Initiative Foundation

“The loan committee carries out the policies approved by the board of trustees. The committee approves applications up to certain dollar amounts for various loans. It also reviews monthly and quarterly status reports on loans, including review of delinquent loans, provides input on charge-offs and other adverse action which may be necessary, and participates in evaluation activities of the fund. The loan committee consists of at least five and generally no more than eleven members, with approximately half of the members serving on the board of trustees. The board of trustees appoints members annually. The executive loan sub-committee approves or denies any loan applications that were tabled for more information at a prior loan committee meeting. The sub-committee consists of three loan committee members, including the chair, vice-chair, and one other member appointed by the chair unless other arrangement were approved by the loan committee. Business finance committee - this committee is composed of up to eleven individuals (approx. 1/2 from the board). It meets as needed to oversee the business financing portfolio and to review and approve business loan and investment applications over $50,000.”

“Upon receipt, and prior to filing, form 990 is reviewed with the investment and audit committee and by the president and the cfo/treasurer. A copy of form 990 is provided to board members for their review.”

“Members of the board or committees will not participate in discussing or voting upon any proposal or business agreement in which they have a direct or indirect personal or financial interest without informing the board or committe of a potential conflict as soon as it becomes apparent. Staff will not promote proposals or initiate business agreements that would financially benefit them or members of their family without informing the president. The board will be notified if the president has a potential conflict. If the conflict is determined to exist, options to be employed, at the discretion of the chair and/or president would include, but not limited to: 1) the board member, committee member or staff member would not be permitted input on the decision, 2) the member in question may respond to specific inquiries regarding the decision, but not participate in making the decision, 3) the member in question shall leave the room while the item is under discussion. Board/committee/staff members complete a conflict of interest disclosure form at the beginning of each calendar year or upon appointment.”

“Compensation of organization's president: the governance committee of the board is charged with coordinating the president's annual review and for recommending a compensation package to the full board of trustees. The process includes review of a written report prepared by the president on the accomplishments and achievements of the agreed upon annual goals; conducting confidential informal interviews with all trustees, selected staff and key constituents whom the committee identifies; and gathering general observations from the full board of trustees on an ongoing basis. The governance committee reviews executive compensation data from the other mifs, mcf and the national cof and prepares a confidential report for the board summarizing the performance and its recommendations. The board reviews and takes action on the report and after which time the board chair documents changes in compensation and benefits and submits to appropriate staff. This review was last performed in 2014. Compensation of organization's officers: positions are grouped in like classifications. Salary ranges are established based on market, mif and mcn surveys. Compensation is determined by a number of factors including level of responsibility, education, prior experience, longevity, number of direct reports, and risk associated with the type of work performed. The president conducts annual performance reviews and sets compensation levels. This review was last performed in 2014.”

“The organization's financial statements are made available within the annual report or upon request. The organization's governing documents and conflict of interest policy are not available to the public.”

“The foundation successfully secured a $4,040,000 grant from lessard-sams outdoor heritage council through the minnesota department of natural resources. The funding will be used to develop a series of pilot projects to enhance acquatic habitat by preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species and will be administered over the next three years.”

“Early childhood initiative highlights: fifteen early childhood coalitions are currently active within the foundation's fourteen county region. A large number of communities continue to face significant economic challenges with higher than average numbers of children and families living in poverty in benton, cass, crow wing, kanabec, mille lacs, pine, todd and wadena counties. Each team has participated in coalition-building, leadership, and strategic planning trainings and has developed an action plan to increase the quality of early care and education in their respective areas. Each has a highly committed team made up of parents, business leaders, educators, elected officials and health care providers. Primary activities focus on early childhood literacy, school readiness, and coordination with the new "parent aware" system of ranking child care providers. This year the coalitions were given exposure to first children's finance to help find solutions to community child care challenges and were also provided an introduction to early childhood dental programming. Staff participated in the statewide pre k-3 grade literacy design team to recommend best practices to early childhood educators. The minnesota thrive initiative, which focuses on early childhood mental health issues, is working on how to improve access to early intervention services for immigrant and refugee populations. Representatives from a variety of early intervention, education, and health organizations and programs, along with local cultural leaders and initiative foundation staff, continue their work serving this population. Our new early childhood dental network (ecdn) program for communities in the initiative foundation's region was launched with initial support from the otto bremer foundation. This program has grown substantially in 2014, with new support secured from delta dental, centracare, and medica foundations, and renewed funding from the otto bremer foundation. This work involves increasing access to timely, appropriate and affordable dental care with a focus on children ages birth to five, as well as increasing oral health awareness and education to children, parents and families to help them understand the importance of good oral health to one's overall health and well-being. As part of the foundation's investment in early childhood education, a grant from blue cross blue shield foundation was used to assess, revitalize and expand the inside out connections (ioc) program. The ioc program provides support to children with incarcerated parents. The program will be integrated with the foundation's early childhood and early childhood dental network programs. Thriving communities initiative (tci) highlights: in 2014, thriving communities initiative (tci) leadership training and programming was delivered in foley (benton county), rush city (chisago county), and little falls (morrison county). Over 25 communities are currently receiving technical assistance, resource referral and grants to advance community and economic development, workforce development, financing for community facilities, trails development, local foods and quality of life priorities. Our new emerging leaders program received $200,000 from the bush foundation in 2014 to provide leadership training and community service opportunities for emerging leaders (ages 18-35). The program is currently under development, with a robust network of advisors helping identify key program modules and themes, potential program participants, and strategies to enhance engagement by this demographic that is historically under served. The long-term goal is to encourage agility (ability to communicate and work across) generations and cultures. Thriving organizations partnership (top) highlights: with support from the otto bremer foundation, blandin foundation and us department of agriculture, we served 256 individuals representing 124 nonprofit organizations through four thriving organizations partnership pro”

“Economic development highlights: the foundation funded 31 loans totaling $2,524,596 from its revolving loan fund in 2014, which leveraged over $19 million in private financing and equity investment. The financing projects resulted in the creation of 98 jobs and retention of 184 jobs, the majority of which met or exceeded the targeted living wage of $18 per hour including benefits. Technical assistance was provided to 12 businesses through a combination of external consulting programs or scholarships for training, resulting in improved skills or tools to operate their business. Focused outreach with community banks, chambers of commerce and volunteer business groups through our thriving communities work remains a priority in order to increase loan deal flow in all communities. We also focused on partnerships and capacity building for local economic development organizations. Support includes strategic planning, linking to other funders and job creation opportunities, challenge grants to spur membership growth, and development of technology tools (a web portal) and/or programs to develop, attract and retain skilled workers.”

“Marketing and communications highlights: the foundation published four editions of iq magazine during 2014, up from three the prior two years. Advertising sales have stabilized and are showing an upward trend with the renewed emphasis on publishing consistency. Circulation is at 13,741 (targeted for 15,000). Strategies are being put into place to drive up our distribution numbers and online readership. Each edition of iq magazine averages 60 pages and features quality journalistic pieces that illuminate trends and happenings in our 14-county region while enlightening readers about the opportunities and solutions that are achieved to improve and enhance community and economic development, organizational development and the power and reach of philanthropy in central minnesota. Monthly traffic to the ifound.org website has averaged 2,411 visitors against a 2014 goal of 2,456. Visitors viewed an average of three pages and spent 2:58 on the site. Other web work in 2014 included ifoundtraining.org, an instructional learning site for nonprofits; ecommerce work for donations, event registrations and ifoundtraining.org participation; and work on multi-page site for the may 1, 2015, initiative awards event. Social media increased dramatically during 2014, marked by a 39% increase in followers on facebook and a 22% increase on twitter. Our active email address list is 11,182, well ahead of the 2014 goal of 9,430. The uptick can be attributed to the regular monthly distribution of four newsletters and the distribution of 18 news releases. News releases in 2014 resulted in 687 stories/mentions, which translates to 3.5 million impressions. Planning began for the initiative foundation's may 1, 2015, initiative awards event, which drives awareness of our initiatives while spotlighting economic, community and philanthropic heroes of the region. The event theme is "powering possible." we expect as many as 400 people to attend the event at grand view lodge in nisswa.”

“Fund development highlights: the foundation saw outstanding results in fundraising efforts in 2014 through the addition of several new turn key funds, raising nearly $1,000,000 in a combination of endowed and non-endowed funds. In addition, we raised $280,194 for general endowment. During the year we received support from 12 counties and 86 of our 163 cities. Program grant funding of $5,123,109 was secured in 2014, of which includes a $4 million grant for the aquatic invasive species initiative of the healthy lakes and rivers program received in the latter part of 2014.”