Day 1: The Initiator Fellowship
In the spring of 2025, when a friend suggested that I apply for the Initiative Foundation’s Initiator Fellowship, I thought, “Yeah, right, I don’t have a viable idea for a social enterprise.”
While that wasn’t exactly true, because I have dreamed of building a community-centered writing and creativity workshop for years, what went through my head was that the community workshop idea I’ve had wasn’t really “investor” worthy, because it was grounded in the arts, and because I didn’t have a book published, and because all the other reasons one doubts oneself. Yet this same friend, Molly, had a hand in helping me believe again that people cared about the arts and that community-based writing was important.
So I threw my hat in the ring, admitting in my application that I had traces of an idea, and some of the experience needed to pull it off, and a lot of the passion and curiosity that would make a good Fellow. I said I knew what I wanted to do, but not how to get there. I made it to the semi-finalist round, where after my interview I told Sean, “They’re not going to pick me because my idea isn’t really fleshed out and there were questions I couldn’t answer. I haven’t thought about this enough yet.”
But I made it to Finalist Day, where I got to pitch my idea, sharing my why and how, and why me, why this, why now.
Getting ready to pitch my social enterprise in St. Cloud.
Different than the interview, I felt like I nailed it on Finalist Day, but when I got a call the next day confirming that I had earned a spot in the Fellowship, I was still surprised.
I want to use creativity and nature to combat loneliness and isolation and build connection in rural spaces. I want people in my part of Southwest Minnesota (and all over the state) to feel a sense of belonging. And in January of 2026, all you have to do is look at the news to see that while Minnesotans ARE standing united in community across this great state, you’ll also see in the same news piece that right now specifically it is because so many Minnesotans are being made to feel that they don’t belong. And this runs counter to the welcoming Minnesota I’ve known since we bought the acreage in 2017. And even before this moment in time, back in June, when I considered applying, or back in October when I got a spot in this Fellowship, loneliness is something that has plagued our state even in places where community exists. According to a study from the University of Minnesota’s Rural Health Research Center, even people with solid social networks experience loneliness across the state.
So I know that loneliness and isolation and belonging are important to our state. But I could hardly believe that my idea was viable enough to get a spot in this unique mentorship program.
And yet I sit in St. Cloud tonight writing this post because today was our first day of the 2026 -2027 cohort work and our first in-person convening. Eight other Fellows joined me today, and although things are heavy in Minnesota, being in rooms where we’re all dreaming big dreams about how to make this world better was powerful.
We learned from Jeff Wig, formerly of the Imitative Foundation, now working under Heritage Road Consulting, about the Theory of Change framework, and we started building out problem and solution statements to guide our work as Fellows and changemakers.
According to Jeff (via Wikipedia), “a Theory of Change (TOC) is an explicit theory of how and why it is thought that a social policy or program activities lead to outcomes and impacts.”
A couple versions of Theory of Change processes.
There are many definitions and many versions of TOC, but what Jeff wanted us to understand today was that developing our own TOC for our enterprise will help us stay focused and motivated while allowing us to understand who we’re serving, why and how. This, in turn, will allow for more clarity as we build and move out into the world with our ideas.
Tonight we had homework: drafting a problem and solution statement, and tomorrow we share our ideas with the group. For the rest of the week we’ll be in training and community together, and our TOCs will be coalescing and shifting along with us. I still can’t believe I get to be a part of something so big and amazing, and I’m honored to be one of the many, working in my own way, to make Minnesota a better place for everyone.