Posted on October 27, 2012

Northwest Area Foundation Awards $3 Million in Third-Quarter Grants

The Northwest Area Foundation in St. Paul has announced thirty-eight grants totaling $3 million to nonprofits working to help low-income individuals build wealth and alleviate poverty across an eight-state region.

Grants were awarded to help create assets and wealth in underserved communities; support Hmong, Latino, and Native American entrepreneurs in both rural and urban areas; and bolster advocacy for racial equity. Grant recipients include the Local Initiatives Support Corporation in Duluth, Minnesota, which was awarded $100,000 for an employment model designed to increase low-income workers' wages and small business owners' net assets; Adelante Mujeres, which will receive $225,000 over two years for two pilot projects designed to expand microenterprise development among rural Latinos in northwest Oregon; and the Hmong American Farmer's Association of Minneapolis, which will receive $75,000 over two years to develop a produce business, offer bilingual farm training, and launch a vegetable-freezing operation.

Other grant recipients include White Earth Land Recovery Project of Callaway, Minnesota, which will receive $150,000 over two years to develop a model for renewable energy, energy strategies, and green jobs; and the Coalition of Communities of Color of Portland, Oregon, which was awarded a two-year grant of $150,000 to expand its racial equity advocacy work to the state level.

"Small business ownership plays an important part in creating jobs and wealth needed to rise above poverty. It takes coordinated strategies to be successful," said NWAF president and CEO Kevin Walker. "Our grants are funding aspects of asset-building that we believe will work together to create opportunities to move toward prosperity."

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the Northwest Area Foundation Web site.