I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
June 16, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
In July, the Northwest Minnesota Initiative Fund will celebrate the 10th anniversary of opening its doors. Although the organization is not as well known as other private, philanthropic foundations, 10-year Executive Director Ruth Edevold said NWMIF has contributed millions of dollars to northwest Minnesota.
NWMIF operates very similar to the way a community fund does, Edevold said. It makes use of private money to address regional economic needs.
"If you talk to someone who is from a community that has a community fund, they recognize what you're talking about," she said. "The problem is there are no community funds."
NWMIF is not a government agency, she said. And it does not receive or distribute money from government entities.
"It has taken a while for this area to understand there are private foundations willing to put money toward community or public needs," she said.
The fund was set up by the McKnight Foundation in 1986. Edevold said that in the early 1980s, Minnesota was talking a lot about the two different economies and the differences between rural and metro. For instance, the state's agricultural areas were suffering and mines were closing around the state, she said. "These were things that weren't seen in the metro area."
So, the McKnight Foundation, the largest, private, family foundation in Minnesota and among the top 20 in the nation, founded six regional initiative funds to address the needs of rural Minnesota. NWMIF was established to serve the 12-county area of Kittson, Roseau, Lake of the Woods, Marshall, Beltrami, Polk, Pennington, Red Lake, Clearwater, Norman, Mahnomen and Hubbard.
According to Edevold, in its 10-year history, NWMIF has extended 107 business loans totaling nearly $5.6 million dollars, given 570 grants to regional non-profit organizations and communities to the tune of $5.7 million, and contributed about $900,000 worth of support for training and education. The business loans created more than 1,200 jobs, she added.
Edevold said the six regional foundations were set up so they would eventually be self-sufficient. And NWMIF is quite near that goal because it has more than a$10 million endowment fund. It is projected that by the year 2001 the endowment fund should be more than $16 million. This allows the organization to contribute more than $2 million a year to northwest Minnesota.
The NWMIF board of directors is comprised of 10 northwest Minnesota residents who do not represent any set region, Edevold said. The main qualifications for directors is expertise in some area that impacts the region.
Currently, the board has a farmer, a banker, an educator, a private business owner and a health care representative, among others, Edevold said. "We have a vast array of interests represented."
The McKnight Foundation was founded in 1953 by William and Maude McKnight and assumed its present structure in 1974, when a professional staff was hired. Since that time, its assets have grown from $8 million to more than $1 billion, and grants have increased from about $740,000 to about $54 million annually.
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