Carba, a leading biocarbon technology and carbon removal company, today announced the close of a $6 million Investment Round led by Rusheen Capital Management and Canopy Generations Fund (CanopyGen). This investment follows $2.5M in project financing and Program Related Investments (PRIs) that Carba secured earlier this year from strategic investors including the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority, JLL Foundation, and Venn Foundation (supported by the Schmidt Family Foundation, a donor advised fund of the Minneapolis Foundation, and others).

Apple Tree Dental is pleased to announce that the nonprofit organization has just finished the final steps to join forces with ADT Dental, a clinic located in Uptown Minneapolis, and with the nonprofit it helped found, called Ready, Set, Smile. ADT Dental is Apple Tree’s ninth Center for Dental Health, and its third Center located in the Twin Cities region. An innovative funding model that combines both charitable grants and Program-Related Investment (PRI) loans made the partnership possible. The approach was designed to accelerate the growth of nonprofit, Critical Access Dental (CAD) providers, like Apple Tree and Ready, Set, Smile.

When Venn Foundation and Youthprise collaborated to launch MAA with a small pilot in Northfield, MN, in 2018, they used an innovative financing tool called program-related investments (PRIs) to help five students access $1,500 in educational enrichment services. Just four years later, MAA has reached a major milestone. In 2022 alone, the program has advanced over $1 Million in support of 1,150+ students. With two months remaining this year, these numbers continue to grow. Over the past two years, the program has assisted students in over 200 Minnesota cities across 70 counties.

The $1.5 million major gift launches a campaign to raise a total of $2.5 million in charitable capital to build housing for seasonal workers in Rangeley and on Saddleback Mountain. Construction on the $4.5 million, 100-bed accommodation could start as early as late spring 2022. Saddleback Mountain seeks to raise an addition $1 million in charitable gifts for affordable workforce housing and the remaining $2 million in construction costs will come from other sources.

Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing (Thrivent Charitable) announced today a grant of up to $1 million to Venn Foundation and Youthprise to accelerate the growth of their joint Minnesota Afterschool Advance (MAA) initiative over the next year.