04/28/2026
Four decades after its founding, the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation helps its communities thrive.
Read more: https://www.enterpriseminnesota.org/celebrating-40-years-of-partnership-in-southern-minnesota/
Walking into a room of more than 300 people and feeling like you’ve stumbled into a family reunion— even when you don’t know a lot of the faces—tells you something important about an organization. That was Lynn Shelton's experience last week at the 40th anniversary celebration of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) in Faribault, where the full-capacity crowd exuded a sense of gratitude and excitement.
What makes SMIF remarkable isn’t just what it funds—entrepreneurship, early childhood education, and small-town vitality—it’s the philosophy behind the funding. “When we invest in entrepreneurship, we’re investing in the builders of our region,” Benya Kraus, SMIF’s executive director noted. “When we invest in early childhood, it’s the belief that future generations of this place matter.” That long view, sustained for 40 years, is rare. And in rural communities that don’t always have access to the resources available to larger cities, it has been nothing short of essential.
