Power of Partnerships IQ Magazine 1st Quarter 2018

IQ

1ST QUARTER 2018

BUSINESS

Women Who Weld— Pine Tech’s new program Pg. 8

COMMUNITY

Room to Grow— Early childhood investments pay off Pg. 16

PHILANTHROPY

Donor-Advised Funds— Honoring a legacy Pg. 42

POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS How a network of partnerships keeps Central Minnesota strong.

Pg. 18

Mark marvels at the life he has been given after being diagnosed with colon cancer at age 32.

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“Genetics matter and a family needs to know its medical genealogy.”

Mark later learned his grandmother had died of colon cancer. His

Mark Ronnei

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Cancer Survivor

“Genetics matter and a family needs to know its medical genealogy,” Mark says.

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IQ

Initiative Foundation Quarterly 1ST QUARTER 2018

Contents FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

18

6

26 32

36

The Power of Partnerships How a network of partnerships keeps Central Minnesota strong.

Enterprising Solutions

Immigrants and refugees are overcoming small business barriers.

Something In The Water These innovative projects are protecting Minnesota’s beloved waters.

Break Through The (Filter) Bubble

8

Business:

Women Who Weld

A look at Pine Tech’s innovative new program.

12

Economy:

Bringing It All Together

Brainerd Lakes cities pool resources to benefit businesses.

16

Community:

Room To Grow

Early childhood investments pay off.

42

Philanthropy:

Bringing A Legacy to Life Harnessing the power of donor-advised funds.

SAVE THE DATE The Initiative Foundation in October will celebrate hometown successes and hometown heroes at a location near you. Mark you calendar:

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• Tuesday, Oct., 2, at the Braham Event Center

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• Thursday, Oct. 25, at Cragun’s Legacy Pavilion near Brainerd

Regional Highlights

Get the latest highlights from the 14-county area.

Creating connections across the social and political spectrum.

• Tuesday, Oct. 9, at the College of Saint Benedict’s Gorecki Center in St. Joseph

Initiatives:

Home made:

Sprout

A bounty of local food and crafts.

Where’s IQ?

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GROWING PAINS?

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Master Planning

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Programming

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Feasibility Studies

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Site Analysis

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Design

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Renovation

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New Construction

WidsethSmithNolting.com Engineering | Architecture | Surveying | Environmental 1ST QUARTER 2018

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Dear Friends, It’s usually not a good sign when a board member suggests you “go jump in a lake,” especially in the dead of winter.

It’s different, though, when your board member and several brave colleagues offer to jump with you to raise money for early childhood work in Central Minnesota.

Thanks again to all who supported our “Freezin’ for a Reason” team during the Feb. 10 Shiver Plunge in Elk River. Thanks, also, to my fellow polar plungers for an experience I will never forget . . .

You could say jumping through a hole in the ice is an extreme example of getting creative about how we advance our mission. But in all seriousness, we believe creativity, and an ability to adapt to changing local circumstances, are key to the Initiative Foundation’s positive impact the region—a region that, according to a recent MinnPost story, is the fastest growing in the state!

The new federal tax law is among the recent factors driving our changing circumstances. We’re working in a number of ways to help the region adapt.

Many nonprofits are asking how a doubling of the standard deduction will affect donors whose volume of charitable giving may no longer merit itemizing. One way we can help is through the creation of donor-advised funds, in which donors can aggregate several years of intended giving in a single year to restore the tax benefits of itemizing. Then, in years to come, we Matt Varilek, Carrie Tripp, Don Hickman, David Monroy, Lynn Bushinger and Jeff Wig can make annual grants to donors’ favorite before the plunge. nonprofits, preserving their steady stream of grant income. Read about the Josh Richardson Family Fund on page 42 to learn about the impact of donor-advised funds.

Another provision of the tax law relates to Opportunity Zones, which are lower-income areas around the country that will offer extra tax benefits to certain investors. In collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, we’ve been helping our county and tribal government friends recommend to the governor which parcels should be considered for inclusion on the statewide list of eligible zones. This could bring critical new investments in undercapitalized areas of our region.

There’s a theme that runs through all of this—and, really, all that we do at the Foundation—and that’s the benefit of working with partners. In fact, that’s what this edition of IQ Magazine is all about. So whether you’re toiling away on a high-impact project or just pondering a jump in a lake, we hope these stories provide some new inspiration on the power of partnerships.

VOLUME 27, 1ST QUARTER 2018

Initiative Foundation President | Matt Varilek VP, External Relations | Carrie Tripp Marketing & Communications Manager | Bob McClintick Marketing & Communications Associate | Allison Norgren Editorial Managing Editor | Elizabeth Foy Larsen Writer | Laura Billings Coleman Writer | Lynette Lamb Writer | Lisa Meyers McClintick Writer | Gene Rebeck Writer | Andy Steiner Writer | Maria Surma Manka Art Art Director | Teresa Lund Photographer | John Linn Photographer | Lisa Meyers McClintick Advertising Advertising Director | Brian Lehman Advertising Manager | Ashly Gilson Advertising Manager | Lois Head Advertiser Services | Julie Engelmeyer Subscriptions Email info@ifound.org to subscribe or to make subscription inquiries.

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IQ Magazine unlocks the power of Minnesota leaders to understand and take action on regional issues.

Enjoy the magazine.

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Melissa Hesch, Eagle View Elementary Principal (left), Chris Lindholm, Pequot Lakes Superintendent (middle), and Mike O’Neil, Pequot Lakes Middle School Principal (right)

LEADERS WORTH FOLLOWING IN CENTRAL MN “The challenge for any leader is building common language into a system and making it work,” says Pequot Lakes Superintendent Chris Lindholm. “Leadership training has provided us safe vocabulary to have hard conversations…it creates synergy.”

GiANT Worldwide partners with an organization, giving them a framework and tools for effective communication. With ongoing coaching and workshops, participants learn more about themselves – their strengths and opportunities – and how to become leaders worth following.

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NJPAcoop.org Shared Services • Professional Development • Cooperative Purchasing • Risk Management • Government Services

Initiatives

WADENA TODD

CROW WING

MORRISON

MILLE LACS

PINE

BENTON STEARNS

ISANTI SHERBURNE

CHISAGO

Regional Investment Highlights

CASS

KANABEC

IQ

WRIGHT

WESTERN MORRISON COUNTY | Little Falls Videos Provide Well-Rounded View of City Little Falls is featuring 360-degree, virtual reality videos on its website to attract visitors and potential residents. The project, spearheaded by Golden Shovel Agency in partnership with the city of Little Falls and the Little Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau, received grant support from the Initiative Foundation. The videos allow viewers to control viewing direction and get a real-life view of the city, businesses and attractions.

TODD COUNTY | Staples Area Men’s Choir Carries on Music Tradition The Real Men Sing Choral Festival for young men carried on thanks to a grant from the Staples-Motley Area Community Foundation (SMACF). An Initiative Foundation Partner Fund, SMACF sponsored this festival to encourage young men to experience the “joy and richness that singing brings to life.” In its 15th year, the fall festival attracts more than 200 young men from across the region for an afternoon of practice with a guest conductor. The day is capped with a concert.

WADENA COUNTY | Access to High-Speed Internet Coming to Underserved Area TODD: The Real Men Sing Choral Festival gathered more than 200 men from the region for a day of practice and a concert.

NORTHERN

High-speed internet is essential for everything from education to business expansion. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently announced a grant to bring broadband to areas of Wadena County, helping more than 180 homes and 13 businesses. A longtime supporter of broadband access, the Initiative Foundation sponsored the Blandin Foundation’s October Border to Border Broadband Conference at Madden’s Resort.

CASS COUNTY | Hackensack Paving the Way for the Future Hackensack is known as the “heart of the lakes,” and the local Thriving Communities Initiative team is working hard to advance community-led improvements. During a community-wide “Be the Game Changer” meeting attended by nearly 60 people in February, the team gathered ideas as they march toward a goal of being awarded a Foundation challenge match to fund hometown quality-of-life initiatives.

CROW WING COUNTY | Program Equips Students for Hospitality Careers Here’s a stark fact: 26 percent of the region’s job vacancies are in two industries—food service and retail trade. Schools throughout the area are responding by aligning with ProStart, a Bridges Career Academies & Workplace Connections program funded in part by an Initiative Foundation grant. The program focuses on hands-on kitchen skills and customer service with the opportunity for students to participate in a regional cooking competition.

MILLE LACS COUNTY | Big Grins Win With Preventative Dental Services CASS: Hackensack’s Thriving Communities Initiative team convened for a “Be the Game Changer” meeting to gather community ideas.

6 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

Princeton students have healthier teeth thanks to the community’s early childhood dental preventative services program. Supported by an Initiative Foundation grant, Princeton’s team is providing fluoride varnish and dental education at early childhood screenings, family night and the community’s early childhood fair. The all-day preschool program has started daily tooth brushing and provides students with dental books in English and Spanish.

“ We greatly appreciate the Thriving Communities Initiative program.

Our community benefited very much from being involved in the program – from the new welcome signs, to a Shop Local campaign, to a new playground structure, to name a few.”

– Amy Jo Mell, Rush City City Administrator

SOUTHERN BENTON COUNTY | Keeping Manufactured Home Communities Affordable, Accessible An effort to organize on behalf of income-eligible families living in manufactured housing communities is taking shape in Central Minnesota, where there are 345 park communities in 86 cities that provide affordable housing for more than 12,000 families. The effort is supported by several Initiative Foundation grants to the All Parks Alliance for Change, the most recent of which is helping to establish five coalitions to advance and protect homeowners’ rights.

SHERBURNE COUNTY | Summer Camp Fun For All Children Acceptance and friendship are inherent human needs. Thanks to an Initiative Foundation grant, adults and children with disabilities in the Elk River area are able to attend True Friends Camp. With four Minnesota locations, children like Ben are able to form life-changing friendships and build self-esteem while enjoying swimming, canoeing and fishing—the kind of summer fun that makes memories for so many Minnesotans.

STEARNS COUNTY | St. Joseph Makes a Splash With Community-driven Park Plan A favorite Minnesota pastime—canoeing—is about to get easier in St. Joseph. A makeover is being planned for the city’s East Park and picnic area thanks to a community-driven project that is being funded, in part, by an Initiative Foundation grant. Park board members will hold community meetings to create a shared vision to enhance recreational activities, including a picnic area, canoe access and boat landing at the undeveloped park.

SHERBURNE: Ben enjoys some time on the water during a day of fishing at True Friends Camp.

WRIGHT COUNTY | A Helping Hand for Monticello Help Center Annie Deckert, a member of the Foundation’s first Initiators Fellows cohort and co-owner of the Decklan Group, shared her expertise with the Monticello Help Center. Supported by a 2017 Initiative Foundation grant, Deckert and her team helped the food shelf and clothing center amend a city ordinance so that it can use a new church-donated site. Without Deckert’s support, staff said, the project would not have come to fruition.

EASTERN

CHISAGO COUNTY | Up North Starts Here: Welcome to Rush City Rush City visitors are feeling a little more welcome thanks to the hard work of the Thriving Communities Initiative team and a grant from the Initiative Foundation. Visitors from Interstate 35 and residents now enjoy a new welcome sign on the west end of town. Signs are also being installed on the north and south ends of town. Team-sponsored Casino Night fundraisers have helped to build community camaraderie while raising funds to purchase the new signs.

ISANTI COUNTY | Powering Possible for Cambridge/Isanti Students Navigating the waters of college decisions, whether a four-year or technical degree, can be a complicated endeavor. College Possible, supported by an Initiative Foundation grant, helps high school juniors and seniors learn to how to prepare and apply for college. With lessons in everything from financial planning and ACT test-taking strategies to college visits and post-secondary transition guidance, students in the Cambridge/Isanti district are getting a head start on important skills.

KANABEC COUNTY | GPS 45:93 Executive Committee Dives into Operational Planning Nonprofit GPS 45:93 exists to attract businesses with quality jobs to the five-county region of East Central Minnesota. The executive committee recently participated in planning sessions, funded by an Initiative Foundation grant, which led to positive organizational changes. Administrative support is now a contracted position, allowing the executive committee more time to focus on their mission. Check out their new Twitter page at @GPS4593MN.

CHISAGO: New welcome sign greets visitors coming into Rush City from the west.

PINE COUNTY | St. Mary’s Early Learning Academy Meets a Need Child care is a barrier to entering the workforce for parents across the region. St. Mary’s Early Learning Academy in Pine City went through a recent preschool and child care program expansion, thanks in part to an Initiative Foundation grant. When the Catholic school closed in 2016, the preschool program continued to thrive and, with community support, the child care center is up and running!

1ST QUARTER 2018

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business

SPARKING OPPORTUNITIES: Entry-level welding jobs pay $16 to $19 per hour.

Women Who Weld A new program at Pine Technical and Community College gives women hope and a better way to provide for themselves and their families.

By Lynette Lamb

Last summer, Rose Zellman, 29, was working for modest pay at a motorcycle shop in Rush City.

Today she is a trained welder at Northland Process Piping in Mora, making significantly more money than she was a year ago.

What happened in the interim? Zellman participated in a free five-week basic welding course for women offered by Pine Technical and Community College in Pine City. A $329,000 grant to the college from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is funding seven sessions of this introductory welding program for women. As of early February, the fifth session was under way.

“We started to get feedback about Central Minnesota’s workforce shortages in manufacturing,” said Joe Mulford, president of Pine Technical and Community College. “So we started thinking about ways to help in that area and also to get some non-traditional applicants for these jobs.”

Programs like these are filling gaps in sectors of the region’s

economy that are in dire need of workers, said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development. “Minnesota is facing a worker shortage of up to 100,000 people through the year 2040—due in part to demographics, with the Baby Boomers starting to retire and leave the workforce, and the younger generation is not present in as large a number.”

Overcoming Obstacles

Minnesota exports more skilled workers than it imports, “so anything the Foundation and our partners can do to develop the skills of people who want to live and stay in Minnesota is one of the best investments we can make right now,” said Hickman.

The grant from DEED has allowed Pine Tech to recruit and train up to 12 women for each of the 120-hour sessions. Because classes are held weekdays from 3:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the community college staff realized that getting women through the course would involve far more than just helping them inside the classroom.

“Child care is a big barrier for many women,” said Kris Hanson, CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

8 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

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business, continued from page 8

who serves as education/employment advisor for the program. So is transportation, especially when you consider that women are coming to the program from communities throughout the region.

Hanson’s role, then, is to offer full support services to students, helping them find child care—even offering it through the North Branch Educational District during one session. She also assists with transportation, including gas money.

In addition, Pine Tech brings in all the traditional college support resources, such as counselors. “We are giving these students the full spectrum of college support services,” said Mulford.

The results have been worth all that planning and effort, said Hanson. Typically about eight to 10 women from each 12-person class graduate from the program and “about 70 percent of our graduates have found employment, most in welding and manufacturing and most in the area in which they choose to live,” she said. Some are waiting to find a job closer to home. And others, such as 46-year-old Rachelle Busch of Harris, Minn., are putting off the job hunt for other reasons. “I graduated December 5,” said Busch. “But I’m waiting until April to seek work because that’s when my youngest son will get his driver’s license and no longer rely on me to be his chauffeur.”

Busch’s father was a welder for 50 years, and she has long been interested in the profession. After staying home for nearly two decades to raise her children, she began seeking work but found she couldn’t land an interview for even a minimum-wage job. Next, she explored a two-year welding program but discovered that the tuition and hours were not feasible for her family.

When she found Pine Tech’s program, she said, “I was so excited.

The location and hours lined up perfectly for me and I knew this was an amazing opportunity.”

Excitement soon turned to fear, though, when Busch realized “I would have to leave the comfort zone of my world and put myself out there. I asked myself, Am I too old for this? I’m not good at math. I’ll feel awkward.”

Her fears were quickly put to rest by Hanson, who Busch said “offered us such an optimistic view of what we could hope to accomplish in the program.” She also credits instructor Denny Long,

whose “knowledge, patience, and good humor” soon put Busch and her classmates at ease.

Mentors Matter

The fledgling women welders have also been supported by mentors such as Traci Tapani, co-president of Wyoming Machine in Stacy, Minn., and a member of the Initiative Foundation’s Board of Trustees. “Because we’re in sheet metal fabrication, we employ welders, and we’re a women-owned business, Pine Tech called on us,” said Tapani. “They wanted us to engage with the women in this program so they could see someone who looks like them who works in a manufacturing field.”

Tapani starts out by speaking to the class about her quarter century of experience in the industry. Next, the students tour Wyoming Machine, with an in-depth look at its welding department.

Finally, Tapani’s company is among those who administer the American Welding Society exam at the conclusion of the course. “The students spend about two hours with our lead welder getting up to speed on our equipment,” said Tapani, “and then we evaluate their test results to see if they have passed industry standards.”

Once students have done so, they can find entry-level jobs in the welding industry, earning $16 to $19 per hour. That’s a significant improvement over the $9.50 an hour many were earning before—if they were working.

The program, of course, is only the first step in training a welder, Mulford concedes. Better wages and jobs will come with more experience and practice. But it’s enough to “get them in the door.”

Next fall, Pine Tech will start a credit-based nine-month welding program for those who seek to extend their training.

In the meantime, Mulford, who has attended every graduation, said, “this program has given women hope and new direction, and a better way to provide for themselves and their families.”

The graduates themselves agree. Said Zellman, “I’m extremely thankful I could take the class and improve myself.”

“I feel like I have a new future bright with opportunities,” added Busch. “I have a confidence I didn’t have before.”

“ I feel like I have a new future bright with opportunities.”

3 WANT TO WELD? To learn more about welding careers and training for women, contact Kris Hanson at (320) 629-4568 or Kris.Hanson@pine.edu.

10 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

OUR COMMUNITY, OUR COMMITMENT TO GIVING

For thirteen years, the Anderson Brothers Family Foundation has supported organizations in our community that focus on families and children in need, environmental protection, and economic development. In partnership with the Initiative Foundation, our foundation provides summer camping experiences for children with autism, skin diseases, heart disease, down syndrome, and families affected by AIDS at Camp Knutson in Crosslake. We care, because we live here, too.

ANDERSON BROTHERS Family Fund

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1ST QUARTER 2018

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economy

JEFF GRUNENWALD: ”We’ve grown from a small office to a pretty good-sized footprint in the Midwest recycling industry.”

Bringing It All Together How Brainerd Lakes cities and utilities pooled excess resources to benefit the region’s businesses.

By Gene Rebeck | Photography by John Linn

When opportunity knocks, small businesses have to answer fast.

Jeff Grunenwald knows about speed. He founded his Brainerdbased company, GreenForest Recycling Resources, just a little more than four years ago. The company picks up paper, cardboard and cans from various communities and processes those recyclables for reuse. In addition to its original facility in Brainerd, GreenForest has operations in Hutchinson to the south and Virginia to the north and collects material in five states.“We’ve grown from a small office to a pretty good-sized footprint in the Midwest recycling industry,” Grunenwald said.

With demand surging, Grunenwald needed new equipment to help him keep up. Last year, he had his eye on a specialized machine that could speed up paper baling. But two obstacles threatened to derail his dream.

One was money. He needed a loan to acquire the baler. But banks “require a certain percentage down. I would have to come up with 20 percent,” Grunenwald noted. Since he needed about $80,000 to

purchase the baler, this meant he had to come up with about $16,000— no small sum for a newer small business, even a fast-growing one.

The other obstacle was time: The loan application process would also require him to take hours away from running the business.

Luckily, Grunenwald’s bank rerouted him to a new loan source. Last year, the Brainerd Lakes Area Economic Development Corporation (BLAEDC) introduced the BLAEDC Unified Fund.

The fund pools dollars left over from various grants to the cities and utilities in the region from the past several years. Combined, they create a revolving loan fund with a value of more than $2.8 million.

Not only does the Unified Fund have money to lend, it required Grunenwald to put less money down. And getting the loan “was so fast and seamless—a very easy process to go through,” he said.

That speed is one of the drivers behind the fund’s founding.

Into the Pool

There’s been no shortage of money available in the Brainerd Lakes area for small businesses needing funding to expand. “What had happened over the years is that we ended up with a multitude of CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

12 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

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1ST QUARTER 2018

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economy, continued from page 12

“ People are working, shopping and recreating in various communities. So we all gain by the whole area growing and prospering.” these small loan pools in Crow Wing County that were complicated and cumbersome to tap into,” BLAEDC executive director Sheila Haverkamp said.

What’s more, many of them weren’t using the money they had to make loans to regional businesses. Haverkamp and other organizations in the region—including the Initiative Foundation— wondered whether there might be a way to gather that money into a common pot. This would not only make these funds accessible to growing businesses like Grunenwald’s, but it would also make accessing them “customer-friendly.” It gets the money to where it’s needed and doing what it needs to do, Haverkamp said—“helping businesses grow, adding jobs and spurring economic activity.”

But to establish this unified fund, Haverkamp and her BLAEDC colleagues faced some challenges. In particular: How would the entities react to loan money going to businesses outside their jurisdictions?

BLAEDC’s strongest selling point here: We’re all in this together.

The Brainerd Lakes cities make up an interconnected economy. “In Crow Wing County, the average person travels over 20 miles to work,” Haverkamp said. “People are working, shopping and recreating in various communities. So we all gain by the whole area growing and prospering.”

Having made the decision to pool community resources, BLAEDC worked with an attorney and the state of Minnesota to make sure that the new fund met all of the state and federal regulations to permit “the cities, county, and Housing and Redevelopment Authority to name another entity to be their LDO [local development organization],” Haverkamp said.

Some of the entities’ money was tied to certain programs, which prevented them from transferring it to another organization. But as Haverkamp noted, these entities were allowed to partner with the BLAEDC Unified Fund.

Because of the legal requirements, nearly half of the economic development funds went directly to BLAEDC, “and the remaining funds stayed with the original entity that held the money to begin with,” Haverkamp said.

“We created a partnership where they utilized the BLAEDC Unified Fund to offer loans. They use our applications and approval processes, and our board makes recommendations to their boards.

We manage the loan documents on their behalf.”

Paul Means, a member of the Unified Fund board and chairman of RiverWood Bank (which has branches in Baxter and Crosslake), said that the fund “offers an efficient, effective, customer-friendly way for businesses to access gap financing in our area.”

Instead of having individual processes, “today we have a standard application” that is consistent across all of the entities, he noted. The loan applications then are presented to the Unified Fund’s board, which reviews them. The process, Means added, “somewhat mirrors what a local lending institution would set up.”

To get the Unified Fund up and running, Haverkamp and her organization turned to the Initiative Foundation, with its long history of gap-lending experience, to help manage the process.

Dan Bullert, Initiative Foundation business finance manager, said the Unified Fund complements the Foundation’s services and provides yet another funding mechanism in the region to meet business growth and development needs. The partnership, Haverkamp said, “was part of the success in being able to accomplish this.” The Foundation’s support and expertise assured Brainerd Lakes area communities and businesses “that we could deliver right out of the gate with the staff support, knowledge, expertise and software that was needed to manage all of the loans.”

Collecting More

As of March, the Unified Fund had already closed on three loans.

One of those was Grunenwald’s. In January, he took delivery of his company’s new baling machine, which can tie up paper, cardboard, plastics, aluminum and steel cans.

“It’s computerized and automatic—one person can load and operate it,” Grunenwald said. “The computer automatically tells the baler when it’s ready to put a bale out. It’s going to speed us up by about five times. And that will let us go after more accounts.”

That’s the kind of response BLAEDC hopes to hear from future Unified Fund recipients. “For communities, the fund is helping to promote and market their pools of money, as well as project vetting and the greater likelihood that the loans will be paid back and reinvested in private sector projects,” Haverkamp said. “It also allows the BLAEDC Unified Fund to secure additional economic development resources.”

3 QUESTIONS For questions about the Unified Fund, contact Sheila Haverkamp or Tyler Glynn at the Brainerd Lakes Area Economic Development Corporation at (218) 828-0096.

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HIGH FIVE: Recent studies have found a $7 to $16 return for every dollar invested in early care and education.

Room to Grow Funding early childhood initiatives is an investment in the region’s future.

By Lisa Meyers McClintick

In March, usually well-timed to winter doldrums, Big Lake parents and kids can munch on healthy snacks and dance and sing in Liberty Elementary School’s cafeteria.

In the nearby gym, preschoolers can jump in an inflated bouncy house while quieter kids concentrate on scaling a climbing wall. Welcome to Rise & Shine Family Fun Time— an open house for families and children up to age 5 that’s sponsored by Big Lake Schools’ Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE).

“Families wanted more low-cost or free early childhood events,” said Sarah Fritsch, an early childhood parent educator in Big Lake.

In just three years, the community’s early childhood coalition, with its cross-section of public agencies, teachers and child care providers, has launched multiple events and training workshops to enrich what’s offered for young families.

Big Lake’s early childhood coalition has received $7,000 from the Initiative Foundation for each of the last three years to help with community services and events. But in 2018, in addition to its expanded programming, Big Lake will also focus on developing a new skill—fundraising.

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For years, initiatives that support early childhood development have been priorities for funders and grant-makers across the state and the country. That’s changed as the pendulum swings and focus areas shift. “We’re seeing funders’ priorities transition to other areas of need,” said Tammy Filippi, early childhood program manager at the Initiative Foundation. That means organizations, too, will need to shift their emphasis from grant writing to fundraising.

Endowment Earnings

To help established early childhood coalitions make the transition and build self-sustaining income streams, the Initiative Foundation is offering a $500,000 challenge match in 2018 for regional coalitions to raise money and establish their own endowments. With an endowed fund, donated assets are invested and the interest earnings are used to fund future expenditures.

For coalitions to build their endowment, a minimum of $20,000 needs to be raised: $10,000 locally plus a $10,000 Initiative Foundation match. “Once that minimum is raised, a percentage of the annual earnings from the endowment can be spent to support local initiatives,” Filippi said. “Ultimately, it’s more flexible and reliable than any grants a coalition might receive.”

Endowment earnings can be used for professional development and workshops for child care providers, literacy programs, special events and other services most needed by children from birth to age 5 in each coalition area.

“The investment in early childhood in general is important,” Filippi said, citing a Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis study that shows a $7 to $16 return for every dollar invested in early care and education.

“Building an endowment is going to take time, but it’s the surest path to create a flexible funding tool that can adjust to the most urgent early childhood needs and opportunities that arise in each community.”

Collaborations Count

The Initiative Foundation will continue to offer guidance and select grants to early childhood coalitions while it hosts endowment funds and shares fundraising and programming strategies. Sharing ideas has always been critical to making progress—especially in the face of the early child care provider shortage and when new research and timely topics emerge that can help educators and caregivers.

Angie Klinefelter, project manager for Greater St. Cloud Area Thrive, a subsidiary of the Minnesota Thrive Initiative championed by the six Minnesota Initiative Foundations, said the coalition of early childhood agencies and providers she supports have their greatest success when they work together as a diverse group. Collaborators include therapists, public health nurses and social service providers, school district early childhood educators, Head Start, crisis nursery providers, CentraCare Health and more.

The coalition, which serves the region’s biggest population, got a jump start on fundraising when it started an endowment in 2012. They have about $60,000 and will be discussing ways to grow their fund.

“The opportunity to raise $100,000 and get another $100,000 through the maximum matching grant is really exciting and appealing,” Klinefelter said. A fundraising committee is ready to start brainstorming. “We’re going to go for it.”

Flexible Funds

One advantage of endowment earnings is that they can be more flexible than grants, which often are tailored to specific programs, Filippi said. Each coalition area also has its own priorities and needs based on the population, local economy and available services. The

Cambridge-Isanti area, for example, wants to put funding toward oral health for young children, something that’s also been an emphasis in other parts of the region.

Each coalition will likewise need to find fundraising efforts that work well for their communities. Onamia, which last year raised almost $5,000, has had success through a letter-writing campaign that seeks contributions. They also champion events, such as last year’s Fall FundFest. Their area has focused on promoting literacy, with initiatives that include providing free books at well-child checkups, helping families in need through diaper and food collections and offering early childhood programs for families.

Supporting Families

In Big Lake, Fritsch said the early childhood community is motivated to raise funds and continue its popular programs, which include workshops for child care providers and a fall Family Fun Fest that’s similar to a business expo but showcases close to 30 agencies, groups and businesses that address the needs of early childhood. They also hope to fund an Early Childhood Family Education in the Parks program that offers twice-a-month events throughout the summer with kids’ activities, free books, the Help Me Grow program and a chance for kids to meet police and emergency providers.

Besides being a resource for families and child care providers, the programs can help the community attract and welcome young families. That’s important when you consider that a growing number of employers now allow telecommuting, videoconferencing and online commerce. “An increasing number of younger families are no longer required to locate their home near their employers,” said Don Hickman, vice president for community and workforce development at the Initiative Foundation. “Folks choose where they want to live based on quality of life. Quality schools and child care are key criteria.”

For the Big Lake Early Childhood Coalition, members plan to start fundraising ideas soon, Fritsch said, possibly linking into Big Lake’s Spud Fest, a popular summer celebration that draws the community together for a parade and a weekend of events.

“People are excited to get on board and start raising funds so we can expand services and activities,” said Fritsch. “When you have the energy and the people, magical things can happen.”

“ The opportunity to raise $100,000 and get another $100,000 through the maximum matching grant is really exciting and appealing. We’re going to go for it.”

3 CRANK UP YOUR COALITION If you’re a member of an existing early childhood coalition in Central Minnesota, the steps to building a permanent source of income for your region don’t need to be overly complicated: gather your team, set a fundraising goal ($10,000 is a good, conservative target to meet the minimum threshold) and start your campaign. The Initiative Foundation will be at the ready to match your efforts dollar for dollar up to $100,000, and up to a total of $500,000 across all participating coalitions in the region.

1ST QUARTER 2018

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W

By Laura Billings Coleman

ITH ROOTS AND RELATIONSHIPS THAT GO BACK MORE

THAN 30 YEARS, MOST OF THE INITIATIVE FOUNDATION’S PROGRAMS HAVE GROWN FROM THE GROUND UP. BUT AS CHRIS FASTNER, THE FOUNDATION’S SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT TELLS IT, THE FINANCIAL RESILIENCY PROGRAM HE’S ROLLING OUT THIS SEASON WAS ACTUALLY LAUNCHED AT 30,000 FEET. “The story goes that Kathy Gaalswyk, the Initiative Foundation’s founding president, and a program officer from the Otto Bremer Trust were on a flight together when they started a conversation about what nonprofits needed most in Central Minnesota,” he said. Their blue sky discussion about how to strengthen the region’s 1,700 nonprofits with better management, governance, planning and fund development soon formed the blueprint for the Healthy Organizations Partnership that launched in 2001. While the program has had several iterations since, Fastner said, the Otto Bremer Trust’s long-standing support has infused more than $1.3 million into the Foundation’s nonprofit programs, helping to build the capacity of hundreds of Central Minnesota organizations.

That collaborative approach has allowed the Initiative Foundation to better serve Central Minnesota. “That’s really the power of partnerships—they help us to punch above our weight as an organization and do so much more for the region than we ever could on our own,” said Initiative Foundation President Matt Varilek, who notes that the Foundation’s ability to attract new resources from government sources, national grantmakers and Twin Cities philanthropies has been an important economic engine for the region.

“For every dollar we raise locally, we’re able to send an average of $4.52 out to the communities we serve. That’s because we have built the credibility, trust and programming to attract outside funders whose missions align with ours.”

HERE’S A LOOK AT SOME OF THE KEY PARTNERSHIPS THAT HELP THE INITIATIVE FOUNDATION DELIVER A GREAT RETURN ON INVESTMENT:

1ST QUARTER 2018

19

OTTO BREMER TRUST BUILDING THE FINANCIAL RESILIENCE OF REGIONAL NONPROFITS

“ K nowing that the people from the Initiative Foundation live in these communities, read the newspapers, and talk to people in the coffee shops, gives us a lot of confidence in the process.”

DAN REARDON: Trustee, Otto Bremer Trust

When Bridges of Hope opened its thrift shop in Brainerd, business was so good the faith-based nonprofit committed to a second location in Crosslake—only to see sales take an unexpected plunge.

“We saw a very sudden and scary downturn in sales at our initial store,” said Executive Director Kassie Heisserer, a loss that quickly threatened to impact the nonprofit’s support for 1,500 low-income families in Crow Wing County. After fielding their call at the Initiative Foundation, Fastner encouraged a core team from Bridges of Hope to take advantage of the training and resources offered through what was then called Financial Resiliency Through Social Enterprise, a program paid for, in part, through the Foundation’s partnership with the Otto Bremer Trust.

“The timing was right for us to circle back and say, ‘Wait a minute—what’s the purpose of this store, who is our customer, and who are we trying to reach with our work?’” Heisserer said, noting that the program allowed the organization to take a breath and make sure its mission was aligned with its thrift store business plan.

Soon after hiring two new managers and investing in a more efficient point-of-sale and check-out system, the thrift shops were back on the path to profitability. Eight months after their financial resiliency reboot, the nonprofit reported a 62 percent increase in sales over the previous year. The earnings paid for 40 percent of the nonprofit’s mission-related expenses.

The Initiative Foundation’s expertise at helping struggling organizations find stability is one of the ways the Otto Bremer Trust protects its deep investments in Minnesota’s rural communities, said Bremer Trustee Dan Reardon, noting that the trust awarded nearly $3 million in grant funding to Central and Northern Minnesota in 2016 alone. “We have a banking presence in many of these communities, but the Initiative Foundation knows the region’s nonprofits so well that it’s a smart leverage point for us to use the

20 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

relationships and the reconnaissance they have in the region to get resources where they’re needed,” he said.

Otto Bremer Trust and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development are the current lead funders for the Financial Resiliency program. The partnership gives Otto Bremer Trust a local perspective on the challenges and opportunities Central Minnesota’s nonprofits face. It’s a perspective that’s hard to replicate from Bremer’s home base in St. Paul, Reardon said. “Knowing that the people from the Initiative Foundation live in these communities, read the newspapers, and talk to people in the coffee shops, gives us a lot of confidence in the process.”

FOR EVERY

$1.00 WE RAISE LOCALLY,

McKNIGHT FOUNDATION TRANSITIONING TO A CLEAN ENERGY ECONOMY

“ We look to the Initiative Foundation as a bridge that helps bring together many different interests and pieces of the puzzle.

They’re a partner for us in the region that provides credibility and leadership to communities that are struggling.”

KARA CARLISLE: Vice President of Programs, McKnight Foundation

The Initiative Foundation is one of six regional entities the McKnight Foundation helped to launch in 1986 to diversify Greater Minnesota’s economy, but they’ve long since grown out of the “parentchild” relationship once used to describe their connection, said Kara Carlisle, McKnight’s vice president of programs. “At this point in our evolution, we view the Initiative Foundation as a trusted conversation partner.”

Since 2016, one major topic of conversation has been how to mitigate the community impact of Xcel Energy’s plan to decommission two of three coal-burning plants in Becker, located in Sherburne County. Though the utility will build a new natural gas-powered unit at Sherco, the expected reduction of more than half of the plant’s

WE ARE ABLE TO SEND

$4.52

current employees could be devastating for the local economy, where the power plant represents 75 percent of the tax base.

That challenge, however, could become an opportunity. “The plan has a potential silver lining for the community, because they’re gaining back significant industrial park land that might now be available to get new businesses started,” said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development. To help the community explore its opportunities, the Initiative Foundation secured initial support from McKnight in 2016 to aid in the SHERCO transition process. That funding was followed in 2017 by a $200,000 McKnight grant to empower those impacted by the transition and to help them give voice as they work together to design a more diverse local economy. The lessons learned here could help other Midwestern communities with aging coal power plants plan for their own alternative energy futures.

That forward-thinking approach matters to the McKnight Foundation. “This is happening at the statewide level, so we want partners like the Initiative Foundation that understand how complicated these decisions are, and the outsize impact they have on jobs and regional identity,” said Carlisle. “We look to the Initiative Foundation as a bridge that helps bring together many different interests and pieces of the puzzle. They’re a partner for us in the region that provides credibility and leadership to communities that are struggling.”

OUT TO THE COMMUNITIES WE SERVE. Average return on investment through Dec. 31, 2017.

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BUSH FOUNDATION TAPPING CENTRAL MINNESOTA’S NEXT LEADERS

“ Our mission is really about inspiring, equipping and connecting leaders to think bigger and think differently about what’s possible in their communities.”

ANITA PATEL: Leadership Programs Director, Bush Foundation

Greater Minnesota is fertile soil for growing community leaders, a trend driven by civic duty and simple demographics. Compared to the Twin Cities, where just one in 56 adults serve in a community leadership role, rural sociologist Ben Winchester, from the University of Minnesota Extension’s Center for Community Vitality, has found that the average rural Minnesotan is responsible for six or more top jobs—roles that can range from serving on school boards, city councils and steering committees, to running the small businesses and nonprofits that are major players in Minnesota’s small towns.

Now with nearly 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring every day across the country, making sure those critical community connections are carried forward by Gen Xers and Millennials with the skills and drive to lead has become a growing focus for the Initiative Foundation through its long-time partnership with the Bush Foundation, a St. Paul-based charitable institution founded by one of 3M’s early leaders.

“Archie Bush was from Granite Falls, so having ties to Greater Minnesota has always been critical to the work we do,” said Anita Patel, leadership programs director for the Bush Foundation, which for nearly 60 years has invested in more than 2,300 individuals through a variety of fellowship programs. “Our mission is really about inspiring, equipping and connecting leaders to think bigger and think differently about what’s possible in their communities, and the Initiative Foundation has so much wisdom to share when it comes to understanding the pressing needs in the region.”

In 2015, the Initiative Foundation deployed a $200,000 grant from the Bush Foundation to launch its Emerging Leaders program, an initiative aimed at cultivating new leaders from communities that hadn’t always been tapped before—particularly younger adults and new Americans. “Like Minnesota as a whole, our region has become much more multicultural, and we need to make sure we’re empowering people from every community to take on the real challenges ahead,” said Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development, who credits Initiative Foundation Community Development Program Manager 22 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

Michelle Kiley with seeking out up-and-coming leaders to help the Initiative Foundation expand its network into new communities.

“Those changes have forced us to think very intentionally about who we are serving, and who we are failing to serve, and they’ve had a lasting impact on how we do business.”

Those changes also helped bring local talent like Emmanuel Oppong, who participated in the Foundation’s 2015 Emerging Leaders program, to the attention of the Bush Foundation, which selected him as recipient of the 2017 Bush Leadership Fellowship.

Oppong, who serves as community engagement coordinator in the St. Cloud mayor’s office, is only the fourth St. Cloud native to receive the prestigious regional honor, which will support Oppong’s work as a community counselor, exploring how trauma impacts the state’s immigrant and refugee populations.

The Initiative Foundation’s ability to amplify new voices from across the region is one reason the Bush Foundation awarded it with a $200,000 Ecosystem Grant, a program that recognizes the Initiative Foundation as a “can’t do without” partner that enables the Bush Foundation to fulfill its own mission in Central Minnesota. “Like the Initiative Foundation, we believe that leaders need space and time to develop, which is why it’s so important we stay connected to each other,” Patel said.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

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A Special Thanks to Our 2017-2018

COMMUNITY BUILDERS CIRCLE Members.

Your Region. Your Initiative. Your Foundation.

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s

Childhood

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Foundation • Falcon National Bank* • Farmers & Merchants State Bank Charitable Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation • First Bank & Trust* • First National Bank North* • First National Bank of Milaca* • First State Bank of Wyoming* • Frandsen Bank & Trust* • Granite Equity Partners, LLC • Harvest Banks* • LINDAR / Avantech* • Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce* • Long Prairie Packing Company* • Marco Technologies, LLC* • McDowall Company • Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union • Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative* • National Joint Powers Alliance • Neighborhood National Bank* • NOR-SON, Inc.* • Park Industries, Inc.* • Pequot Tool & MFG., Inc.*

arly

Give today at ifound.org/give To make a pledge, contact a member of our external relations team or call (877) 632-9255. *Individuals and businesses that have pledged in both 2017 and 2018.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, your Initiative Foundation contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Foundation owns and manages financial contributions for the benefit of Central Minnesota communities.

24 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

O ur N o npr

• Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s

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• Eich Motor Company

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• Edelweiss Cabinetry*

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• East Central Energy*

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• DeZURIK, Inc.

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Company* • Crow Wing Power

Foundation of The Saint Paul Foundation • State Bank of Cold Spring* • Stearns Bank NA* • Stearns Electric Association* • Stern Rubber Company • The Bank of Elk River* • Todd-Wadena Electric Cooperative* • US Bancorp • Wadena State Bank* • Wells Fargo Bank MN • West Central Telephone Association* • Widseth Smith Nolting and Assoc., Inc.* • Wyoming Machine, Inc.*

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• Consolidated Telecommunications

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• Connexus Energy

& Sentry Banks* • SPEDCO Economic Development

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• Compeer Financial

• Sherburne State Banks

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• Clow Stamping Company

• SEH, Inc.*

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• CliftonLarsonAllen LLP

• Schlagel, Inc.

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of Allina Health System • Citizens State Bank of Waverly*

NEW 1ST QUARTER 2018 MEMBERS • Anonymous Donor • Paula & Chad Becker • Michael & Kathleen Burton • Philip & Susan Prosapio • Mike & Dorothy Simpson • Kimberly Slipy • Gene & Bernie Waldorf

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INDIVIDUALS • John E Babcock • Rick & Helga Bauerly Family Fund of Central Minnesota Community Foundation* • Dick & Mimi Bitzan Family Fund of Central Minnesota Community Foundation • Lynn & Darren Bushinger* • Linda Eich DesJardins • Don & Deanna Engen • Kathy & Neal Gaalswyk* • Anonymous Donor • Lee & Jan Hanson • Don Hickman & Sandra Kaplan* • Jo & Larry Korf • Martin & Susan Paradeis • John & Bonnie Schlagel • Rita and Everett Sobania • Charlotte Stephens • Tim & Carrie Tripp* • Andrea Turner • Dr. Paul Van Gorp & Roberta Knutson • Maggie & Matt Varilek* • Ludmila Voelker • Jeff & Laurie Wig*

Here’s how you can join and make a difference: 1

INVEST Contribute $1,000 or more per year to the Initiative Foundation’s programs or General Endowment—a forever fund that powers the Foundation’s grants, programs and services.

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ENTERPRISING SOLUTIONS

A new program helps immigrants and refugees overcome small business barriers.

By Lisa Meyers McClintick | Photography by John Linn & Lisa Meyers McClintick

ST. CLOUD’S SOMALI

RESIDENTS ARE TIGHT-KNIT AND ARE VERY GOOD AT

LEVERAGING RESOURCES WITHIN THE COMMUNITY.

GROCERIES & MORE: Ali Durbi, manager at Green Market and Deli, offers groceries along with sweet and savory treats.

While sipping a steaming cup of shaah, a Somali version of sweet, spiced tea, Jama Alimad, is happy to share the diverse culture of his coastal home country where Middle Eastern, European and Asian cultures thread into what has long been a northeastern gateway to the African continent.

“This is anjera,” he said, showing how people from Somalia use torn pieces of pancake-like bread to scoop up seasoned blends of beef or chicken that are served at Salaama, a restaurant in a strip mall at

St. Cloud’s intersection of 33rd Street and Third Avenue Northwest.

At a time when Somali restaurants, food markets and malls with kiosks are popping up across St. Cloud, Alimad is using his position as a community leader and elder to encourage his fellow Somalis to find the resources they need to start their own businesses. One such resource is the new Enterprise Academy program, which the Initiative Foundation has launched to help new entrepreneurs get past small-business barriers so they can succeed and thrive.

In turn, these new businesses can enrich and add stability to the community and strengthen the area’s economy.

“This is a very entrepreneurial group of folks,” Jeff Wig, the Initiative Foundation’s vice president for economic and business development, said of the East African population with whom he and partner organization Central Minnesota Community Empowerment are piloting the program.

“They have the fire and commitment to start a small business.”

They also have a passion for sharing their culture. Restaurateurs especially can offer a bridge between Somalis and the lifelong St. Cloud residents who are eager to be among the city’s first to try their food, sip their tea and get a glimpse into Somali heritage.

MULTICULTURAL MALL

In Banadir Mall in Waite Park’s Gateway Center, a handful of women smile and greet visitors from a few of the 17 rentable business spaces. The small shops give these women an affordable option for launching a business.

Women, in particular, drive the community’s entrepreneurial spirit, Alimad said.

Sahra Shukri, who is fresh off a night shift at Gold’n Plump’s chicken processing plant in Cold Spring, opens her Somali Senteral Store in the morning. It stretches her workday into 18 hours, after which she checks in with her family and hopes for a few hours of sleep before she starts another night shift at the plant.

The strong work ethic is a source of

1ST QUARTER 2018

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pride for many in the Somali community.

“People think Somalis are getting things for free, and they don’t see how hard many of them work,” Alimad said.

At Banadir Mall, most of the small business owners have off-site, full-time work shifts, which often finish up around 3 p.m. As a result, the mall bustles from mid-afternoon through the evening. Many of the businesses sell selections of imported products: lotions, perfumes, scarves, blankets, rugs, silk flowers and tea sets.

Twahiv Afrah, who operates the Farbuur Store, struggles to communicate in English but radiates motherly pride when talking about her three children, including a daughter, Amina, who received her degree from St. Cloud State University. Amina works as a nurse with CentraCare and has been featured on some of the clinic and hospital posters.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

The Initiative Foundation worked with Somali elders and other community leaders to get the word out about the 12-weeks Enterprise Academy training that started at the end of March. It expands on a five-week training project in 2016 that helped several dozen Somali residents create business plans for their own entrepreneurial ventures.

To expand its effort, the Initiative Foundation received a $200,000 grant and a $600,000 loan from Wells Fargo through its Works for Small Business: Diverse Community Capital program. Additional support comes from the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation.

The Initiative Foundation is adapting a successful model created by the Twin Cities-based Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), which offers offers training, startup loans and business incubator space to small businesses as a way to inspire entrepreneurship and fill vacant buildings.

As businesses gain customers and financial traction, they can expand and move out, leaving space for other new businesses.

One of the NDC’s most successful and visible efforts was the launch of Mercado Central, a Minneapolis center of more than 35 small Latino businesses that opened on Lake Street in 1997. The group also is responsible for Midtown Global Market, a popular Minneapolis food hub that opened

in 2006 and serves anything from Moroccan tagine cooking to Middle Eastern kabobs to Latin American tamales to Thai noodles.

Midtown Global Market comprises more than 50 businesses and represents 22 cultures. It goes beyond food and functions as a gathering place for events, serving an estimated 1.5 million patrons a year.

In addition to St. Cloud, other cities across the nation have taken notice and found inspiration from Midtown Global Market and Mercado Central. The NDC model is being adopted in Detroit, Syracuse, Philadelphia and Anchorage, among other places.

TRAINING AND COACHING

While it’s being piloted with St. Cloud’s East African community, the ultimate goal with the Enterprise Academy is to adapt it to different areas of need in the 14-county region of Central Minnesota. The fundamentals of the program leverage the NDC model to include one-on-one coaching and business planning; micro-lending and financing strategies; and assistance with everything from developing logos and store layouts to navigating bookkeeping programs to accepting credit card payments.

For the NDC, the goal is to build entrepreneurs to build neighborhoods.

“And hopefully these entrepreneurs become neighborhood and civic leaders,” said Isabel Chanslor, the NDC’s chief program officer.

FUTURE LEADERS

The natural clustering of Somali businesses makes it easier for business owners to share what they’ve learned and to build on each other’s successes.

Salaama’s owner, Liban Ahmed, has a brother who runs the nearby Star Market grocery. A few doors down, Afya Pharmacy caters to the Somali population; the staff makes free home deliveries and ensures elderly patients know how to take their medicine. This keeps health care costs down because people are healthier and less likely to need a hospital visit.

At stores such as the Green Market & Deli in Waite Park’s Gateway Center on 10th Avenue South, there’s a dining area that includes a glass case full of savory and sweet pastries. Adjacent is an attached grocery store with aisles that mix familiar items such as Cheerios, ketchup and spices with tins CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

28 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

ACTIVE ENTREPRENEURS: Waite Park’s Gateway Center abounds with goods and services to meet community needs.

WOMEN, IN PARTICULAR, DRIVE THE SOMALI COMMUNITY’S ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT.

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ENTERPRISING SOLUTIONS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28

of fish, bags of sorghum flour and exotic fruit juices.

Wig said non-Somali customers account for about 1 percent of the business at St. Cloud’s estimated 10 restaurants that serve traditional East African foods. But that may change as they develop easy-to-understand menus and the general population gets accustomed to new foods, such as goat and saffron rice, sambusas, and a version of spaghetti, which Italians brought to Somalia when they colonized part of the country in the 1890s.

Enterprise Academy aims at helping these businesses succeed, and that excites local leaders such as Abdirizak Jama, community organizer at Catholic Charities, a soon-to-be graduate from Saint John’s University and an executive member of the Central Minnesota Community Empowerment Organization.

“The amount of opportunity that this will bring to the community of St. Cloud is just mind-blowing,” said Jama.

BY THE

NUMBERS The first Enterprise Academy cohort will get its start in St. Cloud with a focus on the East African population. As the program is refined and funding is secured, the plan is to offer it in other areas of Central Minnesota where its wrap-around training and services can lift up entrepreneurs and encourage business startups.

St. Cloud Snapshot

10,000

The estimated number of East Africans living in the Greater St. Cloud area.

50

T he number of East African-run businesses operating out of several commerce hubs in Greater St. Cloud.

3 The percentage of businesses owned by people of color in Greater St. Cloud.

The Census Bureau’s 2012 survey of business owners shows that people of color represent 8.2 percent of the region’s population.

According to Minnesota Compass, the median household income for people who identify as African-American/black, and who also indicate they are foreign-born, is $28,884. The statewide average for all populations is $57,571. Source: U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010-2012 American Community Survey.

“

WE ARE HERE TO WORK. WE ARE HERE TO BECOME REAL CITIZENS

OF THIS COUNTRY. OUR CHILDREN WERE BORN HERE. WE RAISED THEM

”

HERE. THEY FEEL AS THOUGH THEY BELONG TO THIS LAND. THAT’S THE BEAUTY OF AMERICA. THE DIVERSITY IS THE BEAUTY.

– Jama Alimad, Somali Community Leader

30 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

SOMALI CENTRAL STORE, SAHRA SHUKRI: Sahra Shukri at work in her store at the Gateway Center.

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Innovative aquatic invasive species projects aim to protect Minnesota’s

beloved lakes.

By Andy Steiner

Spend enough time near a Minnesota lake and it finds a place in your heart. Your memories are shaped by sunrises on the water, swims from a dock, fish caught at dusk, the sound of waves lapping on the shore.

32 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI: The Mississippi River offers a host of recreational opportunities as it passes through the state.

When a beloved lake or waterway is threatened by aquatic invasive species (AIS), people who’ve spent a good chunk of their lives on or near the water want to take action.

That was certainly the case over the last three years as community-based teams from throughout Minnesota sent proposals to the Initiative Foundation to request funding for projects designed to reduce the spread of AIS in their favorite lakes.

The $4 million allocated to the Initiative Foundation by the Minnesota Legislature was earmarked to support innovative strategies to prevent the spread of AIS to the state’s lakes and waterways. Foundation staffers spent months reviewing proposals, selecting the most promising—and awarding funds that were then matched by local partners.

The projects were selected for their innovative approach to address invader species and the geography they affected, according to Don Hickman, Initiative Foundation vice president for community and workforce development. “All of the projects sought to advance a range of strategies to combat AIS,” he said. “We were impressed by their commitment to community and shared solutions to the problem.”

With the funding stage now complete, state financial support

for AIS projects continues for another 18 months while the pilot projects are being evaluated. Some of the initiatives are showing progress in the fight against these lake invaders. The evaluation phase allows local leaders to learn what works—and what doesn’t— and adapt their programs.

HERE ARE THREE EXAMPLES:

Lake Koronis When Kevin Farnum was growing up, his family owned property on Lake Koronis in Paynesville. The lake was an important part of his childhood—the place where some of his most important memories were formed. When his father died, Farnum inherited the Koronis property, and the lake became an even bigger part of his life.

“We have a home on the lake,” Farnum said, proudly. “We’re shore owners.” When a cousin suggested Farnum join the board of the Koronis Lake Association, he gladly obliged.

“This is the lake I was raised on,” he said. “I’m very committed to it.”

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THE BIG CLEANUP: (left to right) Harvesting starry stonework on Lake Koronis. Rusty Crayfish in Lake County Minnesota. Mowing down cattails in Voyageurs National Park.

WHEN A LAKE IS THREATENED BY AQUATIC INVASIVE SPECIES, PEOPLE WHO’VE SPENT A GOOD CHUNK OF THEIR LIVES ON OR NEAR THE WATER WANT TO TAKE ACTION. In 2015, Farnum, a self-described “old retired guy” with a degree in zoology and a background in sanitation and pest control, got a call from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

“I was at the State Fair when I got the call,” he recalled. “The DNR told me that Koronis had starry stonewort”—a non-native grass-like algae that forms dense mats on the water’s surface and chokes off other native species. It was the first such case in Minnesota.

About 250 acres of the lake were infested with the rapidly growing invasive. The plants had likely been brought in on the motors of boats that had picked up bits of stonewort in other states.

At the time, Farnum was leading the lake association’s AIS efforts, so he quickly began to sketch out a plan of attack.

“Our strategy was that the first thing we needed to do was manage the AIS going out of our lake,” Farnum said, explaining that the board didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.

One area of stonewort infestation was in a channel that boaters use to get in and out of Lake Koronis. Lake association members decided to create a clean access point by clearing all stonewort from the channel. With the help of a mechanical puller and scuba divers, they cleared the plants and treated the area with algaecide.

The next step was to tackle the stonewort in deeper sections of the lake. Led by Farnum, board members decided to take a scientific approach, testing different tactics to see which worked best to keep the invader at bay.

“In one plot we mechanically pulled all the starry stonewort we could get to,” Farnum said. The mechanical puller was followed by a team of scuba divers, who swam to greater depths and pulled the weed by hand. That first year, workers pulled 250,000 pounds

of stonewort from 3.8 acres of the lake and trucked the harvested plants well outside of the area to dispose of them.

After they pulled in one test area, the crew moved to another infested location and treated it with algaecide. Both approaches have proved successful, with a 99 percent reduction in the stonewort.

The result was good news to Farnum, who is committed to making—and keeping—Koronis healthy for years to come.

“There are people on the lake who feel like they need to do this to protect their property values,” Farnum said, “but that’s not important to me. I’m not going anywhere. I want this lake to be usable for generation after generation, for my kids and grandkids.”

Big Marine Lake Big Marine Lake is an 1,800-acre hidden gem that boasts clear water, a rocky-bottom, nesting loons and eagles, open shoreline and shallow expanses. And it’s less than an hour outside of the Twin Cities.

Michael Blehert and his family have owned property on Big Marine since 1959. He appreciates his lake’s lower social profile.

“Everybody and their uncle have heard of White Bear Lake and Forest Lake,” he said. “But only one out of 20 people have heard of Big Marine Lake.”

For a large, exurban lake, Big Marine is still relatively undeveloped, with some 200 property owners. “Only about 15 of those are big homes,” Blehert said. “There are still a lot of cabins and a lot of older homes here that are very modest.”

It’s part of the lake’s charm, and one of the reasons Blehert is so CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

34 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

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36 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

Breaking

through the

(filter) Bubble

By Elizabeth Foy Larsen | Photography by John Linn | Illustration by Chris McAllister

Technology has made us more connected. But we are also more intellectually isolated.

Here’s what Central Minnesotans are doing to create connections across the social and political spectrum.

When she graduated from Sauk Rapids High School in 1997, Natalie Ringsmuth says she was part of a community that looked like her and worshipped like her, meaning that the majority of people she knew were white and Christian. Then, after receiving a degree in music education from Concordia College in Moorhead, Ringsmuth moved with her husband Jeremy to Atlanta, a city that’s celebrated for its racial and cultural diversity.

That variety—which also spans religious and political beliefs—appealed to Ringsmuth.

“We loved that our workplaces and churches there were diverse,” she said. “It wasn’t the exception in most parts of Atlanta, it was the rule.”

So when the Ringsmuths and their three children moved back home to Central Minnesota in 2008, Natalie was pleasantly surprised to discover that the region had undergone a transformation, thanks in part to the arrival of people from African countries, including Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan. “I realized we had a ton more diversity,” said Ringsmuth. “And that was something I was grateful for. I don’t want my kids to be shocked by the rest of the world because they didn’t grow up in a place that reflects that diversity.”

As Ringsmuth would soon learn, not all her fellow citizens shared her enthusiasm. In fact, some people in the region were concerned about the demographic changes happening in cities and towns across Central Minnesota. That divergence reached a boiling point in May 2015, when more than 100 Somali teenagers staged a walkout of St. Cloud Technical High School to protest what they viewed as racist and threatening taunts by some students.

“On Facebook and the comments section for the St. Cloud Times and other news outlets in Central Minnesota there were more people who were hateful and angry than people speaking about peace and positive solutions,” said Ringsmuth.

Where some would feel helpless or defensive in the midst of opposing—and in some cases polarized—viewpoints, Ringsmuth saw an opportunity for dialogue. So that same spring she started #unitecloud, a blog and online community that aims to facilitate conversations about hot-button topics from different perspectives.

1ST QUARTER 2018

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NATALIE RINGSMUTH: “Our goal is to help people see their belief bubbles.”

“We desire to be in the middle of the conversations,” she said. “Not on the left or the right.”

In today’s world, that’s an increasingly unusual place to be.

CONNECTED BUT ISOLATED

Communities have always had divisions, of course. “Growing up in my community in the 1950s through the 1970s, we had the wealthy and the not so wealthy,” said Tim King, a community leader in Long Prairie who founded La Voz Libre, a bilingual newspaper, and Dreams United/Sueños Unidos, a nonprofit organization that serves the area by promoting opportunities for the Latino and Anglo communities to come together.

“We had a railroad track and talked about west side and east side.”

Today, even though technology and social media connect us in ways our grandparents could not have imagined, we also are more inclined to remain in what technology experts call the filter bubble—a state of intellectual isolation that is caused when computer algorithms track our online preferences and feed us content that conform to our conscious or unconscious biases. While it’s human nature to gravitate toward information and relationships that validate our choices and values—a 2016 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed 376 million Facebook users’ interactions with more than 900 news outlets and found that people tend to seek information that aligns with their views—the downside is that we often are getting only the side of a story that appeals to us.

That’s a challenge when you consider

that an analysis from the Pew Research Center found that being fed a steady diet of information that conforms to our biases makes us more vulnerable to accepting and acting on misinformation, including fake news. That isolation can take a toll— not just on us as individuals but also our communities, especially if we live in small towns, which usually are prized for their personal connections.

“If a community isn’t thriving, we know that part of the reason is because people feel isolated from one another,” says Michelle Kiley, community development program manager at the Initiative Foundation. “A vibrant and authentically connected community occurs more often when individuals invest time offline and out of their individual, private spaces— when they can get face-to-face with their neighbors and find new reasons to love where they live.”

DINNER AND UNDERSTANDING

The value of moving beyond social media to connect face-to-face was one reason that St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis started hosting monthly dinners for seven St. Cloud residents in his home. Kleis provides the meal—it’s often chili, but he changes his menus according to his guests’ dietary restrictions.The only requirement is he and his guests have never met.

“I started this as a way for people to get to know their neighbors,” said Kleis, who also hosts weekly Town Hall meetings.

“We talk about St. Cloud and what we see as the city’s opportunities and challenges.

And we tell our own stories and talk about what the idea of ‘home’ means and where home is for each of us.”

Kleis uses the dinners to encourage participants to get more engaged in the community and says they’ve been an effective way to seed local boards and commissions with motivated volunteers.

But he also believes that the dinners serve another equally important purpose.

“Almost to a person, people say they get a lot of understanding about different perspectives,” he said. “No one has left without a positive impression of their neighbors.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 40

38 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

HOW TO SPOT FAKE NEWS Anyone who uses social media is likely to encounter fake news—articles, images, and videos that are produced to mislead the public for financial or political gain. Want to fight back? Lindsay Matts-Benson, an instructional designer at the University of Minnesota Libraries, offers these tips: SAY NO TO CLICKBAIT. These are revenuegenerating headlines that are so shocking or juicy that you feel compelled to follow them, usually to find there’s no “there” there. “These food facts will make you never want to eat again” is a classic example of clickbait. So is anything that purports to reveal the “true” deep secrets of celebrities or luminaries.

CHECK THE DOMAIN NAME. Odd-looking domain names rarely result in truthful news.

Avoid addresses with unconventional endings: ABCnews.com is real news; ABCnews.co.com is not.

LOOK FOR A BYLINE. A story without an author’s name may be fake news. If a website doesn’t include author profiles, it could be a sign the information isn’t accurate.

GO FOR BLUE CHECK MARKS. On Twitter, these indicate that the information is legitimate.

VERIFY. Several independent organizations research and rate the veracity of the latest news stories, including Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and Politifact.com.

For more tips, check out z.umn.edu/smartnews.

SAY NO TO CLICKBAIT.

CHECK THE DOMAIN NAME.

VERIFY.

LOOK FOR A BYLINE.

GO FOR BLUE CHECK MARKS. Reprinted with permission from the Winter 2018 issue of Minnesota Alumni.

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FILTER BUBBLES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 38

MAYER DAVE KLEIS: ”We tell our own stories and talk about what the idea of ‘home’ means for each of us.”

“ The secret to a healthy community is when people discover that what they have in common is more important than what they don’t.”

Getting beyond sensationalized headlines is also the goal of Dine and Dialogue with Your Muslim Neighbor, an initiative started in 2017 by Hudda Ibrahim, a St. Cloud resident who was born in Somalia and now consults with companies and communities across the region on how to integrate new Americans into the workforce.

“I think it’s my responsibility to educate people about my faith and culture and why Somalis came to Central Minnesota,” she said.

Ibrahim, part of the Initiative Foundation’s first cohort of Initiators Fellows, also contributes food to Circles of Understanding, an event sponsored by the St. Cloud Area Faith Leaders group that aims to promote understanding among people of different religions. Participants spend two hours together, talking and getting to know each other.

Ibrahim thinks these efforts are helping.

“Every time we create a personal connection with our neighbors and coworkers it will lead to a change in the hearts and minds of our community,” she said.

That’s also the motivation behind Long Prairie’s annual Cinco de Mayo festival, which is sponsored by Dreams United/ Sueños Unidos and is a celebration of the town’s diversity. In 2017, the Initiative Foundation awarded the organization an 40 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

Innovation Grant to support the festival.

“This is an example of a community where cultural shifts occurred quickly due to economic pressures locally,” Kiley said.

“I would be remiss to say it hasn’t been without its challenges. But they chose to gather as a community with positive and clear intentions and to create new support networks to troubleshoot complex and deeply rooted issues.”

BONFIRES AND BLOGS

Filters can also be generational. In Eden Valley, the community has had to learn how to communicate across age differences to decide the priorities for a number of community issues, including a building that is both a library and a community center. “You have people who are against the community center and people who are against the library,” said Troy Huschle, who is a member of the town’s city council.

An organization called Eden Valley Citizens For Progress (EVC4P) has created four groups—Community Facilities, Library, Economic Advancement, and Marketing Eden Valley—to come up with fresh ideas to help enhance the Eden Valley community. And Huschle and family host regular backyard barbecues and bonfires.

All are welcome as long as guests agree to

three rules: You can’t talk about politics; you have to have a sense of humor; you must be able to laugh at yourself.

After four years, Huschle says that the conversations started around the bonfire have resulted in one new council member in office, four new volunteers for Eden Valley Citizens for Progress and countless new friends. “A lot of good friendships have been formed,” said Huschle. “And neighbors watch out for everyone and create a pretty safe place for our children.”

Still, sometimes there is a need to put political divides front and center. And for #unitecloud, it turns out that doing this online is more effective than face-to-face conversations.

“Our goal is to help people see their belief bubble and to step out of it,” said Ringsmuth, who notes that her parents and several family members voted for a different candidate in the 2016 presidential election than she did. “There are not many people in our community who will show up at an event that bills itself as a way for Democrats and Republicans to find out what they have in common. At #unitecloud, we want people to read about and respond to these really tough issues from the comfort of their own home.”

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philanthropy

ROBIN AND BRAD RICHARDSON: “Josh was always one of the guys who went to bat for the underdog.”

Bringing a Legacy to Life A donor-advised fund allows a generous spirit to continue giving.

Just ask Josh Richardson’s family.

By Gene Rebeck | Photography by John Linn

Josh Richardson was killed in an auto accident in 2005 at the age of 23. But his generous spirit lives on in and around Elk River, where he grew up. That’s because shortly after his death, his family partnered with the Initiative Foundation to create the Josh Richardson Family Fund to raise money and give to local causes.

Last December, the fund donated $9,000 to turn the lobby space of the Independent School District 728 office building in Elk River into a gathering space featuring a coffee cart. “Students, families, businesses and others will use that space to gather, to collaborate, to partner on ways to help our district and communities continue to flourish,” said Superintendent Dan Bittman, who has championed the project.

The coffee business will be supported by students with special needs, Bittman said. “This program allows them to be successful in our community—through volunteering, through work. We will work on everyday skills such as laundry, dishes, and what it’s like to live on his or her own. This is an opportunity for these students

who are 18 to 21 to learn skills such as customer service, working on inventory, providing correct change.”

The Josh Richardson Family Fund is a donor-advised fund, which works much like a foundation. Through the Initiative Foundation partnership, though, the family doesn’t have to go through the trouble of establishing a separate legal nonprofit organization.

It’s an approach that allows the Richardson family to focus on the types of projects Josh himself would have applauded.

Impactful Donations

“Josh was always one of the guys who went to bat for the underdog—kids who hadn’t had the same opportunities and family life that he had,” said his father, Brad Richardson, president of Christian Builders and Remodelers, a Rogers-based residential construction firm. “He always gravitated towards the arts and creative people.”

A couple of weeks after his son’s funeral, Richardson’s boss and father-in-law, Chuck Christian, came over and said, “We need to create something in his honor.” Soon thereafter, the Josh Richardson CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

42 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

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philanthropy, continued from page 42

“ We handle manageable expenses to allow good things to continue—or to begin.”

Family Fund was launched. Its first fundraising event was a golf tournament. “It has just blossomed from there,” Richardson said.

The Josh Richardson Family Fund typically tries to donate to one project so that “it’s somewhat of an impactful donation,” Richardson said. The fund generally makes grants between $8,000 to $10,000 annually, all to area causes. While Richardson said it’s “difficult to summarize” the types of projects the fund supports, each grant is geared “towards the betterment of kids,” including the arts, camps and learning opportunities.

Case in point: When the Elk River Star Lab Planetarium’s projector stopped working a few years ago, the Josh Richardson Family Fund provided a $5,000 grant to fund a replacement. “That’s where we fit in,” Richardson said. “We handle manageable expenses to allow good things to continue—or to begin.”

By establishing a donor-advised fund, Josh Richardson’s family can remain centered on raising funds and making grants.

Meanwhile, the Initiative Foundation handles the management side.

As Richardson noted, “We can focus on raising funds and not worry about pitfalls along the way.”

And that’s just one advantage of having a donor-advised fund.

Focus on Philanthropy

A donor-advised fund is “an alternative to starting your own private foundation,” said Kristin Ackley, community philanthropy manager for the Initiative Foundation. The Initiative Foundation has been facilitating donor-advised funds for two decades. The Foundation handles “all of the legal and organizational logistics,” she said. “The donors are able to simply make the donations to their fund and then recommend grants out of it. They don’t have to worry about having boards and bylaws and regular meetings. They can focus on the philanthropic side.”

Ackley cites other advantages. “You can maximize your deduction by being able to put larger lump sums in one year than you might give out in that same year,” she said. “So it provides you the opportunity to give a larger contribution at one time and protect the deduction status for that year—and it enables you to make grants over many years. It gives you a lot more flexibility and planning.”

Donor-advised funds also can invest their contributions. “You wouldn’t be able to do that if you were just making charitable contributions directly to the organization,” Ackley said.

Yet another advantage: the opportunity to engage your children in philanthropic habits. Brad Richardson’s wife, Robin, helped set up the Chuck Christian Community Spirit Fund, a donor-advised fund that honors her late father, who passed away in 2013. “Their intent is that his grandchildren will become the fund’s representatives and carry on his legacy of giving back to the community,” Ackley said.

The Initiative Foundation also helps donor-advised funds by 44 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

connecting them with philanthropic opportunities. Last December, Ackley introduced the Richardsons to Bittman, who explained the goals of District 728’s coffee service program. The fact that it would help special-needs kids “clinched the deal for us,” Richardson said.

The Josh Richardson Family Fund has made a two-year commitment to support the coffee-cart project, which will allow the district “to fund almost two-thirds of the total project costs,” Ackley said. The project is expected to be up and running this spring.

The coffee service will provide for a welcoming environment for families, students and visitors “similar to what a Caribou or Starbucks might look like,” Bittman said. Since district funds can’t be used for such a purpose, the coffee service “would not be possible without the support of donations and people like the Richardsons,” he added.

DONOR-ADVISED FUNDS:

A Philanthropic Option A donor-advised fund can provide an easy way for families and others who wish to maintain a philanthropic legacy. The minimum requirement is that the fund “has a plan to get to $20,000 within three years,” said Kristi Ackley, community philanthropy manager for the Initiative Foundation.

Visit ifound.org/philanthropy to learn more or to contact a member of the Initiative Foundation team to learn about ways in which we can help you meet your philanthropic goals.

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SOMETHING IN THE WATER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 34

“It’s been a long time, but I think it was worth it,” he said. “I believe that our hard and sometimes very frustrating work has proven that it can be done.”

committed to its preservation.

For decades, Big Marine Lake stayed clear of invasive species.

Then, in 2009, an infestation of Eurasian water milfoil—another invasive that can choke out native plants—was discovered near the lake’s two major boat landings. In response to this discovery, residents formed a lake association to focus on ridding the lake of the invasive species. A mechanical engineer with a commitment to evidencebased eradication tactics, Blehert was elected board president.

By the end of 2014, despite attempts to treat large and small areas of the milfoil with herbicide, it had spread to 40 acres of the lake and was expanding rapidly to others. Something had to be done.

“The plan changed from a ‘control’ mode to a ‘kill’ mode,” Blehert said. Taking an approach that mimics antibiotic dosing, the board decided to treat the milfoil with three separate, smaller doses of herbicide, rather than just one larger application. They also injected herbicide directly into the milfoil’s root balls.

Both approaches appear to be working. By mid-September 2017, Blehert reported, only 6.2 acres of Eurasian water milfoil were found in Big Marine Lake. It’s not a complete removal, not yet, but Blehert believes the strategy is headed in the right direction.

After nine long years spent trying to figure out how to save Big Marine Lake, Blehert thinks his group is finally turning a corner in the fight to kill the milfoil once and for all. He’s happy to share the stories of his success with others fighting the same battle.

M i n n e s o ta’ s

Northwoods resort owners know how to welcome visitors.

They work hard to make their guests feel at home and provide them with the special comforts that will keep them coming back year after year.

So it was a bit of a hard sell when Jeff Lovgren, Vermilion Lake Association AIS program leader, and his cohorts in invasive species reduction approached resort owners on St. Louis County’s Lake Vermilion and nearby Cass and Itasca counties and asked them to take a more thorough approach to inspecting their visitors’ watercraft.

The area is flush with lakeside resorts, and the nearby lakes were seeing a number of serious infestations. Officers of the 2,400-member strong Vermilion Lake Association believed that uninspected boat launches at private resorts, lodges, marinas and campgrounds were one source of cross-lake contamination. They decided to approach resort owners and see if they would agree to promote aggressive inspections of all watercraft launching from

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their private access points.

“We wanted to work with resorts to figure out how to expand boat inspection activities,” Lovgren said. Some owners were resistant—nervous that longtime guests would feel hassled by an overly aggressive boat inspector and go somewhere else.

To overcome those concerns, Lovgren and his fellow lake association members worked with resort owners to explain the importance of inspections to overall lake health. The group eventually developed the Resort Ambassador Program, a project that brings people with a stake in the region and the overall health of its lakes together to tackle the problem of AIS contamination.

They decided to bring the plan to the Initiative Foundation for potential funding. Their proposal was multi-pronged and included extending boat inspections from public to private accesses; expanding early detection activities at private access points; and working to convince reluctant resort owners and employees that invasive species are a serious threat to lake health. Resorts even receive compensation if their employees lead education or inspection efforts on private property.

When the group was selected for funding, it gave members a new sense of purpose. “We’d all been dabbling in it, each in our own way,” Lovgren said. “This funding motivates us and makes us feel like a real team. We don’t keep any secrets from each other.” At regular Resort Ambassador meetings, Lovgren added, “we share

our successes—and the things that don’t work very well.”

Lovgren believes that sharing strategies and failures with other resort owners and residents is key to making this project as successful as possible. “If we get together regularly and talk about how it’s going in real time, that could make a big difference,” he said. “We know that if we all work together to tackle this problem, we might just be able to solve it.”

Funding for the Initiative Foundation’s aquatic invasive species program was recommended by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council (LSOHC) and approved by the Minnesota Legislature through the Outdoor Heritage Fund, one of four funds established by the 2008 Minnesota Clean Water Land & Legacy constitutional amendment.

For a complete list of innovative aquatic invasive species projects, visit ifound.org/community/aquatic-invasive-species

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THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

GOVERNMENT RESOURCES LEVERAGING PUBLIC FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY BENEFITS

“ Without our VISTA volunteers, we’d be operating at half the speed.

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Jerry Sparby is on a mission to make St. Cloud stronger, one sandwich a time.

Last summer, Yes Network, the community-building nonprofit he founded seven years ago, served up more than 70,000 lunches in low-income communities where kids who depend on free or reducedprice school lunches often face food scarcity at home. A former school principal and seasoned sloppy-joe slinger himself, Sparby said there’s no way he could have fed such a high volume of hungry kids—up to 1,800 at some of the Yes Network’s neighborhood stops—without the eight AmeriCorps VISTA members who helped the nonprofit expand into new neighborhoods and serve a record number of families. “Without our VISTA volunteers, we’d be operating at half the speed,” he said.

“They’ve just helped to make so many things possible.”

The Yes Network is one of 16 nonprofits in Central Minnesota that got a big boost last year thanks to 35 national service members of AmeriCorps VISTA, the anti-poverty program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Since 2002, the Initiative Foundation has served as the region’s VISTA sponsoring organization, recruiting, placing and supervising VISTA members who serve at host sites from the St. Cloud metro to small-town Backus. While some are seasonal recruits, most VISTA members make a year-long commitment to expand the capacity of the nonprofits to which they’re assigned. Along the way, they receive professional development training and support through monthly sessions at the Initiative Foundation. “The VISTA program is a great example of how we use all the resources we have to get the biggest bang for our buck,” said Amanda Whittemore, the Initiative

Foundation’s program manager for VISTA and nonprofit development.

While VISTA is one of the most visible government programs the Initiative Foundation supports, it’s only one of the strategies the Foundation deploys to bring available federal and state dollars into Central Minnesota. For instance, the Initiative Foundation is a certified lender with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and a member of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Community Advantage initiative, two government programs that promote economic development opportunities in underserved communities. The Initiative Foundation has also received significant support for many years from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Rural Development to spearhead community development efforts for income-eligible cities and towns.

Another key partner is the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). Its deep data research helps the Foundation set priorities for the future, providing insight and guidance on major trends that will impact the region, such as the projected decrease in Greater Minnesota’s labor force.

“Our goal at the Initiative Foundation is to bring every available resource to benefit the communities we serve,” Varilek said, adding that the best partnerships in the Foundation’s portfolio prove that everyone benefits when Central Minnesota is stronger. “A good partnership is always a two-way relationship, so when our mission aligns with an organization that’s as committed as we are to building a Greater Minnesota, everyone wins.”

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home made

Sprout Litle Falls, Minn.

By Maria Surma Manka

Arlene Jones and her family own a farm near Brainerd and are passionate about expanding economic opportunities for farmers in the region. In her years partnering with the University of Minnesota Extension Service and the nonprofit Renewing the Countryside, she has helped other growers find opportunities to sell their products throughout Central Minnesota.

At the same time, the Region Five Development Commission was working with local organizations who wished to buy locally sourced food from area growers.

When Jones and her growers and Region Five and its buyers discovered each other, their shared passion and creativity led to big ideas. “We were like a local foods roadshow,” Jones explained. As they spent time together in the community talking about the aggregation and distribution of local food, the groups started working on the idea of a food hub, which connects food producers with institutional buyers—including restaurants, hospitals, and schools—and end consumers.

The happy result of that brainstorming is Sprout, a Little Falls-based nonprofit that promotes health, economic development and self-reliance by facilitating the availability of locally produced food, products and art.

We spoke with Jones, who is now Sprout’s general manager, and facilities utilization director Natalie Keane about what’s budding at this dynamic organization.

50 Initiative Foundation Quarterly ifound.org

•P ower of Three Sprout’s work is focused on three main areas: The Growers & Makers Marketplace, the Food Hub and the Kitchen.

•G atherings Six times a year, about 40 growers and makers gather to sell their products at Sprout’s 7,500 square foot marketplace in Little Falls. “Each market is completely different,” said Keane. “You’ll see different items at each one because we make sure there’s a diversity of products.”

•L everaging Support The Initiative Foundation has partnered with Sprout since its inception by supporting a feasibility study of local foods in the region and then helping to match and leverage funds to launch Sprout. The Foundation has also provided numerous AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers along with USDA funding.

•F resh Direct As a Food Hub, Sprout connects local growers with local buyers. It also rents its licensed processing facilities to support growers who are building their businesses and working with larger buyers.

• They’ve Got Goods More than just veggies and jams, the Marketplace hosts artisan bread makers, chaga (a fungus that grows on birch trees in cold climates) vendors, and even a young jewelry artist who donates half her proceeds to nonprofits. While Sprout encourages new and diverse growers and makers to apply for a booth, the waiting list is growing.

•F ood Science Educating communities on the benefits of eating fresh local food is an important piece of Sprout’s work. “We had a Head Start class (serving children under age 5) come to learn about how the food system works. They learned about our Food Hub, did art work and made granola in our kitchen,” noted Keane.

•C reating Connections Sprout’s work boils down to strengthening the community through art and food.

“Stop in at an event, meet your community, and get a better understanding of the heritage that makes up our area,” said Keane. “We want to be a place of connections.”

•S ell Local Sprout’s five employees have an eye toward growth, from reimagining the Marketplace to house more vendors, to connecting growers with more restaurants and co-ops. “It’s important to keep our network local,” said Jones. “We want to serve our community and not ship out products to large urban areas.”

•K itchen Skills Through its Kitchen, Sprout offers cooking classes and trainings. “Growers need the technical skills to compete in a larger market,” explained Jones. Trainings have included post-harvest handling, packaging, basic business planning and marketing.

•C ommunity Asset Classrooms and kitchens can be rented for meetings, parties and cooking events, and the facility includes a warehouse, storage, a walk-in freezer and coolers for growers’ use. “Storage can be a challenge for growers,” Jones said. “Here they can store empty pallets, for example.”

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where’s IQ?

THINK YOU KNOW? Send your best guess to IQ@ifound.org

by May 15, 2018.

Three winners will be chosen, at random, to receive a $25 credit to apply toward their favorite Initiative Foundationhosted Partner Fund.

HINT: This memorial park’s mural details the battle of Iwo Jima, the battlefield cemetery of Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, and includes a tribute to women in the military.

Congratulations to everyone who correctly recognized the Stella Marais Chapel at Saint John’s University in Collegeville. Brigid Murphy, Gary Bechtold and Susan Lorenz were the lucky 4th Quarter 2017 winners of the “Where’s IQ” contest.

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