Initiators Fellowship searching for Greater Minnesota social entrepreneurs
Explore this 2-year opportunity to move your business with a social benefit to the next level
HUTCHINSON, MINN.—The Initiators Fellowship is recruiting for its 2026-2027 cohort. The two-year program provides a suite of supports for emerging entrepreneurs in Greater Minnesota whose business idea includes a socially beneficial outcome. The Initiators Fellowship application is open May 1 to June 16.
The Initiators Fellowship engages the next generation of rural leaders in using their entrepreneurial spirit to create change while building their business and personal leadership capacity. The program provides wrap-around training, mentoring, and a stipend to support fellows and their social enterprise ideas to improve Greater Minnesota communities.
“If you are committed to revitalizing Greater Minnesota with a business whose mission goes deep to address social or environmental issues, then this is an opportunity to accelerate your growth and the success of your venture,” said Christine Metzo, Initiators Fellowship program manager.
Launched by the Initiative Foundation and its Minnesota Initiative Foundation partners, the fellowship is open to 53 counties and six Native nations served by the Initiative Foundation, Northwest Minnesota Foundation, Southwest Initiative Foundation and West Central Initiative.
Current and aspiring social entrepreneurs who reside and operate in Southwest Initiative Foundation’s region are invited to apply. This includes the counties of Big Stone, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, Swift and Yellow Medicine, as well as the Upper Sioux Community and Lower Sioux Indian Community.
Kris Shelstad is a 2022-2023 fellow from southwest Minnesota who found success and deepened community connections through her venture, Madison Mercantile—a multi-use space where people from her hometown of 1,500 residents can come together.
“The basic mission is to provide an accessible, equitable and inclusive space for people to become entrepreneurs, meet new friends and build community,” Shelstad said. “The biggest resource [of the Fellowship] is the connections you make. That’s not something that ends when the Fellowship ends. That connectivity, that camaraderie, that emotional support…will continue far into the future.”
About Southwest Initiative Foundation
Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) is a nonprofit community foundation connecting people, investing in ideas and building communities to create a southwest Minnesota where all people thrive. Since its founding in 1986, SWIF has distributed more than $120 million through its grantmaking and business finance programs.