Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation

The Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation joins charitable intentions with community needs. Over $30M of local impact since 1994!

The Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation (GRACF) is a public charity serving the Greater Itasca Area in the North Woods of Minnesota.  GRACF exists to promote and facilitate impactful philanthropy in the Greater Itasca area and surrounding communities.  Working as a catalyst to stimulate robust charitable support, the Foundation partners with individuals and businesses to set up giving funds that directly impact nonprofits, individuals, community programs and projects and forward their mission work.

It all started in 1994 when several community members in the Grand Rapids area were looking to encourage and help other community members to invest back into the community to improve the quality of life in the area.  Since its inception, GRACF has been a place where organizations, donors, and financial professionals can connect their charitable intentions with community needs.

Giving can be challenging, each individual donor has interests and desires for their philanthropy.  GRACF has resources and expertise that can help donors focus on strategic giving and accomplish their goals.  Giving is made easier in partnership with GRACF; the organization provides support and fund administration allowing donors to invest their philanthropic dollars for growth and enjoy the impact they make on charitable causes.  

Some say that the Community Foundation is the place where philanthropy and nonprofits meet.  Together they help nonprofits achieve their mission work which ultimately changes lives for the better.

Here are some examples of "funds" that are having an impact across our area; funds you can be a part of, or funds that might inspire your charitable giving:

The Itasca Area Cancer Crisis Fund was established by a local group of friends struggling with the sadness of a young teacher friend with cancer. These friends were a high-energy bunch, and their first effort to help was to throw a community festival to raise funds for the family to deal with medical costs.  Wow - what a success!  Then a fundraiser hockey game - more success! Then their friend died.  But instead of using her death as a closing to their passion, they decided that the "greater good" was to continue. This group of volunteers realized their successful efforts could help a LOT of people experiencing the challenges of cancer treatment.  So...through various fundraising events each year and with proceeds going directly into the Itasca Area Cancer Crisis Fund at the Community Foundation, they are able to help people with many of the incidental costs that make their lives difficult while undergoing cancer treatments.   To date those grants add up to over $250K towards this very powerful cause!  Community leadership + passion = community good!

Back in the early 1980s, Jim Tennison and his son, Jamie, were out hunting familiar land.  They both took a different path to get back to that truck that afternoon - but when darkness came on and Jamie never showed, Jim knew something happened. Jamie was no novice to hunting alone, or even to survival in the North Woods, but after days of searching from the land and air, there was still no sign of Jamie.  As a memorial to Jamie and to prevent tragedies like this from occurring again, the Tennisons established the Jamie Tennison Memorial Compass Fund.  This fund provides a liquid-filled compass to every young student completing hunter safety training in Itasca County.

Jerry and Cathy (Saxhaug) Anderson grew up around Grand Rapids, went off on a successful business career, and eventually settled in the sunny southwest following retirement.  They both appreciate their roots - so much so that they established the Jerry and Cathy (Saxhaug) Anderson Scholarship through the Community Foundation to help students graduating from ISD 318. This generous 4-year scholarship provides the means for many aspiring students to achieve their academic goals and dreams.  But there was more. Jerry stays more connected than most to local news and had read that our area (which has a much higher unemployment rate than the state average) had numerous technical jobs available, but no one to fill those jobs. Born out of that realization was the Workforce Ready Award - a scholarship of sorts to get local students technical training in local 2-year community colleges to fill local jobs.

   Community Leadership and Legacy through the Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation