Tim Penny, Guest Column

At the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s annual meeting two weeks ago, I had a chance to tell about 180 regional partners about how our foundation invested in 151 emerging workforce and business partnerships during the past year. Each of these partnerships is creating an “economic advantage” for this region, an especially important factor during these unstable economic times.

The theme of our annual luncheon — “Partnering for Advantage” — underscored the value SMIF places on leveraging our resources through partnerships. We continue to strategically focus our resources —this past year it was a little more than $4.7 million — on initiatives that help create economic and community vitality.

The remarkable thing about our investments (grants, loans, technical assistance) is that they were, and are, all done in partnership with others.

Some of our partnerships this past year generated media buzz — like when we gave away 5,000 books to local organizations, thanks to partner Capstone Publishing. Or when we established the Tornado Recovery Fund for 102 farmers and rural businesses, thanks to partner AgStar and other contributors. These partnerships helped create an “economic advantage” for the region.

Other partners — like loan recipients Easy Energy Systems, Welcome and Auscon Inc., Austin — are generating a buzz in their local communities by adding more jobs. Once again — helping to create an ‘economic advantage’ for their communities.

At our luncheon, we also celebrated another partner — Riverland Community College — as we awarded them the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation’s 2010 Partner of the Year Award. Over the years, Riverland Community College has been an outstanding partner in addressing relevant workforce and business issues. Their creativity and “out-of-the-box” thinking has engaged SMIF and others in supporting projects that have helped create an ‘economic advantage’ within the region.

Our current partnership in organizing and facilitating Community Growth Initiatives on the topic of immigrant workers in three communities — Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna — is the most recent in a long list of partnerships between SMIF and Riverland Community College. They have also received 16 grants from SMIF, effectively using those dollars to create meaningful programs in the areas of early childhood, elder workers (Elders GO, or Golden Opportunities), and advancement of immigrant workers (Viracon).

Despite the current political rhetoric, we know there are no easy, quick-fix solutions to the current economic conditions. What we do know is that there are limited resources — whether local, state or national. I believe it’s more important than ever that we leverage our scarce resources by partnering with organizations and leaders who are pursuing programs or projects that are achieving results. Only in this way will we achieve an “economic advantage” that is meaningful and sustainable.

I also invite you to read more stories of success in our 2010 annual report available online — www.smifoundation.org (click on About Us — News & Reports).

As always, I welcome your comments and questions. You can reach me by phone 507-455-3215 or e-mail timp@smifoundation.org.

Tim Penny is the president and CEO of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, which provides grants, loans, technical expertise and partnerships for the emerging workforce and new businesses, especially in the areas of bio-medical, bio-agriculture and alternative energy.