Fiscal Year 2010 Themes and Key Points
The past year marked a time of new and continued challenges but also one filled with amazing opportunities for southwest Minnesota. The recession created both an increased demand for SWIF’s program services and pressure on private and public revenue streams. Collaboration across traditional programmatic lines and practical use of process improvement tools helped SWIF focus on the best use of our resources while leveraging those available to the region.
This overview, as well as the recent edition of Looking Forward, Giving Back, provides a snapshot of SWIF’s work during Fiscal Year 2010 (July 1, 2009, through June 30, 2010). The examples show how dedicated leadership and creative partnerships have helped entrepreneurs strengthen their businesses, community leaders meet local needs, our youngest children become school ready, high school students connect to future workforce opportunities and southwest Minnesotans give back to the causes they care about most.
Contact us to receive a complete financial report or with questions about this report.
Accomplishments by Areas of Impact
Programs
Regional Capacity Building
- Hosted second annual business leadership development event, Leading By Example II: Boomers to Rock Stars, attended by 250 regional leaders
- Continued ongoing participation in the work of the Southern Minnesota Regional Competitiveness Project (SMRCP) toward its goal of “Building Critical Mass to Become Globally Competitive”
- SMRCP narrowed its work to “key areas of implementation focus” including:
- Regional Capital Network to include both equity (early to late stage) and debt (start-up capital network for high risk ventures)
- Business Accelerator (building business expertise to move research to commercialization)
- Sustaining and Leveraging Engagement of Key Regional Stakeholders
- Lead sponsor for the 2010 Worthington Bioscience Conference
- Regional sponsor for the 2010 State of Manufacturing survey and because of this sponsorship, two focus groups and an additional 100 surveys were completed in our region
Leadership and Community Development
- Launched the new Nonprofit Leader’s Academy , a program to help our region’s nonprofit leaders build internal capacity and provide skills and tools to make themselves stronger leaders and better long-term community members
Early Childhood Initiative and Thrive Initiative
- Established new Early Childhood Initiative sustainability funds for the Willmar and Ortonville teams
- Willmar Early Childhood Initiative self-published a children’s book and created a successful grant application to mount a literacy capacity effort
- Hosted workshops for early childhood professionals addressing social media networking and how it can be used effectively in this field in three locations throughout the region
Youth Energy Summit (YES!)
- Received the Minnesota Environmental Initiative Award for Environmental Education
- Expanded YES! program to 20 teams, engaging more than 275 students, 175 businesses and organizations and impacting 42,000 community members
- YES! teams achieved impressive outcomes through their energy action projects including 5 percent energy cost-savings in their school, energy efficiency upgrades for a community theater, solar and biomass heating for a winter community greenhouse, solar electric and thermal heating installations, community-wide electronics recycling days and composting and waste-reduction programs
- Developed a new website for promotion and gathering of team resources, www.youthenergysummit.org
Rural Energy Development Initiative (REDI)
- Educated nearly 2,000 people about wind energy development at Rural Energy Development Initiative (REDI) forums
- Delivered a successful breakout session at the 2009 Minnesota Development Conference
- Delivered seminars for attorneys covering key legal issues involved in representing landowners who are participating in wind projects
- Awarded $200,000 in “catalyst/transition” grants to regional partners to utilize their renewable energy capacity, leadership and expertise for outreach and education, strategic planning, feasibility analysis and loan fund capitalization
- REDI regional organizers facilitated in-depth discussions with over 125 groups, cities or individuals interested in a community-based energy project
- Approved 13 REDI loans throughout the state encompassing an estimated 1,088 MW of community wind and estimated total development cost of $2.5 billion
- In collaboration with Windustry, the Minnesota Project, and the Clean Energy Resource Teams, launched www.rediresources.org, an internet-based directory of businesses and organizations that work in the wind development industry in Minnesota
Minnesota River Valley Green Corridor Project
- Administered a $1 million land acquisition and planning grant from the Legislative Citizen Committee on Minnesota’s Resources for the Minnesota River Valley Green Corridor Project
- Facilitated the acquisition of 526 acres of land for public use
Entrepreneurship Initiative and Encore Entrepreneurship
- Provided 4,260 hours of technical assistance in partnership with the Small Business Development Center to 390 entrepreneurs
- Held Entrepreneur Education Classes in 12 communities throughout the region
- Step Up Your Business networking program hosted five networking events in the region and is utilizing social media for peer learning and relationship building
- Encore Entrepreneurship program targeted to existing and aspiring entrepreneurs age 55 and better assisted 76 Encore Entrepreneurs and closed seven loans to Encore entrepreneurs
Financials
Giving
View a complete overview of Fiscal Year 2010 giving, including complete donor and grants listings, in our recent edition of Looking Forward, Giving Back.
SWIF General Endowment, Fundraising
- $137,253 raised for the SWIF General Endowment through the Growing Home Circle
- 268 donors gave 376 gifts totaling $304,981, a significant increase from the previous year
- 120 acres of farmland received from a planned gift, bringing total acres managed in the Farmland Retention Program to 330
- 100 percent giving from the heart of the organization through board and staff campaigns
Community Foundations/Designated Funds
- Helped all fund partners raise more money, acquire more donors and award more grants
- $1,350 special grant match opportunity provided to eligible affiliate community foundations to help off-set reduced endowment earnings
- Two community foundations received endowment challenge grants: Worthington ($25,000 from an individual) and Granite Falls ($25,000 from a bank)
- One affiliate (Litchfield) will soon receive an estate gift estimated at $480,000 for a pool project
- Held annual educational event in two locations where 100 percent of active fund partners attended to hear an investment report, learn new procedures, provide feedback and hear other key messages from SWIF
Grantmaking
Awarded $1.65 million in grants to meet regional and local needs
Loan Programs
Combined Revolving Loan Program and Microenterprise Loan Program FY2010 loan statistics as of June 30, 2010:
- 45 loans closed totaling $2,107,061
- $15,333,747 leveraged including $13,013,677 private and $2,320,070 public
- 14 counties and 27 communities served
- 176 jobs created or retained
Revolving Loan Program
- Closed 18 loans totaling $1,831,500 with an average loan size of $101,750
- Had a low loss rate and knowledgeable staff with more than 25 years of combined experience in gap lending
Microenterprise Loan Program
- Closed 27 loans totaling $275,561, with an average loan size of $10,200
- Received generous support through a federal Small Business Administration grant to help this program grow
Diverse Business Program
- Provided support and leadership to create the Willmar Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Offered four business seminars in Spanish in three communities
Operations
Communications
- Implemented a social media plan
- Launched two blogs including the Believe in Southwest Blog, authored by President/CEO Sherry Ristau, and the Business Blog, authored by SWIF’s economic advancement staff
Governance and Operations
- Appointed three new members to our Board of Directors, including Marcy Costello, Lakefield; Janice Nelson, Montevideo; and Robert Thurston, Olivia
- Supervisors participated in SWIF’s Supervisors Forum to build skills and collegial support and all team and program leads participated in SWIF’s Leadership Forum to build leadership skills
- Completed a benchmarking survey of board and staff to focus process improvement activities and inform strategic planning activities
