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Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation recently approved 23 grants totaling $206,000 to support small towns of 10,000 or less in SMIF’s 20-county region.

The Small Town Grant program was launched in 2017 to support smaller communities which can benefit from additional financial resources to help them grow and address challenges. The recent approval of 23 grants has pushed the total of Small Town Grants awarded beyond 100 for a total of 113 projects since the program began. Through this program, SMIF has invested a total of $972,490 in the small towns of the region.

The Small Town Grant program is supported, in part, by a donation in memory of Paul O. Johnson who wanted southern Minnesota’s smallest communities to thrive. Paul’s legacy is being continued by his family, Amy De Jong, Paula Rehder and Scott Johnson.

One 2023 Small Town Grand award recipient was Alden-Conger Public Schools, who received $10,000 to upgrade their existing playground to be more inclusive.

“This grant gives our smallest towns the financial support they need to do things that can make a huge difference for the people living there,” said Tim Penny, president and CEO of SMIF. “We are once again grateful to Paul Johnson’s family for continuing his legacy and giving SMIF an opportunity to leverage additional funding for small town support. Without them, we would not have been able to reach this milestone so soon.”

“We are pleased and honored to be able to continue our father’s legacy by supporting small towns in the region of Minnesota where we were raised,” said Paula Rehder.

“We are seeing the potential of his gift realized through the amazing projects that these small communities have proposed that will make a difference in the part of the country that was near and dear to our father’s heart,” said Amy De Jong.

In addition to the above grant awards, SMIF was also able to award an additional $24,000 to organizations that applied, but which projects aligned more directly with different grant funding in SMIF’s portfolio.

For more information about the Small Town Grant Program, contact Andi Arnold at andia@smifoundation.org or 507-214-7029.