Northern Lights - Issue 13 - August 2022
MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE IN NORTHWEST MICHIGAN - Consumers Energy Foundation Generous Giving to Venture North Helps Businesses
By AMY LANESmall-business survival. Access to accounting, legal and other services. Building a business lending pool.
In those ways and others, Consumers Energy Foundation giving has for six years flowed to and through programs at Venture North Funding & Development, supporting small businesses that are the backbone of Venture North’s 10-county region and the state that’s Consumers Energy’s home.
It’s money that has seeded grants to help businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic, built capital for loans and subsidized professional services needed for business operation and growth. And now, a new $100,000 grant will further-boost Venture North’s ability to help businesses grow and thrive.
In all, the Consumers Energy Foundation has given Venture North $690,000 since 2016 – more than the foundation has given to any other single entity in the region.
Carolyn Bloodworth: A Champion for Michigan
“The performance of the program, the impact it has made, has made all the difference in the world,” said Carolyn Bloodworth, secretary/treasurer of the foundation.
Venture North, though, is just part of the foundation’s mark. Launched in 1990, the foundation has helped local communities in its service territories across the state, supporting nonprofit organizations and investing in people, the planet and Michigan’s prosperity.
There are multitude worthy projects. And, difficult decisions, with requests for grants far outstripping available funds.
“There are a lot of great opportunities for us that we simply don’t have enough money to do. So we have to make tough choices,” Bloodworth said. For her, being with the foundation almost since its start, philanthropy is personal.
“It’s hard not to be personal, because of the impacts that we make,” she said. “I think it’s most meaningful to me when we can award a grant and know that we were able to impact someone’s life.”
In the ten-county northwest Michigan region, foundation giving has totaled $7 million, with more than $3.3 million in Grand Traverse County alone, a tally that is primarily foundation giving but also corporate sponsorship like the National Cherry Festival.
The foundation has touched myriad parts of northern Michigan life, including: Early childhood development through the Great Start Collaborative of Traverse Bay; structural improvements at the State Theatre; environmental projects associated with the Conservation Resource Alliance and Munson Medical Center expansion; recreation and economic prosperity through the TART Trails network; local food support through the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities; and neighborhood improvement that includes reducing blight, under city of Cadillac community revitalization efforts.
“We’ve invested in some tremendous projects in northwest Michigan and will continue to do so, because the quality of what is submitted to us has been very high,” Bloodworth said.
Grants also target critical issues for the region. Towards housing, for example, comes a newly approved $100,000 grant to Traverse City-based nonprofit Housing North, to help fund a pilot project for long-term rental housing needed for the workforce.
“One of the issues in our region is that we have a lot of short-term rentals that are taking year-round rentals off the market,” said Housing North executive director Yarrow Brown. “We need to preserve rentals…so our workforce can live there.”
The foundation money is a matching grant to be awarded when Housing North raises an additional $100,000, with the capital going toward purchase of a Leelanau County duplex. The project would retain the property’s use as a year-round rental and there’s potential to build additional duplexes, Brown said. She said Housing North is partnering with nonprofit community land trust Peninsula Housing on the pilot and sees it as one that could be replicated in other communities to “have more impact across the region.”
The Consumers Energy Foundation is providing a jump-start to the effort, “giving this grant to help them raise other money,” Bloodworth said.
Benefits for Hundreds of Businesses in Northwest Michigan
At Venture North, the dollars the foundation has invested have produced benefits many-fold. Venture North data shows the foundation’s $690,000 has helped leverage nearly $1.4 million in additional contributions to the organization, for total impact of more than $2 million since 2016.
Within that: A signature $200,000 grant the foundation gave Venture North in 2020 to launch the Regional Resiliency Program, a COVID relief initiative that ultimately grew to more than $1.1 million in contributions from donors large and small.
The RRP provided more than 300 grants of up to $5,000, aiding the smallest of businesses --- those with nine or fewer employees. The money responded to business’ urgent and unique needs: Cash flow; business shifts in new directions; online ordering systems; general payroll as well as higher wages to retain employees; inventory, supplies and equipment; rent and utilities; and basic survival.
The RRP is “a great example of Venture North taking the opportunity and seed money that we provided, to be able to grow and expand on top of that. And that to me is extremely successful,” said Doug DeYoung, community affairs regional manager for Consumers Energy. “You really grow the outreach, and you grow the impact that it can have, throughout the ten counties that Venture North serves.”
Over 2020 and 2021 the foundation contributed a total of $450,000 to the RRP, $350,000 of which went to grants and $100,000 to administration, including free business consulting on pivot strategies and federal/state resources, and contractors to operate the grant program and manage grant review teams across 10 counties.
Now, the foundation is stepping in again, through a $100,000 lead grant for Phase 2 of the RRP. The money will help provide mini-grants to pay for professional services and technical assistance like free business coaching, grant-writing support, marketing plans, and access to online videos and content focused on money, management and marketing.
“The Consumers Energy Foundation’s generosity is carving a path for Venture North resources to help small businesses” just as in the RRP’s first phase, said Venture North President Laura Galbraith.
A Whole New Light for Helping Those Most in Need
She said a primary emphasis of RRP Phase 2 will be underserved populations: Minority or low-income individuals who own businesses, or businesses located in low-income communities.
Venture North hopes to pinpoint businesses in areas of economic distress and those owned by underrepresented populations, “zero in” on needs and provide help. RRP Phase II, through grants, loans and technical assistance, will focus on tangible growth and demonstrable progress for small businesses and the communities in which they are located.
A pilot research project in Emmet County could form a template to help delineate businesses in need throughout Venture North’s service territory. A $9,500 grant to Venture North from the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation is funding an analyst to define areas of Emmet that are economically challenged and identify target businesses that may not have access to financial capital.
“After we learn from that pilot, the hope is that we can replicate it” in the other nine counties, Galbraith said.
Connecting Philanthropy with Small Business Success
As a nonprofit and a federally certified Community Development Financial Institution, Venture North is a mission-driven organization that can be a unique avenue for philanthropy to impact economic development, she said.
Bloodworth said that from Venture North’s early days, “it’s tremendous to see how much the organization has grown and accomplished, and I believe a lot of the credit goes to the leadership, the staff and the board, on seeing what’s important and what is needed, to address the needs of the region.”
Added DeYoung: “Our support of Venture North is really tied to the mission of the organization to support small businesses across the ten counties they cover,” impacting business owners and their employees. That includes the organization’s work over the last two years, for which he said Venture North and its staff “should be recognized as a statewide leader.
“The engagement with small businesses and impact to communities is aspirational and really exciting to see how successful outcomes have been. Laura runs a strong organization that has made a strong impact on the ten-county region.”
Bloodworth said that with Consumers’ latest contribution, she hopes others will follow suit in giving. “I think one of the best parts of this investment we have made in Venture North, is the partnership with so many other funders who share in our desire to see the region succeed,” she said.
“I think one of the assets northern Michigan has is the power of partnership and the power of collaboration. I just don’t think it can be understated.”
Amy Lane is a veteran Michigan business reporter whose background includes work with Crain Communications Inc., Crain’s Detroit Business and serving as Capitol correspondent for nearly 25 years. Now a freelance reporter and journalist, Lane’s work has appeared in many publications including Traverse City Business News.
