Fair / 50° F
WCI is area’s ‘Swiss army knife’ for development [UPDATED]
Published 10:27am Thursday, November 15, 2012 Updated 12:28pm Thursday, November 15, 2012Have 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 several charitable funds, including the Fergus Falls Area Community Fund, the Floyd and Harriet Miller Endowment Fund, The Inga Johnson Fund, the Georgia Nagatomo-Dieseth Scholarship Fund, the Friends of the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center Fund, the Fergus Falls YMCA Foundation Agency Fund and the Otter Tail Power Company Foundation. We provide the technical assistance so the funds’ advisors can concentrate on raising and granting dollars, and accomplishing their missions.
• Several local businesses have utilized our loan, business assistance and workforce development programs.
• We coordinate the regionwide Early Childhood Initiative (ECI), which includes the Fergus Falls ECI coalition. In January, Fergus Falls will become part of the West Otter Tail County Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) coalition. The ECI seeks to help our youngest children thrive and succeed in school and in life.
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 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
