A Message from the President/CEO and New Board Chair
One word keeps coming to mind as we think about 2011: outstanding. The people of southwest Minnesota, the accomplishments of Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) and the potential of our region’s future are all outstanding—thanks to you.
Throughout Fiscal Year 2011 (July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011), we celebrated highlights from our 5-year history and new programmatic milestones that were reached. We had a record number of General Endowment donors and exceeded our fundraising goals by receiving more than $410,000 in gifts, awarded nearly $830,000 in grants to support many great causes and closed 40 loans to support businesses. As you’ll see below, we had a very full year!
And, our new five-year strategic plan is launching us right into continued work to meet the changing needs of our region and organization. We spent time planning and implementing improvements that will help us better serve our donors, leaders, youth and entrepreneurs. We are already seeing the impact as we launch a new community foundation, new Early Childhood Initiative coalitions, new YES! teams, and support new businesses.
We also started working on improving our communications efforts. All of the changes SWIF is going through—some of which you’ll see, and others you might not notice—will strengthen our regional voice and help connect people with the resources and relationships they need to make their southwest Minnesota dream become a reality.
