93 Community-Led Projects Powered by Great Lakes Grants
In its first year of grantmaking, the Great Lakes Thriving Communities grantmaking program awarded $15.5 million for environmental and public health work.
Air-quality monitoring in Detroit. Brownfield cleanup efforts in Gary, Indiana. Removal of lead pipes in Kewanee, Illinois. Across the Great Lakes region, 93 community-led projects will receive federal funding to address environmental and public health challenges through a program administered by the Minneapolis Foundation.
The Great Lakes Thriving Communities grantmaking program awarded more than $15.5 million in its first year of grantmaking, with grants ranging from $50,000 to $350,000. Supported by funding through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, these grants represent the initial awards in a three-year program guided by the Minneapolis Foundation in partnership with the Midwest Environmental Justice Network, RE-AMP, and NDN Collective.
“One of the most powerful lessons from these grants is how much common ground exists across communities that are often viewed as very different from one another,” said R.T. Rybak, President and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation. “People consistently told us they want the same things: Clean water and air, affordable energy, and access to healthy food.”
Funded through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the Thriving Communities Grantmaking program was created to address needs that local communities identify as priorities. A core objective of the program is to make federal funding more accessible by streamlining the grants process for communities that have historically faced barriers to securing federal resources, including urban, rural, and tribal communities.
Photo of Frogtown Gardens
The program serves a six-state region encompassing Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and 37 federally recognized tribal nations.
During the initial application period, which closed in April 2025, the program received more than 650 applications from local governments, nonprofit organizations, tribal governments, and institutions of higher education. The Minneapolis Foundation continues to review applications from that pool and award grants recommended by regional advisory committees composed of community leaders with expertise across a broad range of environmental and public health issues. These committees provide oversight and guidance to ensure grants are distributed equitably, reflecting community priorities and the region’s diversity. The program has up to $48 million in grant funding to distribute by September 2027.
Photos courtesy of Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Village of Ontonagon, and the Crawford Stewardship Project
These grants fund projects ranging from community gardens, drinking water protection, and air-quality monitoring to home energy-efficiency upgrades and community preparedness efforts designed to reduce the impacts of flooding, extreme heat, and wildfires. A few examples:
- A grant to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota supported investments to improve air quality data coverage and increase community resilience when wildfire smoke affects the area. “This grant helped us deploy sixteen air sensors across a regional monitoring network, filling coverage gaps and expanding community partnerships,” said Charlie Lippert, an Air Quality Specialist with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. The tribal government also hosted DIY Air Purifier workshops where community members learned how to monitor air quality and build low-cost purifiers using box fans and furnace filters. As a result, Lippert said, “Residents will be better equipped to protect their health during wildfire smoke events, with functional purifiers and knowledge of state and federal air quality forecasting tools.”
- On Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, another grant enabled the community of Ontonagon to conduct a feasibility study to determine how best to prevent river sediment from building up and obstructing access to its marina, which is located where the Ontonagon River flows into Lake Superior. “This grant greatly benefited the long-term utilization of the Ontonagon Marina,” said Village Manager William (Willie) Dupont. “It also helped increase meaningful community engagement, giving the Village of Ontonagon a clear path forward for years to come.”
- The Crawford Stewardship Project used a grant to conduct groundwater testing in the Driftless Region of southwest Wisconsin. “By partnering with our state university lab and three county Conservation and Health Departments, we provided free comprehensive well testing to hundreds of households across three economically disadvantaged and hydrogeologically vulnerable counties,” said Forest Jahnke, Program Coordinator for the Crawford Stewardship Project. “This data gives local decision-makers a baseline of evidence and empowers local families with the information they need to protect their health.”
