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Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation recently approved 25 grants totaling $200,000 to support small towns of 10,000 or less in SMIF’s 20-county region. Each grant seeks to impact the culture, education, economy and/or social aspects of a town by investing in collaborative initiatives that help make the community more welcoming.

The Small Town Grant program was launched in 2017 to support smaller communities that can benefit from additional financial resources to help them grow and address challenges. The recent approval of 25 grants has pushed the total of Small Town Grants awarded to 138 projects since the program began.

Through this program, SMIF has surpassed a milestone this year, investing more than $1 million for a total of $1,172,490 in the small towns of our region.

Included this year in the grants was a $4,954 grant to the city of Emmons to create a more welcoming environment at the city park by building a shade structure with picnic tables and replacing or painting old equipment.

The Small Town Grant program is supported, in part, by a generous 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.

“We knew when we started this program that it could have a huge impact on the smallest communities in our region,” said Tim Penny, president and CEO of SMIF. “Now, 138 projects later, we have invested more than $1 million into southern Minnesota through this grant. This is an investment that will last for generations. 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.

For more information about the Small Town Grant Program, visit smifoundation.org/smalltowngrant or contact Sarah Scheffert, communications and community vitality specialist, at 507-214-7015 or sarahs@smifoundation.org.