Letter - November 12-18 is National Community Foundation Week

To the editor:

Have you ever worked on a project you can’t complete because you don’t have the right tool? In community and economic development, the same thing can happen.

West Central Initiative (WCI) is a regional community foundation that works with West Central Minnesota communities and organizations to provide the tools to help complete projects.

For example, locally:

 We administer the Greater Alexandria Industrial Network Fund, the Alexandria Public Schools Education Foundation, the Brandon Community Fund and the Osakis Economic Development Fund. We provide the technical assistance so the funds’ advisors can concentrate on raising and granting dollars, and accomplishing their missions.

 Several businesses have utilized our loan, business assistance and workforce development programs.

 We coordinate the regionwide Early Childhood Initiative (ECI), which includes the Building Connections – Douglas County ECI coalition. The ECI seeks to help our youngest children thrive and succeed in school and in life.

 We help fund Leadership Alexandria through our Leadership Development Grant.

In everything we do, our goal is to help West Central Minnesota communities, businesses and families prosper. We work to stay healthy and fiscally sound so we can continue to serve our nine-county region long into the future.

If you would like to learn more about West Central Initiative, please visit our website at wcif.org, or give us a call at 1-800-735-2239. We’d love to talk to you about how we can work together to create a better tomorrow for West Central Minnesota.

Nancy Straw, president,

West Central Initiative

Fergus Falls, MN

Tags: opinion, letters