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Initiative Foundation outlines loans, grants and energy and childcare programs benefiting Wright County
Summary
Carl Dubanks told commissioners the Initiative Foundation has awarded grants and loans in Wright County since 1986, highlighted a new renewable-energy grant round and continued work on childcare access and a potential Buffalo-area community foundation.
The Initiative Foundation on Tuesday told the Wright County Board of Commissioners it has delivered millions in investments to local projects since 1986 and is launching new grant support for energy resilience and continued work on childcare and community foundations.
Carl Dubanks, regional representative for the Initiative Foundation, said the organization has provided 555 grants totaling about $4.7 million in Wright County since 1986 and partnered on 81 loans that leveraged about $46 million in outside capital. "We really work hard to serve those communities well," Dubanks said, describing the foundation as a convener that helps local stakeholders identify their own solutions.
Dubanks outlined recent activity: in the last two years the foundation and hosted charitable funds awarded 48 grants in Wright County totaling about $215,000 and used its revolving loan fund to deploy roughly $1.3 million in lending as gap financing for seven projects that leveraged about $14.5 million in additional capital.
The foundation is opening a grant round supporting renewable-energy and community-resilience work, aimed at pre-engineering, feasibility studies and labor costs related to energy-efficiency, storage or renewable upgrades; applications were described as open through early August. Dubanks said the round is financed in part through a partnership with the McKnight Foundation.
He also described ongoing efforts to support affordable childcare programs, a disaster-preparedness workshop series for small rural administrators and exploratory work to launch a Buffalo Area Community Foundation to bring local philanthropic capacity to the area.
Why it matters: the foundation's gap-financing model aims to unlock projects that local banks will not fully fund alone, leveraging private and philanthropic capital into the county. Commissioners thanked the foundation for support toward workforce development and joint regional projects.
What the board did: commissioners heard the presentation and asked questions; no funding or formal action by the board was taken at the meeting.
Ending: Dubanks asked local officials to keep communicating community needs to the foundation as it pursues additional federal, state and philanthropic funds.
