NWAF Unveils NWAF Solutions Depot Online Store

COMMUNITIES ARE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO REDUCE LOCAL POVERTY:  A NEW ONLINE STORE MAY HELP THEM FIND THE PRACTICAL STRATEGIES AND TOOLS THEY NEED
NWAF Solutions Depot invites users to help “stock the shelves” with tested solutions

ST. PAUL, Minn.  April 29, 2007:  The Northwest Area Foundation today launched the NWAF Solutions Depot, an online Website where communities can go to search for and share practical strategies and tools that will help communities reduce poverty for the long term.   This site is designed to grow, drawing from a broad pool of tested- but not easily located – case studies, online calculators, data bases, publications, how-to manuals, plans and tools already at work in communities all across the country.

“We’re committed to helping communities in their efforts to reduce poverty and build opportunities for prosperity for all,” said Karl Stauber, president and CEO of the Northwest Area Foundation.  “This online store is one way to provide communities everywhere with greater access to ‘what’s working.’ Communities can come to this Website and find ideas they can examine, and replicate in part or in whole:  they won’t have to re-invent the wheel,” said Stauber.  “We really hope that funders, nonprofits, governmental agencies and communities throughout this country will use this site to help reach more communities with their success stories, and with the approaches and tools they’ve developed and tested,” Stauber added.

Web site interactivity will make it easy for visitors to:  find possible solutions to their community challenges, and to submit candidate solutions for the online store.  For example, users can search by category or they can use the site’s search engine to find what they need.  The home page also invites users to click on “Share what’s working” to recommend a strategy, tool or case study – in PDF format or as a Web link. 

NWAF Solutions Depot can help locate solutions from a wide range of sources.  It can be a useful resource for those who are seeking to build their local economy, develop community resources and strengths, create living wage jobs, affordable housing, better access to healthcare and better education.  The online store can provide answers to communities that have questions about the complex nature of poverty reduction.  Some products can be mail-ordered for a nominal cost.  Others may be downloaded for free.

The Northwest Area Foundation unveiled the NWAF Solutions Depot at the Council on Foundations Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington.  To access this site for poverty reduction tools and products or to share a proven strategy log on at:  www.NWAF-Solutionsdepot.org.

The Northwest Area Foundation is dedicated to helping communities reduce poverty for the long term. The Foundation works on strategic efforts with a small number of rural, urban, and American Indian reservation communities, and the organizations supporting these efforts, in its eight-state region: Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. These states were served by the Great Northern Railway, founded by James J. Hill. In 1934, Hill’s son, Louis W. Hill established the foundation.

Since 1999, the Foundation has invested approximately $163million in community-based poverty-reduction programs. It expects to invest at least an additional $75 million within the next two years, which will complete its first ten-year cycle operating under the poverty reduction mission.   The Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant requests. For additional information, visit www.nwaf.org, or call 651-224-9635.                                                -END-  

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