Women’s Foundation Awards $1.1 Million for Wealth-Building Initiatives

Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) announced $1.1 million in community investments through its We Thrive fund to support wealth-building through education and entrepreneurship.

In addition to renewing two grants in higher education, WFM awarded four $200,000 grants to support women entering high-wage, high-demand fields, and roles by obtaining certificates, associate’s, and bachelor’s degrees in programs such as welding, information technology, auto mechanics, engineering, robotics, architecture, and other STEM-related fields. WFM grantees demonstrate their ability to apply an intersectional lens to their programming, considering how the intersection of gender, race, class and place affects their students.

A program in WFM’s impact area of economic justice, We Thrive focuses on wealth-building to seed, nurture, and champion asset-building solutions for economic justice. Multi-year grants to general operations help organizations plan and build stability around community-sustaining programs.

Renewal Grants:

Friends of Saint Paul College | $150,000 (St. Paul) – To sustain the iLead program for women, BIPOC women, and gender-expansive students. Participants design the program and inform the supports that are offered in a cohort model of educational equity and success. The program will offer a holistic approach that encompasses a wide range of personalized support services, such as leadership development, mentoring, cohort advising, and culturally relevant programming.

Minnesota State Community and Technical College | $150,000 (Fergus Falls) – To enhance student engagement and support systems through Project STEER (Striving Toward Equitable Engagement and Retention). Led by a Student Retention Taskforce, the support will increase efforts and outcomes by providing access to wraparound services such as laptops, transportation, mental health services, career counseling and exploration, and childcare.

New 2-Year Grants:

Bemidji State University Alumni & Foundation | $200,000 (Bemidji) – To support programs at Bemidji State University (BSU) and Northwest Technical College (NTC), which share administration and resources, aiming to advance economic justice through culturally responsive programming. Funding will support a parent navigator role, enrollment efforts, Wiisiniidaa (Let’s Eat) program to address food insecurity, and the North Star Promise Fund, which offers needs-based scholarships for Pell grant recipients’ living expenses.

Dunwoody College of Technology | $200,000 (Minneapolis) – To support Women in Technical Careers (WITC), a two-year technical degree program that supports women and nonbinary students through career placement and wraparound services. Students find success through need-based scholarships to cover tuition and/or childcare, a cohort model, mentorship, intensive advising, scholarship assistance, and stipends for books and childcare. This grant represents Dunwoody’s second two-year WFM investment through this grant fund.

Minneapolis College | $200,000 (Minneapolis) – To enhance support services and trade programs for women and gender-expansive individuals, through initiatives addressing childcare, emergency funds, transportation, and technology needs. A new pilot program will recruit women into high-demand, well-paying trade careers, providing scholarships and wraparound support from enrollment to graduation. Funds will support a cohort model for women and gender-expansive people ages 25 and older with an interest in one of the five schools of trade technologies programs at Minneapolis College: HVAC and refrigeration, welding and metal fabrication, CNC machinist, bicycle assembly and repair, and aircraft maintenance.

Minnesota North College | $200,000 (Hibbing) – To support EMPOWER, a program for low-income women in rural Minnesota to build educational pathways in high-wage and high-demand training programs where women are currently underrepresented. EMPOWER has expanded educational and supportive services such as childcare, transportation, mentorship, partnerships with industries, application assistance, and connections to other campus programs for academic and social supports for women in northern Minnesota. This represents MN North College’s second two-year WFM investment through this grant fund.