Posted on July 6, 2008

Blandin Foundation Awards $1.4 Million in Grants

The Blandin Foundation in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, has announced $1.4 million in new grants.

Ten percent of the total was allocated to nonprofits in Grand Rapids and Itasca County, including a $46,000 grant to Itasca Youth for Christ for its Ground Floor Youth Center. The foundation also awarded a total of $421,000 in rural voice grants, which support new and existing avenues to express the rural perspective in local and statewide policy debates. To that end, MinnPost.com received $225,000 to support its rural news infrastructure, while the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation received $196,000 for its Minnesota Compass project.

In addition, the foundation awarded $225, 000 through its educational attainment program to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Foundation for the latter's northern Minnesota college readiness partnership pilot project, and $100, 000 to the Naytahwaush Community Foundation to support the planning and start-up of the Naytahwaush Early Learning Center. And through its economic opportunity program, the foundation awarded $250,000 to BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota for its work in northern and greater Minnesota.

"Bio-based industry will have a profound impact on the global economy in coming decades in areas such as nanotechnology, health care, energy, and many other applications," said Wade Fauth, grants director for the foundation. "Rural Minnesota is the steward of a vast storehouse of biological resources, as well as knowledge, that can help drive product and enterprise creation."