Southwest Initiative Foundation is an independent community foundation supported by individuals, families, businesses, and organizations who want to strengthen southwest Minnesota.

Simply put, we do good work to help great people succeed.

What is a community foundation?

A community foundation is a nonprofit, publicly supported charity building permanent funds to support a specific geographic area.

Southwest Initiative Foundation is one of 700+ across the U.S. Our “community” is the 18 counties of southwest Minnesota. We manage 26 local community foundations, known as affiliates, and 101 donor-advised, school, and other funds. We also lead programs that impact specific areas of need, like early childhood and community development.

What sets us apart from most community foundations is that we do business lending. We work with entrepreneurs and other lenders to get local businesses going and growing.