
The Bridge Healing Center in St. Cloud connects clients in need of mental health services to a therapist who understands their culture and speaks their native language. Ali Aden, an Initiative Foundation loan client and Enterprise Academy graduate, and Lul Nur opened the center in June after recognizing a need for culturally-fluent services in the St. Cloud area. The couple plans to employ therapists who can offer services in English, Somali, Spanish and Arabic.
A bed, table and couch are essential to a comfortable home. Granny’s Closet, which serves the Elk River area, received funding from Initiative Foundation-hosted Three Rivers Community Foundation for Good Nights from Granny’s—a program that gets beds to senior citizens in need. Becker’s Great River Faith in Action received an Initiative Foundation grant to cover delivery costs for a similar program called Furniture for Families.
The drive to buy local food has gained momentum. But buying local isn’t always possible for our Muslim neighbors and others who eat halal (Arabic for “permissible”) goat meat. The goats are raised and butchered as far away as New Zealand and Australia. Grants from the Initiative Foundation and the Family Farm Fund, a Partner Fund of the Foundation, are supporting feasibility studies for a local, halal-certified meat processing facility and to teach farmers the process of becoming halal-certified.
Dental issues are painful and can lead to long-term health issues. With Buffalo’s new Wright Smiles for Central Minnesota, thousands will have access to dental care, with a particular focus on the uninsured and those on Medicaid. Twin Cities-based nonprofit Community Dental Care has worked with dozens of partners over the past few years to bring the clinic to fruition. The Initiative Foundation is funding a collaboration with St. Cloud Technical and Community College to staff the facility with diverse dental professionals.
Millions of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic relief have gone to businesses across Central Minnesota. With all the funding delivered, some of the smallest businesses fell through the cracks. Thanks to a grant from the Otto Bremer Trust, distributed by the Initiative Foundation, 12 Chisago County businesses received more than $100,000 in grant support. In total, the Initiative Foundation’s microenterprise grant initiative delivered $675,000 to 86 businesses in Central Minnesota.
In a time of record low unemployment, Minnesota needs every single worker. But parents can’t enter the workforce if they don’t have child care. Initiative Foundation staff, along with board members with the Initiative Foundation-hosted Memorial Hospital Foundation Partner Fund, are teaming up with First Children’s Finance to develop strategies to increase child care availability in Isanti County, where there’s an estimated shortage of 1,000 slots.
More than 400 Kanabec County seniors rely on Catholic Charities for congregate dining and homedelivered meals. The nonprofit served 38,175 meals in 2021. An Initiative Foundation grant will help the Mora-based Catholic Charities organization purchase a steam table to keep meals warm and to label home-delivered meals with nutritional information to stay current with Minnesota Department of Health standards. Catholic Charities served nearly 1 million meals to Central Minnesota senior citizens in 2021.
Nine Pine City High School young women facing mental health and grief issues had the chance to build confidence and make some new friends of the equine variety. A grant from Initiative Foundation-hosted Greater Pine Area Endowment helped send the young women to Changing Gaits in Brook Park for a one-day horse therapy program. School staff reported that all the young women experienced positive moments during the enrichment experience.
PINE: Nine Pine City High School students visited Changing Gaits for a horse therapy program.
“We are so thankful for the grant to support our company as we navigated the negative impact of COVID. It is through organizations [like the Initiative Foundation] that businesses are still open to help others—and their own employees. Thank you!”BENTON: Ali Aden graduated from the Initiative Foundation’s Enterprise Academy program in May 2022.
St. Cloud area showcases electric vehicles, clean energy possibilities
By Alicia Chapman | Photography by Paul Middlestaedt
It’s no longer uncommon to see a Tesla or other electric vehicle tooling down the road or pulled up to a charging station. Electric vehicles, also known as EVs, are gaining traction. In fact, car sales in the United States have passed a critical tipping point: 5 percent of all new vehicles sold are powered exclusively by electricity.
As the adoption rate accelerates, it marks a period in which technological preferences rapidly flip, according to an analysis by Bloomberg. The need to prepare the region’s infrastructure to support EVs and other clean-energy options—from the capacity of the electrical grid to the installation of charging stations—is becoming more imminent.
The transition to EVs was on full display in July during a Recharge St. Cloud EV Expo at River’s Edge Convention Center. Supported by an Initiative Foundation grant, in partnership with the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation, Recharge Minnesota and Xcel Energy, the event was designed to open up conversations around EVs and how they can transform mobility, create efficiencies and spur new economic development possibilities.
“Sector leaders like Xcel and Minnesota Power are rapidly striving to go carbon neutral,” said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development. “The goal for both of them is by the end of next decade. They’re deeply committed to encouraging the electrification of as many transportation options as possible.”
As more EVs hit the road, energy companies are working to modernize the power grid to meet the demand, said Tina Malott, program strategist with Recharge America, a national nonprofit that advocates for clean transportation.
“If everybody today went out and bought an EV and started charging, our grids would not be able to handle it,” Malott said. “But that’s not a realistic scenario. This is going to be a steady adoption over the next few years. And along with that adoption will be more renewables on the grid being able to handle that extra load.”
In addition to elevating electric vehicles, the July Recharge event showcased an array of clean energy initiatives occurring in the Greater St. Cloud area. Several years ago the city of St. Cloud took a hard look at its energy consumption and plotted a path toward greater efficiency. The city is now saving about 4.5 million kilowatt-hours a year. Most of the gains have come through innovations at the city’s wastewater
treatment plant, which runs on 100 percent renewable energy. An estimated 98 percent of the plant’s energy is generated onsite through solar panels and methane digestion. The city of Sartell is on a similar path to achieve energy efficiencies and carbon-neutral outcomes. (Carbon neutral means that any carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere is balanced by an equivalent amount being removed.)
The city of St. Cloud also plans to add more electric vehicles to its fleet. Malott said the gradual transition will help to ensure that Minnesota is prepared for the inevitable shift to clean energy technologies.
“To be successful, everybody has to work together,” Malott said. “The manufacturers can’t just say, ‘We’re putting out a line of EVs, get ready.’ The dealer has to install fast charging because you have to give your car to the customer fully charged. So to get that fast charging, the dealer has to work with the local utility. And then, the utilities have to think about their rate structure and incentives. They have to work with the electrical contractors in the area to make sure they’re trained and equipped, and knowledgeable about how to install this infrastructure. There are so many pieces to the puzzle, and right now, everybody’s working their hardest with the same goal in mind –getting more EVs on the road, getting more renewables on the grid.”
Barriers to EV adoption remain, even with awareness-building events like this summer’s Recharge Expo. The cost of EVs remains high for some, but prices are declining as more car companies put EVs into production, Malott said. The next and most significant barrier is public infrastructure. Charger anxiety is a big concern for people considering EVs. More public charging stations are popping up around Central Minnesota, including a two-port charging station in the parking lot of the Initiative Foundation’s Little Falls headquarters. The city of Sartell recently approved 16 charging stations, and the city of St. Cloud has added public charging stations at Riverside Park with plans to add more. In addition, the city of Becker recently installed high-speed electric vehicle charging stations at its high school with funds from an Initiative Foundation grant. The installation will help to meet consumer demand and reposition the Sherburne County city as a diverse and innovative economy as coal-fired power plants are decommissioned in Becker.
“Last year, both the McKnight Foundation and the Morgan Family Foundation were very generous in supporting us for a wider
CHARGE 'EM UP!: Through a partnership with Minnesota Power, the Initiative Foundation has an electric vehicle charging station at its Little Falls office. The station is available on a first-come, first-served basis and includes two charging ports. The cost is $1.50 per hour. Users will need the ZEFNET app on their mobile device to enter the charger ID number.
look at how we can advance economic opportunity associated with all clean energy across Central Minnesota,” Hickman said, and regional partners are joining the effort. “Our job as a regional economic organization is helping with retention and expansion of our existing businesses,” said Leslie Dingmann, business development director for the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation. “So when there are public-private partnerships investing in this infrastructure, it only bodes well for the region as a whole to attract business.”
Elizabeth Kramer, a public service analyst with the city of St. Cloud, said the city takes pride in knowing that it can depend on its own sources of energy for a significant portion of its needs. But it’s more than just being clean. The city is also saving taxpayer dollars.
“In many cases, we’re saving money with these projects,” said Kramer. “And it comes full circle. We’re benefiting local industries by being able to take their high-strength waste. And that, in turn, helps the community and the economy of the area. And it all kind of circles around into itself and provides a lot of benefits for everyone in the city.”
For every EV test drive taken during the July Recharge Electric Vehicle Expo, a donation was made to VEX MN robotics to support school-based robotics clubs and automation education in the region. Nearly 90 drivers and 60 passengers took a spin, resulting in a $10,000 donation to VEX MN robotics. The funds were made possible by a $5,000 Initiative Foundation grant and a $5,000 matching contribution from Recharge America.
By Kevin Allenspach | Photography by John Linn
For the people of Central Minnesota, there wasn’t a wave of civil unrest and property damage like there was in Minneapolis and St. Paul following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. But that doesn’t mean places as large as St. Cloud or as small as Pine River haven’t experienced upheaval during the past two years. It’s just been a by-product of a different stressor—the COVID-19 pandemic.
To address the upheaval in the Twin Cities and to offer relief to outstate communities reeling from a public health emergency that continues to linger, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development has distributed $80 million via the Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization Program. The money was awarded in two rounds of funding, one in which almost $30 million went to the Twin Cities metropolitan area in 2021, and another round of awards this year when more than half the money was earmarked for projects from Faribault to Park Rapids and Winona to East Grand Forks.
Of 14 organizational partners helping to allocate funds across the state, the Initiative Foundation is serving as the lone Central Minnesota intermediary, awarding $4.5 million among
six downtown corridors: Brainerd, Cold Spring, Little Falls, Long Prairie, Pine River and St. Cloud.
Via matching requirements that have no tie to state or federal relief, an award of $632,130 will leverage almost $2.1 million in investment for Little Falls, where Jon Radermacher has been city administrator for seven years. Potential recipients of the DEED money went through a competitive, open and inclusive process in late summer, with the Initiative Foundation finalizing the awards this fall. “We have a strong history of doing projects in our downtown,” said Radermacher, who grew up in rural western Minnesota and previously worked for the city of Madison, Minn. “Our approach is that the economics of our community and the valuation of properties do not lend themselves well to redevelopment on the private market. The analogy that I use is that you can buy a building in downtown Little Falls for $100,000, you can stick $100,000 into it and, in the end, you’re going to have a building that’s valued at $100,000. You take that investment model to a bank and they’re going to laugh at you.
“We said we’ve either got to get a bunch of altruistic people who are going to throw a lot of money into our downtown ... or we have to do something about it.”
DEED’s program provides for 30 percent matching grants and guaranteed loans for redevelopment needs that have arisen since
Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity partners with low-income families to build safe, affordable homes that they purchase though a low interest loan program. In 2022, three families moved into their homes and two more home builds are in progress.
In 2023, we’ve selected 8 families to partner with on home builds and have plans to serve 5 additional Cass Lake families through a recently formed partnership with key agencies in the community.
Our commitment to this level of growth can’t be done without your support. 100% of your financial contributions go towards the construction of new homes.
To learn more about our organization and how you can get involved, contact Lori Rubin, Resource Development Director, or Kevin Pelkey, Executive Director.
PO Box 234, Brainerd, MN 56401 • lakesareahabitat.org • Serving Cass, Crow Wing, Hubbard & Wadena counties
Kevin Pelkey Executive Director kevin.pelkey@lakesareahabitat.org
Lori Rubin Resource Development Director lori.rubin@lakesareahabitat.org
The York family celebrating the dedication of their new home and starting a new chapter for the family
March 2020. Businesses must have or secure the other 70 percent of funding. The Initiative Foundation worked with the six communities (and had more than a half-dozen more that weren’t able to meet a sharp turnaround from the request for proposals) to identify corridors that had COVID impacts on travel, tourism, retail and accommodation, and significant commercial vacancy increases. But not every business within those corridors had to show COVID impact. That broadened potential uses for the funding, which is designated for demolition and site preparation, engineering and design, repair, renovation and construction. All projects must be completed within a 36-month window that will close in July 2025.
Little Falls’ best examples of need may be within a block of each other along First Street Southeast. At the corner of Broadway Avenue sits the Butler Block Building, erected in 1891. Most recently it was home to U.S. Bank. Just down the sidewalk is The Falls Theatre (formerly Falls Cinema), built in 1933.
“U.S. Bank closed that branch at the start of the pandemic,” Radermacher said. “Then in the summer of 2020, they made a corporate decision to close or sell all their smaller main street locations. We had a developer who came in and bought the building last year. He didn’t have an end use in mind and got it for a song, but it’s going to take a lot of work.”
Bricks have literally been falling off the building, creating a safety hazard. The city of Little Falls provided a redevelopment loan last February to address that, but there will be more phases to the project. “It’s a really cool building and, as far as interior condition, one of the better ones in town,” Radermacher said. “But the second floor only has stairway access, no ADA accessibility, and it got chopped up when they brought in HVAC systems in the early ’90s.” As for The Falls Theatre, it closed at the onset of the pandemic and is now under new ownership. A new roof and other repairs are needed, making it an attractive property to be supported by Main Street Economic Revitalization funding, said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development. “We’re trying to create an ambiance of vitality, so other people want to invest, too.”
If Little Falls can revive the bank building and theater, odds are it will drive other investment downtown, raise the tax base and create jobs.
“I’m thrilled by the range of creative and dynamic development proposals we got from main streets across the state,” DEED Commissioner Steve Grove said. “These investments will help rebuild business clusters hit hardest by the challenge of the last few
years – and they’ll create jobs and spark economic revitalization throughout Minnesota.”
In places like Little Falls, funding from the Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization Program might be the only way to bring effective change to historic small downtowns.
“You need to get the buildings to a point where they are marketable as a redevelopment opportunity, and you don’t always know what the end use will be,” Radermacher said. “This could be a good test case for DEED to see how this works and put a little trust in our local institutions to say. ‘We know what we need. Give us the opportunity and we’ll prove to you we can get it done.’”
The following cities join Little Falls in receiving Main Street Economic Revitalization funding through an Initiative Foundation partnership with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development:
BRAINERD ($765,600) will support housing and child care priorities. The YMCA bought an adjacent building and plans to convert it into a child care center, and the Region 5 Development Commission wants to repurpose an old fire house into co-working space.
COLD SPRING ($505,750) wants to prioritize targeted populations—women, veterans, Black/Indigenous/people of color—to address a lack of child care.
LONG PRAIRIE ($493,000) is prioritizing affordable housing and child care. This award likely will combine building renovations with ground-level retail and affordable apartments on the upper levels. The effort also will pursue a new child care center with bilingual providers to help address a workforce bottleneck.
PINE RIVER ($423,500) hopes to attract a major tenant to a former retail building. If the space can be filled, it's expected to draw other retail business from a 30-mile radius. The city also could help make façade improvements or repurpose other empty buildings.
ST. CLOUD ($1.5 million) plans to revitalize the commercial district of St. Germain Street, from the Paramount Center for the Arts to East St. Cloud. This project includes Benton and Stearns counties and focuses on small businesses—especially those with underrepresented ownership.
• Northern Edge Decor, Pequot Lakes
• Backroad Meats, Milaca
• LBT Concrete, Royalton
• Minnesota T’s, Brainerd
• GroShed, Emily
• KM Liquidator, North Branch
• Holdingford Hardware
• Chevy’s Pit, St. Cloud
• Little Falls Bowling Center
• Rizzy’s on the Lake, LLC, Osakis
• Baby’s on Broadway, St. Cloud
• Northern Oaks Events, LLC, Sauk Rapids
• Señor Elote Y Mas, Melrose
• Selvin Merida, Staples
To learn more about the Initiative Foundation’s business financing program, or to see if your project is a fit, scan the QR code or visit ifound.org/economy/business-financing. Dan Bullert, senior business finance manager, and Doug Adams, business finance officer, stand ready to continue the Initiative Foundation’s legacy of lending to regional small businesses.
Congratulations to recent business lending clients!
Camp returned to full swing in Willow River this summer, where the nonprofit One Heartland has been hosting camp experiences for kids affected by housing instability, HIV/AIDS, and other challenges for almost three decades. With a nearly full roster of 550 campers signed up to swim, paddle and play this season, Executive Director Patrick Kindler said, “You’d think things are almost back to normal for us.” But a closer look at the losses One Heartland has faced since the start of the pandemic makes clear why Kindler continues to have some really hard conversations.
When the pandemic hit, One Heartland closed Camp Heartland for the summer of 2020—a move that resulted in the loss of more than $600,000 in enrollment revenue, and another $150,000 in facilities rental income. A Paycheck Protection Program loan from the Small Business Administration and an urgent virtual fundraising campaign helped One Heartland stay afloat with half its staff, all while shuttering an office and reorganizing for remote work. By 2021, the camp had reopened, but at just 65 percent capacity, and with facility rentals that had yet to rebound. Now, in the third summer of the pandemic, One Heartland’s costs are on the rise
as the camp confronts supply-chain issues, unexpectedly inflated prices for gas and groceries, and the increased staffing it takes to account for surges and COVID-19 quarantine days.
“In all honesty, we just didn’t think it would go on this long,” Kindler said. “To get through the year, we’re pinching pennies and asking donors if they can increase their contributions. Every dollar is huge for us right now.”
Fortunately, some relief came to One Heartland and more than 780 other Central Minnesota businesses and nonprofits in 2021-2022 through the Minnesota Main Street COVID Relief
Nearly $26 million in grants help small businesses, nonprofits survive more than two years of uncertainty
Grant program, the latest round in a near-constant stream of COVID recovery dollars distributed by the Initiative Foundation over the last two and half years. Since the start of the pandemic, the Initiative Foundation has helped to disburse $25.9 million in lending accommodations and relief funding throughout Central Minnesota, contributing to the largest grant-making effort ever seen in the Initiative Foundation’s 36-year history.
“It’s not that the Initiative Foundation had never performed a function like this before, but we’ve never been called on to do grantmaking at this pace and scale,” said Matt Varilek, president
of the Initiative Foundation, one of six regional entities created in response to the 1980s economic crisis in Greater Minnesota. As dozens of state, regional and local pandemic response and recovery programs rolled out to help businesses sidelined by the pandemic, many have relied on the Initiative Foundation’s deep connections with state and national funders to drive financial support to eligible businesses, especially in underserved communities and in critical service sectors like child care and early education. The effort included serving as the financial intermediary in Central Minnesota for two rounds of small business relief grants from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and a host of other smaller recovery programs.
“Getting those grant dollars out into the community really became our primary focus through most of the pandemic, and it was an all-hands effort by our entire staff,” said Varilek. “In a typical year, the Foundation might make about $1.5 million in grants to several hundred organizations, but during the first year of the pandemic, our small business grantmaking alone amounted to nearly $8 million to 766 enterprises. It was like fitting five years of work into 12 months, all while working remotely. And we’ve done that now for two years in a row.”
The scope and scale of the grantmaking was so monumental that staff affectionately referred to the effort as ‘Gi-Grant-A-Saurus,” said Lynn Bushinger, chief financial and operations officer at the Foundation. Many on staff during the early months of the pandemic worked overtime and canceled vacations to get relief to Central Minnesota business owners as fast as possible. “Getting money into the hands of bar and restaurant owners that had to suspend operations, or other businesses affected by executive orders, was just so important. People went above and beyond because we felt a sense of urgency. We knew people didn’t have the income and they needed these grants desperately.”
According to Brandon Toner, director of small business partnerships at DEED, the two COVID relief grant rounds helped to put more than $140 million into the hands of 12,000 business owners across the state, including more than 1,500 in Central Minnesota. “We asked these businesses to help us fight this virus, and they took it on the chin for the benefit of our public health,” he said. “In some ways this program is just a little bit of compensation for that brave and really disruptive thing they did. Some did it gladly, some not so gladly, but they did it.”
Restaurants, retailers, and others hard hit by executive orders were the primary beneficiaries of the first round of DEED funding. But as the economic after-shocks of the pandemic persisted through 2021, the state made an additional $8.8 million available in Central Minnesota through the Minnesota Main Street COVID Relief program, which the Initiative Foundation provided to 785 businesses and nonprofits.
“With this round of funding we could see that nonprofits that had relied on in-person fundraising events and galas were strongly hit, and that many saw an increase in demand for services without the same increase in donor support,” said Toner. “We also saw businesses that may not have been directly affected by the executive order apply for and receive grants” to help manage a host of pandemic-related challenges.
2020-2022 small business relief grants distribution map
While demand for services is rebounding, Carlson said it’s still not business as usual. “We can’t cover all of the hours that our clients are asking for, and we have to be honest about that,” she said. “Years ago, if an employee was sick, I could guarantee a replacement, but I just can’t anymore. The biggest change in my business plan is that I can’t guarantee anything.”
Open for Business
As Central Minnesota pulls out of the pandemic crisis, Toner said the next step will be “making sure that we do everything we can to get workers off the sidelines, and that includes everything from good transportation options to good child care.” Child care has long been a focus for the Initiative Foundation, which stepped up support for the region’s caregivers throughout the pandemic, providing general operating grants to places like the Verndale Area Christian
Verndale Area Christian Academy Child Care Center received an emergency grant with funding support from the Minnesota Department of Education.
(800) 248-4174 • (218) 963-7908 5445 City Hall Street, Nisswa nisswatax.com nts@nisswatax.com
First, we do what we do best: supply clean, reliable energy. But we’re driven to do so much more. So we proudly support the people and businesses that make up the communities we serve. We award education grants and provide economic sustainability. We buy locally. We make community vitality a priority. All to help keep the communities we serve great. Great places to live, work and learn in. Great places to call home.
When disasters strike, long-term support is key to community recovery
By Suzy Frisch | Photography by Zack SwansonPatricia Ganz was at work early the morning of June 24 when she got an ominous phone call: a deluge of rain had poured into her Randall home. When she arrived at her house at 7 a.m., the situation was worse than she expected. About 3 to 4 feet of water had inundated her home. Furniture was floating in the muddy water, and the freezer in her garage had been toppled and pitched on its side. Ganz and her family lost everything.
“It happened so fast—in half an hour the place was just flooded. We don’t know yet whether it can be repaired,” said Ganz, who lives in the three-bedroom home with her granddaughter, son, and her son’s girlfriend. The house currently is uninhabitable with the walls stripped down to the studs, the flooring removed, appliances ruined, and the furnace out of commission. To top it off, Ganz—like many of her neighbors—lacked flood insurance, so she is getting no help from her insurance company.
Misery was widespread in Randall, located in Morrison County, with damages ranging into the millions of dollars. A slow-moving storm pelted the area with 12.3 inches of rain, damaging 32 homes and flooding several businesses and nonprofits. Many residents
were trapped in their homes and had to be rescued by boat in the middle of the night. Water from the overflowing Little Elk River kept roads underwater for days, while Randall’s water treatment plant was flooded and shut down for health and safety concerns.
Volunteers, nonprofits and government agencies rushed to help. They provided immediate aid in the form of food, shelter, clean-up and supplies for residents to regain some normalcy in their lives. Such assistance is vital in helping communities meet critical needs right after a flood, fire, tornado or other disaster.
Yet, it’s often what happens in the weeks and months after the initial emergency that plays a key role in getting a community back on its feet. “It’s a universal pattern that two weeks after a natural disaster, communities are truly beginning to pick up the pieces and start to get discouraged when they recognize that it will take a very long commitment to fully recover,” said Don Hickman, vice president for community and workforce development at the Initiative Foundation.
To help Randall move from disaster response to long-term recovery, a public-private partnership got busy. It involved the city of Randall, county agencies, and entities like the Minnesota Rural
Water Association and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. They worked to make sure the region had access to clean water and functioning sanitary sewer, natural gas and electrical systems, said Matt Pantzke, Randall city manager. The Small Business Administration also offered low-interest loans for home repairs to affected residents.
Funding always plays a crucial role, and even more so in rural areas. That’s why the Initiative Foundation aligned with The Funders Network and its Philanthropic Preparedness, Resiliency and Emergency Partnership to spearhead comprehensive fundraising to help communities like Randall. Ongoing support is needed, particularly in rural areas, when smaller-scale disasters strike. News of the events circulate and then quickly disappear from the headlines, Hickman said, and the affected areas often lack the resources to engage the public for assistance over long periods of time.
In smaller towns, it’s especially vital to achieve a full recovery because communities want to ensure people stay put after a natural disaster. “At a time when every business in Minnesota is looking for workers and every rural community in Central Minnesota does not want to lose population, everyone is an asset,” Hickman said. “It’s hard not to get discouraged and feel like you don’t have support.”
To show support for the community, the Initiative Foundation instigated deep and wide fundraising efforts. It put up a $10,000 challenge grant and attracted donations big and small, including $10,000 from Compeer Financial to support Randall’s damaged small businesses. Donations topped out at nearly $120,000, thanks to $55,000 from the Funders Network, $30,000 from the Greater Lakes Association of Realtors, $12,000 from a community fundraiser at the Falls Ballroom, and contributions from individuals, businesses and nonprofits.
Having the Initiative Foundation support fundraising and behind-the-scenes administration is important because it assures donors that their funds go where they are needed most, said Kate Bjorge, community philanthropy manager for the Foundation. The
Initiative Foundation set up an online fundraiser, partnered with Randall State Bank to house the funds, and put in place a mechanism to provide people with receipts for their charitable tax deductions.
Next, in partnership with entities like Lutheran Social Services and St. James Catholic Church, the Foundation created the Randall Area Flood Recovery Fund Task Force to determine how to distribute the donations. “The role we bring in fundraising is we can organize it, track those funds, and disburse them in an organized way that meets every legal requirement,” Bjorge said. “We’re grateful for partners like Lutheran Social Services and the Little Falls Area Ministerial Association for their help with case management and their quick efforts to equitably disburse funds to those in need.”
Individuals and nonprofits in Randall in need of assistance filled out applications describing their circumstances, which included dead appliances and major structural damage to finished basements ruined by 4 to 5 feet of water. Another factor included whether people had insurance or enough insurance. The task force used a point system to score each application, which did not have identifying information. The more significantly damaged homes received higher points—and therefore more financial support.
This system gave peace of mind to Randall Area Flood Recovery Fund Task Force member Al Poser, who serves on the St. James Catholic Church parish council and its finance committee. “I was a little nervous and concerned about having to make those types of decisions about who gets what for money,” he said. “Then they came up with the point system, and that alleviated my fears.”
Seeing his community and neighbors go through tough times wasn’t easy. But Poser was heartened to witness the generosity of donors and the prevailing small-town sentiment to help others during challenging times.
Pantzke agrees. “There has been a huge outpouring of support,” he said. “Randall’s slogan is ‘Little City with a Big Heart,’ and we absolutely have seen a lot of people with big hearts come out and do whatever they could to help out. Everyone has just been working together as a community to get back to where we need to be.”
Through the ups-and-downs of the past few years, Central Minnesotans have been standing together to secure a vibrant future for our children, families and communities. Your gift to the Initiative Foundation continues that work.
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mburton@ifound.org (320) 631-2059
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A special grant round is helping regional nonprofits use lessons learned from the pandemic to transform the ways they deliver services.
By Gene Rebeck | Photography by John Linn and Michael Schoenecker
Call her Alison. Last year, she wrote a letter to New Pathways, a Cambridge-based nonprofit that provides support to Central Minnesota families experiencing homelessness. In her letter, Alison shared a story of the last two decades and the difficulties she and her family faced without a place to call home.
New Pathways and its Path to Home shelter program helped Alison and her family resolve their housing crisis. Alison expressed gratitude to New Pathways for extending the help she and her family “so desperately” needed. “Not only did [New Pathways and its volunteers] extend a hand up, they guided me back on path to self-sufficiency and success.”
Like many nonprofits, New Pathways was hit hard by the pandemic. But thanks to a grant from the Initiative Foundation and its $1 million-plus Transformative Funding for Nonprofits program, New Pathways is one of 15 Central Minnesota organizations that can reinvent the way it delivers services to help people like Alison while adapting to better address changes in client and community needs.
New Pathways’ flagship Path to Home program has worked with area churches to provide overnight shelter to homeless families. When the pandemic hit in 2020 and churches locked down, the organization pivoted and put families in local hotels. But funding was tight. “Every week I had to evaluate, ‘Will we have to shut down?’” recalled Mary Westlund, New Pathways executive director.
A state grant helped New Pathways maintain its hotel program through September. It then reverted to its church-based model.
The pandemic highlighted vulnerabilities in New Pathways’ program. Similar programs nationwide have been forced to close; many haven’t reopened. Westlund and her colleagues have often discussed transitioning Path to Home from the churches to a site that it would operate. “But we’ve never had the support around us to do the proper planning and figure out if it’s viable,” she said.
The Transformative Funding program exists because of COVID-19 and the Otto Bremer Trust, which last year awarded the Initiative Foundation $2 million to help nonprofits and small
businesses hit by the pandemic. The Foundation split the award between the two sectors.
“This is by far the largest grant program for nonprofits that we have had in recent memory, if not the largest ever,” said Zach Tabatt, Initiative Foundation nonprofit development program officer. A typical Initiative Foundation grant is around $5,000, with some ranging up to $10,000. “This was our rare opportunity to offer much more significant funding,” Tabatt added. The Transformative Funding checks sent out this summer range from $50,000 to $100,000.
When the Otto Bremer Trust funds became available, the Initiative Foundation invited regional nonprofits to request consideration for grants. More than 70 organizations replied. The Foundation then invited 25 nonprofits to officially apply. It also did something it had never done before: It paid for consultants to help eligible nonprofits develop and refine their proposals to maximize the potential for positive impact. “We let the organizations tell us what was most important for them,” Tabatt said. “Our only guideline was that we were looking for organizations to transform themselves for the future—to really build added strength and impact.”
Cambridge-based Family Pathways, which operates separately from New Pathways, serves about 20,000 people annually. About 85 percent of its work is food access, a mission it has fulfilled primarily through its nine Central Minnesota food shelves. “We learned so much during COVID-19 about some of the barriers people face to using our food shelves,” said Sonia Palmer, Family Pathways’ director of advancement. “There were so many people falling through the cracks because they weren’t able to make it to a food shelf.”
When lockdowns kept seniors away, Family Pathways launched twice-a-month curbside and doorstep deliveries. It also introduced “pop-up” mass distribution locations, where people
drive up to receive food. When the nonprofit learned about the Transformative Funding program, they knew they could use the funds to transform their program to be more accessible.
“We know there are so many people in outlying areas that we’re not reaching,” said Kathy Wills, director of food access and equity with Family Pathways. “We want to open up doorstep delivery to all of our communities, people of any age, whose situation prevents them from coming [to the food shelves].”
This past June, Family Pathways ordered a cargo van that can accommodate three to four pallets of food. While the organization is waiting for the van to arrive, it has been renting vehicles and developing other workarounds.
Though Family Pathways’ food shelves continue to be widely used, the Transformative Funding program is allowing the nonprofit to deliver on its food mission in ways that work best for the people it serves. “COVID-19 really showed us: There’s a whole new world out there to get people food,” Wills said. “And we have to adjust to it.”
The idea behind St. Cloud-based Homeless Helping Homeless, founded four years ago, is that the homeless can do a lot for themselves, said executive director Harold Fleegel. They just need the resources and the contacts. The organization’s board chair is formerly homeless, as are some of its officers.
When the pandemic hit, Homeless Helping Homeless established a program that housed people in area hotels. When that ended during fall 2020, many homeless shifted to living in an encampment, which was a disaster, Fleegel said. The city of St. Cloud proposed that Homeless Helping Homeless manage a facility the city would provide. Lincoln Center, which opened in November 2020, is a low-barrier shelter and oftentimes a last resort for many homeless people. It originally consisted of one large open room that could accommodate 19 people. The city later provided office dividers so residents would have their own space.
However, the doorless dividers lacked privacy and security. Homeless Helping Homeless is using its Transformative Funding
grant to construct individual locked rooms for residents. Once these modules are in place, Lincoln Center will be able to increase capacity to 25.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this remodel without the Initiative Foundation,” Fleegel said. “Or we would have had to take a lot longer time to get it going because we would have had to raise the money piecemeal. We want to get this done before winter because we don’t want anybody outside freezing to death.”
New Pathways is also looking to reinvent its shelter program. It’s using its Transformative Funding grant to explore and plan on transitioning the shelter model from a church-rotation style to a site-based model, executive director Westlund said. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like—that’s part of the process. But it would provide sustainability and stability to our program and to our clients.”
New Pathways operates the only family shelter program in Isanti, Chisago, Kanabec and Mille Lacs counties. “If we’re not here, there would be a huge gap,” Westlund noted. By filling that gap, New Pathways has helped many people transform their lives. Just ask Alison.
“Our only guideline [for the Transformative Funding for Nonprofits program] was that we were looking for organizations to transform themselves for the future—to really build added strength and impact.”
– Zach Tabatt, Initiative Foundation
Anishinabe Legal Services, Inc.—Create Housing Education, Litigation Unit to Combat Homelessness
Grant award: $100,000
Tribal nation served: Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Anishinabe Legal Services will use its funding to address homelessness in the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe area through the creation of a housing education and litigation unit. The effort is expected to improve the lives of tenants by providing legal representation and reducing dangerous housing conditions while also delivering landlord-tenant education about the eviction process. See story on Page 34.
Big Lake Community Food Shelf, Inc.—Building Transformation, Service Expansion Grant award: $55,000
County served: Sherburne
The Big Lake Community Food Shelf will use its grant to meet an anticipated 25 percent jump in clients by making the current food shelf space more efficient, safe and inviting. The transformation will increase space for volunteers and create a more pleasant shopping experience for clients. A walk-in freezer and cooler will also be added along with increased storage shelf space.
Boys & Girls Club of the Leech Lake Area—Youth in Business
Grant award: $60,000
Tribal nation served: Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
The Boys and Girls Club of the Leech Lake Area will use its grant to support the Leech Lake Youth in Business project. The long-term poverty-reduction initiative will include a business incubator, business education from local institutions, and opportunities for youth to connect with local small businesses. The Boys and Girls Club hopes to kick off the project by testing business ideas at powwow events.
Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization—Build Capacity to Enhance Effectiveness and Service Delivery Grant award: $50,000 County served: Stearns
The Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization grant will support hiring a deputy chief executive officer with a goal of delivering services and programs to more people within the communities it serves. Staff members hope to take the organization to the next level through increased collaboration among current and prospective partners.
Employment Enterprises, Inc., and Confidence Learning Center—Building Confidence and Employment Skills Together
Grant award: $75,000*
Counties served: Crow Wing and Morrison Employment Enterprises, Inc., and Confidence Learning Center will partner to serve adults with cognitive and developmental disabilities through a hands-on educational program to promote job skills. The program will also aim to keep individuals engaged for longer periods of time to better equip them for the workforce. Employment Enterprises, Inc., provides opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities and mental illness. Confidence Learning Center provides recreation opportunities to those with developmental and cognitive disabilities.
*This surprise grant was awarded during Sourcewell’s 2022 Nonprofit Impact Funding Review Day on Wednesday, June 8, in Staples.
Family Pathways—Access to Healthy Foods in Rural Communities
Grant award: $55,000
Tribal nation/counties served: Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe/ Chisago, Pine, Isanti, Kanabec and Mille Lacs counties
This grant will help Family Pathways better serve clients in Mille Lacs County and in the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s sovereign tribal area by transitioning from a site-based food shelf model to a mobile food pantry, pop-up food markets and doorstep delivery. Some of the grant will be used to purchase a food-delivery van. Staff also plan to work with local colleges to affect food insecurity among students.
Hands of Hope Resource Center—Bilingual Advocacy Services Grant award: $75,000 County served: Todd
Hands of Hope Resource Center will use its grant to hire a bilingual advocate in Long Prairie to build trust and expand community resources. The advocate will respond to hospitals and communicate with law enforcement to support crime and abuse victims. The advocate also will provide education and other outreach in the Long Prairie area. Staff expect to serve at least 50 additional clients.
Higher Works Collaborative—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Learning Center Grant award: $62,000 County served: Stearns
Higher Works Collaborative will use its grant to open the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Learning Center, a space where clients can attend workshops and trainings, engage in tutoring services, access a diverse and culturally competent library, and seek a safe and comfortable place. The facility will have multiple rooms named after African American historical figures. Staff also hope to hire a coordinator and purchase a passenger vehicle to transport visitors.
Homeless Helping Homeless—Lincoln Center Remodeling and Expansion Grant award: $100,000 County served: Benton, Stearns
Homeless Helping Homeless will use its grant to remodel the Lincoln Center Shelter, a low-barrier homeless shelter on southeast Lincoln Avenue in St. Cloud. The remodel will add private, locked areas where individual clients can sleep and store belongings. Current sleeping space will be converted to a dining and lounge area.
Lakes & Pines Community Action Council, Inc.— Advocate-Client Coaching Model Grant award: $100,000
Counties served: Aitkin, Carlton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs and Pine counties
The funds will be used to hire a consultant and to train advocates so they can better support clients through their transition from poverty to prosperity. Overall, staff members want to maximize services and develop a unified intake system to increase efficiency and instill client trust.
Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity—Leech Lake Tribal Workforce Housing
Grant award: $50,000*
Tribal nation served: Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity will use its grant as part of a $1.65 million project to build 15 homes on Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe sovereign tribal land. These homes could support up to 90 people—moving them to a safe and affordable place to live, which typically results in better health and educational outcomes. Additional funds for this project will come from the American Recovery Plan Act and the Blandin Foundation. See story on Page 34.
*This grant includes $28,000 from Otto Bremer Trust and $22,000 from The Funders Network and its Philanthropic Preparedness, Resiliency and Emergency Partnership.
New Pathways, Inc.—Site-based Shelter Planning Project Grant award: $60,000 County served: Isanti
New Pathways will use its grant to underwrite the first of two phases to establish a permanent shelter for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. To date, New Pathways has relied on faith community partnerships to house those in need of shelter. The project will focus on selecting a site and entering into a purchase agreement; developing a concept design to be used for cost estimates and to assess fundraising needs; raising funds and applying for grants.
North Star Family Advocacy Center—Pine County Engagement of Services Grant award: $45,000 County served: Pine
North Star Family Advocacy Center will use its grant to expand to Pine County where it can serve even more children and vulnerable adult victims of sexual and physical abuse. The center delivers responsive, comprehensive assistance to clients with a focus on a whole family approach to care.
Oasis Central Minnesota—Housing Support/Housing Stabilization Service Enrollment Grant award: $60,000 County served: Morrison
Oasis Central Minnesota will use its grant to enroll in two state programs: Housing with Support and Housing Stabilization Services. The enrollment will generate revenue streams to support Oasis Central Minnesota’s work to provide emergency shelter and case management. Program enrollment will generate additional revenue to hire more support staff, which ultimately will lead to more resources for those facing homelessness and housing insecurity.
Salem Lutheran Church—Improved Donation Storage and Processing Grant award: $75,000 County served: Crow Wing
The grant to Salem Lutheran Church will partially fund remodeling at Salem WEST, which will lead to more productive processing of donations, increased space for clients to shop, and greater efficiencies for volunteers. The organization will explore relocating The Mustard Seed, a thrift store that partially funds its work, to the current donation and processing facility. The transition, if deemed viable, will enable the expansion of the store footprint and increased sales.
The following are recipients of the Initiative Foundation’s Transformative Funding for Nonprofits grants:“I set up a legacy gift to the Initiative Foundation to benefit the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge, because it’s a wonderful opportunity to make the world just a little bit better. It is also a way for me to be able to leave this Earth knowing that I took an action that will directly help others.”
– Debbie Russell
When they arrived in Central Minnesota in the early 1700s, the Ojibwe called Cass Lake Gaa-Mi-Squa-WahSko-Koo—the place of many red cedars. By the time Cass Lake was formally established in 1893, the city was a stop on the newly built Great Northern Railway. In addition to a booming lumber industry, the federal government provided forestry and conservation careers. Still more jobs arrived in 1922 when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the Consolidated Chippewa Agency to serve all of Minnesota’s Ojibwe tribes. It chose Cass Lake as its headquarters.
The 1920 census shows this city situated at the southwest corner of an iconic Minnesota lake had 2,100 residents.
Lumber towns are susceptible to boom-and-bust cycles, and Cass Lake was no exception. Today, the city has a population of 675. A former wood treatment facility is now a superfund site. Hazardous chemicals have leached into the soil and groundwater on land that is now part of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe reservation.
But it’s not just environmental harms that pose a threat to the wellbeing of the Leech Lake Reservation community. According to a 2018 Amherst H. Wilder study of Native Americans experiencing homelessness or near homelessness in Minnesota, 48 percent responded that they had lost their primary nighttime residence within 14 days of the survey and lacked the resources or support networks to regain housing. Half of the unhoused population on reservations are children, youth and elders. Seventy-seven percent have been without a permanent residence for at least one year or had experienced homelessness four or more times during the last three years.
Affordable and stable housing is a cornerstone to economic stability for individuals and the communities they call home. According to the Wilder survey, adults experiencing homelessness on reservations are less likely to be employed and more likely to suffer from chronic physical and mental health conditions. Half of the respondents said the biggest barrier to finding a permanent home is a lack of affordable housing.
“Housing is foundational to community and economic development,” said Zach Tabatt, nonprofit development program officer at the Initiative Foundation. “We are in a time when communities can accelerate business development if they make the right investments. When there is a lack of affordable housing, a company in a town with available housing will be able to win new employees away from competitors if they can provide affordable places to live.”
The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe has about 10,000 enrolled members, 5,000 of whom live on the 677,000-acre Leech Lake Reservation. The area spans Cass, Itasca, Beltrami, and Hubbard
counties and includes the city of Cass Lake. In 2021, Cass County determined that part of its American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding would be dedicated to affordable housing. The band has identified an immediate need for 486 housing units in Cass Lake, including workforce housing for employees of the Cedar Lakes Casino and Hotel, which opened in 2019.
To support these priorities, the Initiative Foundation has made grants of nearly $200,000 to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Housing Authority, Anishinabe Legal Services, and Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity to fight homelessness on all fronts and to create pathways to housing stability. The grants are supported by the Otto Bremer Trust and through the Philanthropic Preparedness, Resilience and Emergency Partnership program of The Funders Network, a community-building nonprofit based in Florida.
Located in Cass Lake, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Housing Authority (LLHA) develops affordable homes and housing opportunities for band members living on the reservation. Today, there are 317 people on its waiting list for housing. The housing authority also provides culturally sensitive services to help tenants and homeowners become self-sufficient, which in turn helps build the foundation for healthy and safe communities. They help low-
income people buy homes, provide confidential services to youth experiencing homelessness, and offer a range of classes—from money management skills to how to understand rental agreements— all while celebrating the community’s inherent strengths.
“What means the most to this community are family, unity, and the environment,” said Harry Entwistle, executive director for the housing authority.
Entwistle recently approached First National Bank North in Walker, which had expressed an interest in supporting the community, and proposed a donation to help Leech Lake families buy homes. The bank made $50,000 available for each of the last three years, which has provided 30 native families with $5,000 to support equity investments or closing costs. All 30 families had been pre-approved for a housing loan. Similarly, a $41,250 grant from the Initiative Foundation will enable up to eight individuals who have completed a homebuyers program to receive down payment support. The support is part of a larger stable housing solution that will help homebuyers gain equity.
“In the future that’s something you can pass on to your loved ones,” said Entwistle, who hopes band members see the tangible benefits through people they know and decide to apply for housing support, too.
To have affordable housing, you need to have actual homes. Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity (LAHFH) is a Brainerd-based nonprofit that pairs families with new and affordable volunteerbuilt homes. In 2021, they requested $250,000 of Cass County’s American Rescue Plan money to build four to five new homes.
Part of the grant requires that LAHFH match the grant amount. Executive Director Kevin Pelkey said this is now within reach thanks in part to a $50,000 grant from the Initiative Foundation. “Our goal is to raise $1.2 to $1.6 million to deliver fully two years of housing,” he said. “And, we’ve got a sustainability model to go on from there.” The plan is to build 10 new houses.
“Housing is a foundational aspect of community and economic development.”
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A partner-based collaboration increases the project’s chances of success. “It’s not just Habitat and the county,” said Pelky, who noted that his organization is working with the county administrator, two county commissioners, Leech Lake Tribal Housing Authority, the band’s development commission, the city of Cass Lake and the Region Five Development Commission. The group meets monthly and anticipates seeing the first homes built in May 2023.
“I’ve been involved in many groups who sit around the table and talk about the need for more affordable housing,” Pelkey said. “This is the first real thing that I have seen in 25 years that has the potential of not just coming to fruition for the first two years, but to be sustainable [going forward].”
As part of a separate initiative, the Cass Lake Housing and Redevelopment Authority is acquiring vacant commercial buildings in downtown Cass Lake to redevelop for mixed-use, with affordable apartments in the upper floors.
“Reacquiring land is something that we need to do to be ready and able to meet the needs of things that we’re trying to accomplish for the people of Leech Lake,” said LeRoy StaplesFairbanks III, District III councilman for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. “People are doubling up with relatives. They’re living off of band land and renting elsewhere. So there absolutely is a housing issue. There’s a home ownership issue. There’s a safe housing issue.”
Stable housing isn’t just about houses. It’s also about knowing your rights as a renter. In 2019, Anishinabe Legal Services (ALS), which provides free legal assistance to low-income people for civil legal matters, completed its most recent strategic plan. A major goal was to identify the single biggest unmet need for community members. The answer? Housing.
“Daily, we’re getting calls requesting help for people who are facing eviction or are dealing with repairs not getting done,” said Cody Nelson, ALS’s executive director. “Some tenants don’t have
heat. Some need their locks changed—basic things that touch on safety and what we call habitability.”
The threat of eviction is particularly devastating to people who already are in vulnerable situations.
“I call it the modern-day Scarlet Letter,” he said. “Finding housing is already hard for low-income people [due to] income requirements, credit checks, and criminal history checks. Once someone is evicted, it’s nearly impossible to get back into housing.”
While the human toll can be catastrophic, Nelson also points out homelessness exacts a financial toll on a community’s resources, especially if a family’s children are placed into the foster care system. “It’s a huge human toll for those children and for the [caregivers],” he said. “But, when you think about just the enormous cost of foster care, the cost to the courts, to the county attorney or the tribal attorney, the public defender, foster care payments—it’s also [expensive] for the government, whether that be the county or the tribe.”
That scenario can also put families in an almost impossible bind. “It happens a lot where child protection will say they will return the children if a parent gets a two-bedroom home, but they can’t now because [the family] is couch hopping,” said Nelson.
A $100,000 Initiative Foundation grant will help support ALS’s work in eviction protection and landlord education. The funding will be used to provide residents with legal protection and by reducing dangerous living conditions. The ALS and Lakes Area Habitat for Humanity grants are part of a $1 million-plus Transformative Funding for Nonprofits effort supported by the Otto Bremer Trust. See other grantees on page 32.
“We feel like we can really make some positive changes for low-income folks in their ability to have safe and secure shelter,” Nelson said. “This program has been planted in the ground for quite a while, but the Initiative Foundation is bringing it to life. And we’re really grateful to them for that and excited to see the positive impact it will have.”
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Daily, we’re getting calls requesting help for people who are facing eviction or are dealing with repairs not getting done.”HOUSING ADVOCACY: The Leech Lake Housing Authority team offers a range of classes to help individuals through the homebuying process.
Through leadership programs, grants and business investments powered by local generosity, the Initiative Foundation invested in Central Minnesota by ...
• Providing loans to businesses that create quality jobs
• Awarding grants to nonprofits, governments and schools
• Building public-private partnerships that lead to action
Thanks to donor support, the Initiative Foundation disbursed $9,311,147 throughout the region, including:
• $5,424,213 in grants, scholarships and fellowships
• $2,065,663 in capacity-building, programming and training
• Serving as a resource magnet and funding advocate for our region
• Helping generous people give back to their communities
• Publishing information on local trends and solutions.
COVID-19 Relief ($3,249,200)
Partner Fund Awards ($1,499,693)
Community Development ($349,550)
Economic Development ($325,770)
Service ($1,124,000)
Tourism ($230,000)
Retail ($224,000)
Housing ($200,000)
Alternative Agriculture ($60,000)
Manufacturing ($23,750)
Technology ($15,000)
Grants, Fellowships, Scholarships ($5,424,213)
Capacity-building, Programming, Training ($2,065,663)
Administrative Expenses ($937,116)
Fundraising ($443,051)
Communications, IQ Magazine ($441,104)
Economic Development ($770,114)
Partner Fund Awards ($425,680)
Community Development ($347,706)
Business Finance Assistance ($265,268)
COVID-19 Relief ($256,895)
An additional $1.88 million was disbursed in the form of new loans and investments.
Visit ifound.org/annual-reports to view audited results, including a year-over-year comparison of the organization's financial position and a detailed 2021 statement of activities.
Industrial Park
SANDSTONE , MINNESOTA
• 106 acres certified
• Right off I-35 with direct frontage and visibility
• Infrastructure in place with ability to customize to serve large tenants and their
• 70 miles south of international seaport and shipping facilities with experience in moving large cargos
Industrial Park
SANDSTONE , MINNESOTA
• Potential access to BNSF railway with daily freight movement; City and BNSF have approved a preliminary rail spur design
Site Highlights:
• 106 acres certified
• Within 20 miles of a Technical and Community College
• Right off I-35 with direct frontage and visibility
• Infrastructure in place with ability to customize to serve large tenants and their requirements
• Wide array of incentives available to businesses including: TIF, Land for a Dollar, Great River Energy, East Central Regional Development Commission (ECRDC), and many more
• 70 miles south of international seaport and shipping facilities with experience in moving large cargos
• Potential access to BNSF railway with daily freight movement; City and BNSF have approved a preliminary rail spur design
• Productive local and regional workforce with manufacturing skill sets and low turnover
• Within 20 miles of a Technical and Community College
• Wide array of incentives available to businesses including: TIF, Land for a Dollar, Great River Energy, East Central Regional Development Commission (ECRDC), and many more
For more information on the City of Sandstone Shovel Ready Site, contact:
• Productive local and regional workforce with manufacturing skill sets and low turnover
For more information on the City of Sandstone Shovel Ready Site, contact:
Kathy George, City Administrator
City of Sandstone
Kathy George, City Administrator City of Sandstone
Direct: 320-245-5241, Cell: 612-865-8910 administrator@sandstonem.com | sandstone.govoffice.com
Direct: 320-245-5241, Cell: 612-865-8910 administrator@sandstonem.com | sandstone.govoffice.com
Academy Child Care Center with funding from the Minnesota Department of Education and the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund.
“Our center went from welcoming 50 students to just 15 in the very first week of the pandemic,” said Kenny Kjeldergaard, a children’s pastor at the Family Life Church of the Assemblies of God who took on a new role through the pandemic, helping partners at the Verndale Area Christian Academy Child Care Center stay open to families. “I have a background in finances, so my focus was on keeping the doors open by the skin of our teeth. If some of these grants hadn’t come through, we would have had to close the doors.’’
Now nearly two and a half years later, Kjeldergaard says the growing demand he’s seeing for child care in his community tells him the worst of the pandemic’s disruptions could be over. “We’ve regained all of the kids we used to have before the pandemic and then some,” he said, noting that the child care center now enrolls more than 100 children, with an average of 60 kids on-site every day. “We’re grateful to be where we are today. The growth happened so fast it kind of caught us by surprise. I think that’s a good sign of recovery.”
As an up-and-coming star on the Staples High School football team, 14-year-old Jim Kurpius was hard to bring down. And then poliomyelitis, a viral epidemic that swept the nation in the 1940s and ’50s, stopped him in his tracks. The infection left him fighting to breathe and in an iron lung, battling what was deemed the worst case of polio in the Staples community.
Kurpius lost the use of his legs—and the ability to help his family harvest their farm fields, something he dearly loved. He was given a job at the local feed mill and later was offered a scholarship to the University of St. Thomas where fellow students helped carry his wheelchair up and down stairs in the historic campus buildings.
Kurpius persevered past obstacles, graduated and launched a successful career in financial administration at hospitals in the Twin Cities and California before being recruited by a law firm during the boom of California’s Silicon Valley. He ultimately retired as vice president of operations.
Described as a quiet man, a fearless explorer, and a deep thinker, he never forgot those who supported him and looked for ways to pay his good fortune forward. He also aspired to support his hometown as
his parents once did by setting up two philanthropic funds through the Initiative Foundation. One honors his parents, Tracy and Julius Kurpius, and their enthusiasm for gardening. It supports the Living Legacy Gardens on the Staples campus of Central Lakes Community College. The other fund has helped with local scholarships and accessibility improvements at Dower Lake in Staples, reflecting his support for education and his enthusiasm for swimming.
Kurpius passed away in March 2022, but the funds will ensure that his good deeds will endure well into the future.
“He was always happy to help out Staples. That was his true love,” said his wife, Sue Kurpius, from their home in Palo Alto, California. “He said, ‘My happiest days were sitting on the tractor and plowing the fields and smelling the sweet aroma of the earth.”
These days, the whole community can enjoy the scent of earth and flowers where the Kurpius family farm once stood. The land was fortuitously sold by its post-Kurpius owners to Central Lakes Community College, which developed an Ag and Energy Center at its Staples campus.
The Living Legacy Gardens, started on a five-acre section in
2000, showcase annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, vines, fruits, native plants and trees that are hardy to Central Minnesota’s Zone 3 climate. Up-and-coming All-American Seed Selections give gardeners fresh ideas for new flowers and vegetables, summer classes invite children to dig in the dirt and grow their food, and a gathering area near the gazebo encourages picnics and small gatherings.
When Jim’s older brother, DeWayne, and his wife, Elizabeth (“Buzz”), travel from Indiana to summer in Nisswa each summer, they always take their children, grandchildren and other visitors to stroll the garden’s paths. They can still see some of the original willows from their childhood and can recall the sheer joy during a past Ag Center Field Day when Jim was lifted into a new John Deere tractor and able to imagine plowing the family fields again.
“Jim was the one who really inspired everyone,” said Buzz Kurpius. “This was a project he really liked, and he got us excited about it.”
Jim Kurpius established the Tracy and Julius Kurpius Fund for the Living Legacy Gardens in 2006. As one of the Foundation’s designated funds, it’s dedicated to a single beneficiary. Kurpius and family members made the first $2,500 contribution. They were able to keep adding to the fund for the next 11 years until the investment profited enough to disburse a $1,200 grant to the gardens.
“A total of $16,295 has been awarded since that year,” said Kate Bjorge, community philanthropy manager at the Initiative Foundation.
Funds like these are especially welcome by nonprofit organizations with a small staff, tight budgets and little free time to pursue grants when they need money. The designated funds offer help without applications or follow-up reports.
“If we want to do anything like rebuild the gazebo or get new plant signs, we can use some of that money,” said Tammy Rick, a horticulture technician who manages the gardens on the Staples campus. “It’s hard to [secure additional funding] from the college budget.”
A recently funded project for new plant labels includes QR codes for quick plant identification, growing tips and even recipes. Staff at the gardens also were able to install a message board and kiosk to
welcome the estimated 3,500 annual visitors.
More people like the Kurpius family are setting up both designated funds to benefit singular charities or donor-advised funds that let families recommend grants to a variety of nonprofits. The Initiative Foundation manages fund investments under the umbrella of its Partner Funds program.
“It’s a great vehicle for leaving a legacy—and what an incredible gift for an organization,” Bjorge said. “The Community Philanthropy program disbursed more than $1.5 million in grants through Partner Funds in 2021, nearly 60 percent of which were from donor-advised and designated funds.”
Donors can set up a philanthropic fund by transferring money, stock or even profits from a particular piece of property.
The Initiative Foundation currently manages about 130 Partner Funds, including eight designated funds and 25 donor-advised funds. Donor-advised funds typically are started by individuals or families who decide when to recommend grants to the causes they care about. The Initiative Foundation ensures legal compliance while managing all of the back-end work, including tax receipts and acknowledgments plus financial tracking and reporting.
Grants can be awarded to nonprofits such as women and children’s programs, faith organizations, educational efforts, or whatever fittingly reflects the donors’ values and experiences.
In years past, Jim Kurpius would make solo road trips back to Minnesota from his California home with a modified vehicle that used hand controls. He would stop at the Initiative Foundation’s Little Falls office to discuss ways to invest in his hometown.
Through a stock transfer, he created the James A. and Susan J. Kurpius Family Fund in 2018 as a donor-advised fund. That means the family remains active in deciding where to bestow any financial gifts to the region.
Support from the fund has gone to Staples-Motley Dollars for Scholars and to the Staples Motley Area Community Foundation (SMACF) to help with the Dower Lake improvement project.
“His support was the largest single donation,” said Mike Gold, a former SMACF advisory team member. It helped fund a sidewalk that now makes it possible for anyone on wheels or with a walker to reach the playground, picnic pavilion and the beach and dock—perfect for cooling off on hot summer days. Swimming was a sport Kurpius enjoyed and could still do after polio.
“[Jim] felt he was given a lot of chances,” his wife Susan said, “so he was good about giving back.”
Anyone interested in setting up a designated or donor-advised fund can contact Kate Bjorge, community philanthropy manager at the Initiative Foundation. Call (320) 631-2048 or send an email to kbjorge@ifound.org
You can’t speed up the artistic process, and few people know that better than Wes Jones, owner of Casting Creations of Minnesota. Working with metals at his foundry and fabrication shop, Wes and his team create sculptures of stunning detail and size.
“A mold can be a two-week process. Ceramic takes up to 10 coats and it’s one coat a day. A life-size sculpture is four-to-six weeks minimum,” said Jones. But good things come to those who wait, as Casting Creations’ sculptures will likely last several lifetimes.
Wes and his wife, Lori, co-own the business. Part foundry and part fabrication shop, Casting Creations primarily produces custom art sculptures. “Typically, an artist designs it and we do the casting and molding and finishing,” explained Jones.
Jones, his wife, and four employees create statues, memorials, plaques, and public works of art for individuals and organizations around the world. Every job is different because every job is custom.
We caught up with Wes to learn how he brings art to life.
1. Casting work involves melting metal and pouring it into a mold. Although aluminum casting is an option, most artists choose bronze because of its durability and aesthetic.
2. Fabrication projects use bronze, aluminum, steel or stainless steel. The team creates shapes out of metal sheets, plates, tubing and other materials. Unlike casting work, no metal melting is required.
3. In recent years, much of Casting Creations’ work comes from zoos, museums, and government. These customers typically request large bronze sculptures due to their beauty and durability outside in the elements.
4. To better serve the sight-impaired, museums request extremely detailed animal sculptures that can be handled and touched by visitors. “We’ve made things like frogs, beetles and snakes. They have to be very accurate so people feeling them can get a sense of the animal,” Jones explained.
5. Casting a sculpture is a complex process and varies by the size and metal ordered. If an artist wants a bust cast, he or she first creates a bust out of clay, wax, or other material.
6. Jones and his team then apply a rubber urethane material to the clay surface, covered by rigid plastic. After that sets and hardens, the plastic is split off and the rubber is removed and serves as the casting mold.
7. A special wax is then melted and poured inside the mold. The mold is removed and the wax is coated several times with ceramic to build a shell. After a few weeks of applying and drying the ceramic, the wax gets melted away while the ceramic holds its shape. Liquid metal is poured into the area where the wax was melted out. After the metal solidifies, the ceramic is blasted off and the piece goes to finishing.
8. For very large pieces, like a hippo or a human, the sculpture is cast in pieces. Legs, arms and torso are separately made and welded together. Small details are applied so the welding seams are virtually invisible, even to Jones’ eye.
9. The metal for Casting Creations comes out of Chicago. Bronze is 95 percent copper, and the copper is generated entirely from recycled materials, like scrap wire and metal. The wax is a waste product from the oil industry, that is inexpensively sold to foundaries. Ceramic is specially prepared sand that comes from different places throughout the United States.
10. Although custom projects are the bulk of the work, Casting Creations also makes a line of animal cremation urns. Cast in bronze at 2,200 degrees, the urns are handmade but take less time and custom work, freeing up Jones’ schedule as he considers what sort of retirement he wants.
11. Jones relishes the problem-solving and creativity of his work, and some of his employees have decades of experience in their craft. For especially complicated pieces, Jones consults with software engineers, mechanical engineers, structural engineers and robotics engineers.
12. Casting Creations received a Minnesota Main Street COVID Relief Grant, administered by the Initiative Foundation. The grant was instrumental in helping the company survive pandemic lockdowns, the rising material prices and the drop in customers. “It was touch-and-go for a while. We had no sales for a month,” said Jones. “It was great to have the extra money to help us get through it.”
Send your best guess to IQ@ifound.org by Nov. 30, 2022.
Three winners will be chosen, at random, to receive a $25 credit to apply toward their favorite Initiative Foundationhosted Partner Fund.
HINT: This landmark highlights Minnesota’s first commercial granite quarry. In what city is it located?
Congratulations to everyone who correctly recognized the Nisswa mural painted by Samantha French, internationally acclaimed figurative painter, in the spring 2022 edition.
Melissa Gerads, Jennifer Willems and Dawn Espe were the lucky winners of the “Where’s IQ” contest.
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