The Rural Placemaking Grant Program, funded by the Blandin Foundation, is designed to support rural communities in fostering community connection, investment, and pride in their local environment. This initiative promotes placemaking, a comprehensive approach to community development that encourages residents to collaborate on a shared vision for their community. It incorporates creative and cultural activities, community-centered design, and improvements to public spaces to enhance overall well-being.

Placemaking efforts funded by this program should engage multiple sectors, including public, private, and philanthropic organizations. The program places a particular emphasis on including underrepresented community members, such as low-income residents, youth, and members of Native and other cultural communities. This inclusive process is intended to build trust and increase a community’s ability to take action around shared values, ultimately leading to stronger community cohesion and long-term sustainability.

Funding is available for projects that fall into three overarching categories: Capacity Building, Planning, and Implementation. Capacity Building grants support skill development, grant-writing assistance, leadership training, and consulting expertise for community organizations. Planning grants assist with community engagement, research, and the design of placemaking initiatives. Implementation grants provide funding for projects that create or enhance public gathering spaces, promote cultural activities, or address community challenges through arts and creative sectors. Capital expenditures may also be considered for communities demonstrating the greatest need, particularly those with fewer than 5,000 residents.

Successful projects must demonstrate measurable outcomes in at least one of the following areas: increasing local capacity for community development, improving civic discourse, or making visible improvements to gathering spaces. Specific indicators may include the creation of new public spaces, increased community participation in arts and culture, strengthened local organizations, and a boost in the rural creative economy. The Blandin Foundation prioritizes proposals from communities facing systemic disparities, including those that are small, remote, lower-income, and diverse. In larger rural communities, projects must be more sophisticated, innovative, and explicitly designed to engage underrepresented populations.

The grant program is currently available to nonprofit organizations in the Itasca County area. The application process includes a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) phase, open from March 7 to March 21, 2025. Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal between March 31 and April 21, 2025. The review process will take place from April 22 to May 23, with grant award notifications occurring between May 23 and May 26, 2025. Grant agreements will be issued on May 30, 2025. The timeline may be adjusted depending on the number of applications received.

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the Blandin Foundation’s Grants team for further details. Key contacts include Mary Magnuson, Grants Program Officer for Rural Placemaking, reachable at 218-327-8738; Linda Gibeau, Grants Program Officer for Small Communities, at 218-327-8702; LuAnn Robinson, Grants Program Officer, at 218-327-8724; and Zach Johnson, Grants Manager, at 218-327-8739 (main) or 320-287-3970 (mobile). The Blandin Foundation's office is located at 100 North Pokegama Avenue, Grand Rapids, MN 55744.