2025-2026
Fiscal Year Highlights
Following are a handful of the highlights from our 40th fiscal year, July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026. Community-based partners, funders, board members, and inspiring individuals across our region generate the ideas, lay the plans, seek the funding, do the work, and channel resources into results.
Organization Overall
- Marked 40 years as an organization—four decades of listening, building relationships, learning and growing to serve the people and communities of northeast Minnesota counties and neighboring Native nations.
- Launched Thriving Rural Communities, a new, research-informed effort to catalyze our region to work more closely together around seven action areas essential to growth and prosperity, including housing and next-generation leadership development.
- Welcomed Child Care Aware of Minnesota – Northeast program (Region 3) into our organization, adding five new staff members focused on supporting the professional development and growth of early care and education providers and programs.
- Reached the five-year mark of Maada’ookiing, launched in 2021 to increase resources for Native American-led, community-based work. To date, 144 grants totaling over $490,000 have supported language revitalization, traditional craftwork, cultural practices, food sovereignty, and more.
- Initiated a three-year Housing Technical Assistance program to advance housing development in rural communities and tribal nations. So far, 13 communities in 6 counties have received expert planning support.
- Piloted Nonprofit Support Resources, which aims to strengthen the region’s nonprofit sector with tailored consulting services, leadership development, and training from Propel Nonprofits and Brico Works, funded by Northland.
Grantmaking Summary
Details of all the individual grants awarded last fiscal year can be found on the Recent Grants page of our website.
Total: $3,558,988 from 189 Grants
Quarterly, Maada’ookiing, and Youth In Philanthropy
Grants, by priority area, made to 501(c)(3) nonprofits and governmental entities (Quarterly), Native American individuals or groups (Maada’ookiing), and by our Youth In Philanthropy board for children- and youth-led projects.
| Basic Needs | $1,660,100 | 67 | 51.7% |
| Belonging (includes Indigenous Education & Youth Services grants) | $526,250 | 20 | 16.4% |
| Domestic Violence & Abuse Prevention/Intervention | $300,000 | 7 | 9.4% |
| Early Care & Education | $105,500 | 4 | 3.3% |
| Out-Of-School Time Services | $377,000 | 12 | 11.8% |
| Other Critical Needs | $40,000 | 2 | 1.2% |
| Maada’ookiing | $170,200 | 35 | 5.3% |
| Youth In Philanthropy | $29,097 | 29 | 0.9% |
| TOTAL | $3,208,147 | 176 | 100.0% |
Special Grants to Businesses
Unique, time-limited funding opportunities awarded in partnership with funding partners, including the State of Minnesota, for small businesses.
| Child Care Start-up, Sustainability & Expansion | $225,000 | 7 | 64.1% |
| State of Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization Grants | $80,841 | 2 | 23.1% |
| SBDC IRRR Accelerate Entrepreneur Grants | $45,000 | 4 | 12.8% |
| TOTAL | $350,841 | 13 | 100.0% |
Small Business Support
- Closed 10 small business loans totaling $1.99 million, providing financing for local business expansions and ownership transitions. Our loans helped borrowers leverage $3.2 million in other financing.
- Hosted the Northland Small Business Development Center (SBDC) which provided 832 small business clients with expert technical assistance, supporting clients to start 82 new businesses, raise $30 million in capital, and add or save 3,000 jobs in our region.
- Continued the low-interest construction and rehabilitation loan program, lending $150,000 last fiscal year. In total, $1.96 million in loans have supported 12 projects that grow jobs, improve energy efficiency, increase property values, and contribute to economic vitality.
- Administered Main Street Economic Revitalization Program grants, as legislated by the State of Minnesota, which has funded $2.8 million in commercial corridor projects in rural communities in our region and helped leverage $9.3 million in other funding.
Child Care Quality and Access
- Invested $255,000 in grant funding, through the State of Minnesota, in seven licensed child care businesses helping them to create or keep 362 child care slots in northeast Minnesota.
- Helped child care providers build the quality of their programs and enhance their knowledge with individual coaching (116 programs), quality improvement guidance (126 programs), technical/small business consulting (121 programs), and professional development training (815 providers).
- Continued work with 13 regional partners on the Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) Caregiver Program who hosted more than 150 Play & Learns to offer learning materials, information, and peer connection to hundreds of ’informal’ caregivers—grandparents, neighbors, family friends.
Belonging Work
- Supported learning opportunities for Native American youth with $130,000 in targeted grants, in response to input from Indian Education professionals and other Indigenous community leaders.
- Closed a total of $1.95 million through 9 loans to entrepreneurs who traditionally would have a hard time accessing financing.
- Supported 35 projects with $170,200 in Maada’ookiing grants—a record annual high for funds supporting creative community, culture, and sovereignty-related grassroots work led by Native American individuals.
- Provided opportunities for rural young people to experience philanthropy and community service through our Youth In Philanthropy Program, with the youth-led board awarding $29,097 in grants to 29 projects developed by young people across the region.
- Awarded 9 grants totaling $321,000 within our Belonging priority to organizations led by and/or primarily serving historically overlooked and underserved communities.
- Engaged 9,500 people of all ages in intergenerational programming such as reading and literacy, grandfriend pen pals, community gardens, arts and cultural activities, and tutoring across 15 rural AGE to age communities in the region.