Blandin Foundation Invests in Building Community Wealth and Local Journalism to Strengthen the Itasca Area and Rural MN

Grants fuel rural information access, community capacity and long-term financial resilience

Key Points

• Blandin Foundation awards two major grants totaling $1.5 million to strengthen community wealth building, rural information access and organizational capacity in the Itasca Area.
• $1 million supports the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation’s efforts to expand local endowment growth and long-term community wealth.
• $500,000 bolsters Itasca Community Television (ICTV) as it transitions toward service journalism that addresses critical, everyday information gaps for rural residents.
• Another 38 grants awarded throughout the Itasca area and rural MN reflect founder Charles Blandin’s commitment to rural vitality, local decision-making and resilient community infrastructure.
• The 2026 Itasca area grant round is now open, with letters of inquiry due Jan. 16.

Grand Rapids, Minn. – Jan. 5, 2026

The Blandin Foundation kicked off the new year by announcing $2.2 million in new investments and the opening of a new grant round to strengthen community wealth, expand rural information access and build organizational capacity across the Itasca area and rural Minnesota. These grants advance the Foundation’s core strategies of community wealth building, rural placemaking, and supporting small communities.

For more than 80 years, the Foundation has worked toward the vision set forth by founder Charles Blandin: thriving rural regions where local people have the tools, resources and power to shape their own future.

“These new grants reflect what we see and hear across our home communities,” said Tuleah Palmer, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation. “People want strong local institutions, credible information they can trust and the ability to build a better future close to home. These investments support local decision-making and help ensure rural communities are connected and resilient for the long haul.”

$1 million to the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation to grow community wealth for the long term

The Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation (GRACF) received a $1 million, two-year grant to build long-term community wealth, strengthen small communities, and grow permanent endowments across the Itasca Area. Serving the region since 1994, GRACF manages more than 280 charitable funds, including scholarships, community funds, donor advised funds and nonprofit agency funds.

The grant will:

• Support GRACF’s endowment fund to strengthen operational stability.
• Provide $50,000 matching funds to grow endowed community funds in six small communities.
• Expand GRACF’s capacity to help nonprofits build their own agency funds.
• Support hiring a development director to grow donor relationships and community partnerships.

As small towns face population change and economic transition, a historic transfer of wealth presents a key opportunity. Nearly $539 million is projected to change hands in Itasca County by 2030, as older generations make plans to distribute their investments and other assets. GRACF is taking strategic steps to ensure local dollars stay local.

“Growing community funds is one of the most powerful tools small towns have to build their own financial power,” said Kyle Erickson, Blandin Foundation grants director. “This investment supports new ways for community foundations in our area to fund local priorities and long-term community resilience.”

This grant builds on the Foundation’s previous 2016 grant to establish five community funds across the region, all of which met their matching challenges and are now granting to local projects.

$500,000 to Itasca Community Television to expand rural service journalism and community information access

Itasca Community Television (ICTV) received a $500,000, three-year grant to increase organizational capacity and expand its transition into service journalism, an approach that identifies practical information gaps in a community and produces stories that help people navigate daily life.

ICTV has long served the region through public access television, livestreaming, government coverage and community programming. As rural news deserts grow nationwide, ICTV is broadening its role to address the kinds of basic, actionable information that rural residents often struggle to find elsewhere, from navigating school changes and accessing food resources to understanding housing processes or local infrastructure updates.

The grant will support efforts to:

• Add a service-journalism reporter.
• Convene community members to identify unmet information needs.
• Expand digital platforms and include service journalism content.
• Strengthen organizational sustainability through new revenue generation and improved digital engagement.

“In these polarized times, local news is still a trusted institution,” said Mary Magnuson, Blandin Foundation grants program officer, pointing to a recent Pew survey showing that 85 percent of respondents nationally saying local news was important to the well-being of their community. “ICTV is building a model that meets people wherever they are, whether they are online, on cable or across the community to ensure they have trustworthy, relevant information every day.”

Studies from around the country show that without local news, communities can experience a range of negative outcomes, including lower voter turnout, less choice in candidates, more government waste and corruption, higher taxes and more polarization.

Dozens of additional organizations receive grants

In addition to these two major grants, the Foundation awarded $675,000 in 38 grants to a wide range of community organizations, tribal councils, townships, and local nonprofits that help build pride of place, strengthen local leadership and keep financial and cultural resources rooted in rural communities.

Grantees include:

• Additional support for rural local news, including a grant to the Northern MN public radio network KAXE ($5,000) and to Project Optimist, which engages Greater MN residents through storytelling and arts-based approaches ($10,000).
• Let’s Go Fishing ($5,000) to help provide no-cost, on-the-water experience for the elderly, veterans, disabled, low-income and others each season.
• Lower Sioux Indian Community ($25,000) for arts and cultural programming at Cansayapi Wicoicage Oti, Lower Sioux Cultural Incubator.
• Hope House of Itasca County ($9,000) for operational and programming support to help individuals facing mental health and substance use challenges reclaim their lives.

A full list of additional grants is here. An interactive map of these grants awards can be seen here:

2026 grant round open

The 2026 Itasca area grant Request for Proposal (RFP) is now open, with letters of inquiry due Jan. 16. Grantmaking areas feature Blandin’s key priorities in community wealth-building, rural placemaking and small communities.

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Blandin Foundation is a private foundation based in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. One of a handful of rural-based, rural-serving foundations in the country, Blandin Foundation serves rural Minnesota, focusing resources in north-central Minnesota. Our grants, opportunities that connect rural leaders, and policy work build up financial and human capital, so rural Minnesota places can welcome diversity, address injustice, and embrace change to create a sustainable and equitable future.