Who We've Funded

To identify regional solutions to reduce unsheltered homelessness in the seven-county metro area of the Twin Cities

Expand and embed an innovative partnership model between community members and juvenile justice system leaders to transform Ramsey County justice system practices

Conducting community deliberations to enhance inclusion among Brookings area businesses

Thriving In Place: Surfacing innovative strategies to prevent the negative impacts of gentrification and displacement

Technical assistance to support increased capacity for Bush Prize grant #17-61458 to advance the organization’s charitable mission

To implement a collective impact process that ensures the availability of affordable housing for low-income families in Rapid City, South Dakota

To create a trauma-informed approach to building career pathways for low-income adult learners

To develop long-term, community-based, proactive solutions to climate change in order to reduce vulnerability and reinforce the strengths of people, infrastructure and institutions of Moorhead-Fargo

To develop a Domestic Violence High Risk Team in Minot, North Dakota

Go Local! changing the paradigm from an avoidance of scarcity to the promotion of prosperity in western ND counties

To support Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia’s staff participation in activities to increase knowledge of nonprofit functions and skills in financial management

To continue to administer a Community Innovation Grants program that supports community problem-solving in Minnesota

To pilot a Community Ownership model to preserve affordable housing and reduce displacement in the Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis

To reduce disparities in reproductive health care for African immigrant women in Minnesota with female genital cutting

To develop a community-defined vision and action plan to protect Itasca County’s water resources

Technical Assistance

To collectively develop solutions to solve the Personal Care Assistants crisis

To collaboratively develop a Muslim Chaplaincy program as a means to provide culturally grounded support to youth and families

To contribute additional funds to the Bush Foundation donor advised fund at the North Dakota Community Foundation

To develop a model for Career and Technical Education that is grounded in Lakota culture that provides education for Native students in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

To host African women’s tea ceremonies for African immigrant women to increase understanding of gender-based violence, build a community of support, and begin to generate ideas on preventing gender-based violence

To develop a statewide framework for collective impact focused on supporting Veterans in Minnesota

To continue to administer a Community Innovation Grants program that supports community problem-solving in South Dakota

To continue to administer a Community Innovation Grants program that supports community problem-solving in North Dakota

To unite MHA Nation community segments in Fort Berthold Reservation and overcome isolation

Tribal community conversations to identify the need for and methods of improving the competency of Lay Advocates who represent parties in criminal and civil cases before six tribal courts in North Dakota and Minnesota

To align the stewardship of Pine Ridge tribal lands with community needs and aspirations

Bemidji, MN — To address structural oppression, institutional racism and systemic gaps in support for Indigenous and People of Color in the Bemidji area through the Healing for Justice (Gwekendam) process

Saint Paul, MN — To better understand the needs of sandwich generation caregivers and explore innovative solutions to better serve them

Minot , ND — To identify short-term and long-term collective strategies to address the opioid epidemic and create a regional hub for treatment and family services for people addicted to opioids in the Minot North Dakota area

Minneapolis, MN — To assess the accuracy of current screening indicators as a predictor of successful tenancy and create more equitable, effective and accurate screening tools and an implementation plan

Finland, MN — To advance an interrelated food system that increases access to healthy foods and builds local wealth in Finland, Minnesota

Fargo, ND — To work at the Intersection of Hunger and Health to improve health outcomes for food insecure individuals

Bemidji, MN — To build a regional workforce recruitment approach guided by local industry projections

Bemidji, MN — To coordinate local transportation services for vulnerable people in the Headwaters Region

Sioux Falls, SD — To fund a coordinated social service system of care for low-income individuals called the Sioux Empire Network of Care

St. Paul, MN — To support the development of an LGBTQ+ health curriculum in partnership with Minnesota-based medical training programs to ensure more health professionals emerge from degree programs equipped and ready to serve LGBTQ+ patients

Devils Lake, ND — For a new college-linked Information Technology Apprenticeship Model in North Dakota, a public-private partnership to improve the growing state demand for skilled information technology professionals

St. Paul, MN — To advance healing among the Dakota people harmed by disconnection from their spiritual homeland at Wakan Tipi, and to increase the number of neighbors of color who use St. Paul’s Swede Hollow Park

Duluth, MN — To develop an effective model of preventative strategies to eliminate sexual assault on major campus universities, using the University of Minnesota Twin Cities as a test site

Saint Paul, MN — To further the collaborative development of equitable workforce solutions through an exchange between employers and residents on the East Side of Saint Paul

Technical Assistance to support the unexpected increase in construction cost for Community Innovation grant #17-60986, given for the GROW-IT Center, an innovative response to maximize an unused capital resource for university and community groups

Minneapolis, MN — To identify community-led solutions to decrease use of payday loans in Minnesota

Bismarck, ND — To develop culturally responsive social-emotional learning implementation framework and delivery mechanisms in North Dakota

Sioux Falls, SD — To facilitate the process of expanding community-based mental health support within three rural communities in South Dakota

Minneapolis, MN — To identify community-led strategies to address homelessness in the Minneapolis Native American community

Technical Assistance to continue the support to further develop a multi-tribal power authority and to plan workforce development of a utility-grade wind power installation

To provide services and support to Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia focused on the long-term financial strength and sustainability of the organization

Realizing Well Care: Achieving a sustainable system for community-based chronic disease management and prevention

Technical assistance to support increased capacity for Community Innovation grant #17-63421 to accelerate key project strategies by studying a leading edge model and by receiving structured consultation to implement it

Bismarck, ND — To address critical gaps in North Dakota’s behavioral healthcare system using data, evidence and innovative financing

Belcourt, ND — To promote high quality research relevant to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians that will advance the tribe's problem solving capacity and economic development, and uphold its positive images

Minneapolis, MN — To collaboratively design the K-12 Standards of Inclusion for Somali Parents and Youth to equip K-12 educators with the context necessary to mitigate the challenges of Somali student learning and parent participation in the school system

Minneapolis, MN — To remove barriers that prevent low-income families from accessing the Minnesota K-12 Education Tax Credit

To partner with Community Health Centers and other community stakeholders to improve access to colorectal cancer screening in North Dakota and South Dakota

St. Paul, MN — The METRO Green Line light rail line connects downtown Minneapolis and downtown Saint Paul. When it opened in 2014, it brought many benefits for neighborhoods along the line, as well as new challenges. Despite new construction, barriers to stable and affordable housing in the Frogtown Rondo neighborhoods remain. The Frogtown-Rondo Action Network (FRAN) will bring together residents from these neighborhoods, along with district councils and other advocates, to begin a dialogue about ways to break through barriers to accessible, affordable housing for residents. At the same time, FRAN will train and guide local leaders on ways to engage their fellow residents, share what they’re learning with key community stakeholders and create a housing action plan that can be implemented in 2018.

Bismarck, ND — Affordable housing is one of the most pressing issues in Western North Dakota. The influx of people arriving in Western North Dakota in search of jobs in the oil fields created an unprecedented demand on service providers. Williston, a community at the center of this rapid growth, experienced extraordinary burdens on services. In response, six churches in Williston, together with Community Action Partnership, Job Service ND, Veterans Administration, ND Veterans Department and the Williston Basin Resource Coalition, will collaborate on an effort to better understand and respond to this issue in their community and surrounding rural areas. Together, they will collect data about the homeless population in the area, present findings to community stakeholders, develop a plan to address the issue and test some of their ideas.

Technical Assistance funds to advance Information Technology services and sustain distribution of resources and trainings to community partners

Saint Paul, MN — To make progress on tenant and landlord energy issues through community conversations, communication strategies, collaboration, toolkit/policy implementation and sharing lessons learned

Saint Paul, MN — For a cross-sector community collaboration united together to solve the problems of drugs and alcohol abuse within the Karen community

Minneapolis , MN — To build community collaboration and inspire action on climate change through rural climate dialogues

Bismarck, ND — For Legal Advocates for Health, a cross borders medical-legal partnership embedded in Family Health Care Center to improve the social determinants of health for New Americans and other vulnerable populations

Technical Assistance to help transition the organization’s Finance, Human Resources and Information Technology services

Saint Paul, MN — To support the realization of a Rondo Land Bridge to reconnect communities proximate to I-94 in the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul

Backus, MN — Energy poverty, or a lack of access to modern energy services, affects one out of eight families in the United States. Rates in some communities like Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (Leech Lake) are even higher. In communities where households are on a fixed income, even a modest increase in the cost of heating or cooling can force families to make difficult choices about their resources. While energy assistance is available, funds are limited. Rural Renewable Energy Alliance will collaborate with Leech Lake partners to build a local, sustainable and shared alternative energy infrastructure. This partnership engages energy insecure households through the Tribal Government Community Action Agency, sustains an education and workforce pipeline with Leech Lake Tribal College and consult local utilities agency expertise. Developing and demonstrating this model has the potential to be transformative at the regional and national scale.

Minneapolis, MN — To engage local residents, primarily new American communities, in the transportation design planning process for the crossings of I-94 between Seward and the West Bank

Bismarck, ND — To increase access to adequate health care for rural school children in North Dakota by piloting school-based telehealth technology

Tuttle, ND — To create a framework in which local farmers and ranchers are able to compete in the food market, increase the exports of local foods, create economic opportunities and address the fresh food needs of the community in Tuttle, ND

Minneapolis, MN — The BrandLab would like to see the Twin Cities develop the most inclusive and diverse marketing industry in the nation. There is still a long way to go to realize that vision, but the BrandLab is committed to this cause through their Fearless Leaders work. This highly collaborative initiative, guided by a diverse group of professionals from Twin Cities marketing and creative firms, will focus on developing and facilitating workshops for local firms about diversity and inclusion. BrandLab’s biennial “State of the Industry” report is an important tool to measure and share the progress of this work.

Sioux Falls, SD — To build sustainable educational efforts to improve services for sexual assault victims with disabilities, in partnership with the South Dakota Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities and Community Service for the Deaf

Porcupine, SD — The creation of a collaborative working group approach to achieve strategic goals and outcomes within the Oyate Omniciye Regional Plan

Owatonna, MN — To build connections between community members and increase the community's capacity for engagement across race, class and religion in Steele County

Vermillion, SD — To lead a statewide effort to increase the number of residents who participate in Advanced Care Planning in order to ensure that families and health care providers know and respect the wishes and goals of individuals at the end-of-life

Technical assistance to build a fund development plan in order to sustain the impact of its 2015 Community Innovation grant activities