About Us

Bridging the Gap by Connecting People

MicroGrants addresses the problem of systemic poverty in the Twin Cities area, and acknowledges that some people with clear goals and motivation cannot move forward without a financial boost. We exist to help people invest in their own futures. MicroGrants helps finance the dreams and opportunities of low-income people with the potential to grow their way to self-sufficiency. In addition, these grants give the recipients a sense of direction, dignity and the possibility of building a career. Their economic and societal contributions can in turn enhance the overall stability and economic strength of our greater community. The goal is to invest in people of potential. Every recipient is judged on an individual basis. If they are found to be a worthwhile investment, we give them a grant of $1000 within a week of applying. Joe Selvaggio has been connecting the ‘haves’ with the ‘have-nots’ for more than 40 years. His latest efforts have resulted in MicroGrants.

Here is how it works: MicroGrants’ partner agencies** find industrious lower-income people with an idea or opportunity for improving their lives. These agencies evaluate their one-page plans and make a judgment about their abilities to carry it out. With a reasonable chance of success, MicroGrants grants them $1,000 for implementation. Typical grants go for computers for home-based businesses, construction tools, office equipment and supplies, books, job training, tuition, licenses for day care or cleaning businesses, insurance, down payments on cars and even working capital.

These nonprofits partner agencies specialize in helping the low-income become self-sufficient. Nonprofit staffers volunteer their time to the MicroGrants organization because it is in their self-interest to help their own people succeed. The volunteers help select the “people of potential,” coach them as they implement their plans and evaluate them after six months to see whether they have succeeded and, if they have faltered find out why.

** For listing of MicroGrants partner agencies, please go to FAQ page.

Holding recipients accountable through partnerships with other organizations.The advantage of working with reputable nonprofits is that they already have trust-relationships with the recipients. That relationship is essential to picking the right persons, mentoring them, holding them accountable and evaluating the process.

Keeping overhead low is the hallmark of MicroGrants. Selvaggio has been successful in having 200 “investors” (donors) committed to giving the MicroGrants program an average of $500,000 per year. And it is rapidly showing great potential for growth. The funds enable him to write an average of seven grants of $1,000 to seven individuals per week, or $352,000 per year effecting 352 ‘people of potential’ that are also committed to moving to the next plateau on their way to self-sufficiency. And because the executive director is a retired volunteer, the overhead is only 9 percent. The balance is put in reserve for a “rainy day” fund or for expansion.

Teaching others to accumulate wealth, not debt. The inspiration for MicroGrants came from the micro-lending programs of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. But Selvaggio changed the investments in two ways: (1) the recipients are local to the area where donors live. With the headquarters in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, they serve the MSP metro area) and (2) the investments are grants, not loans. Selvaggio saw that the untapped resource of donors prefer to give locally, giving their own cities’ poor that leg up, and he liked the idea of the American lower-income population being taught to accumulate wealth, not acquire debt.

MicroGrants can be replicated nationwide. Every city and small town across America could support such a program because every area has people with excess capital and large numbers of local “people of potential” who could use the investment as a springboard giving themselves that leg up, i.e., finish that degree, buy mops and pails, a needed tool to keep the recipient moving closer to independence. All that is needed to bring this idea to scale, nationally, is a retired volunteer to act as a catalyst. And there are many retired volunteers who are looking for a winning project which would not only bring wealth to the poor, but benefit the community at large, and 90+ percent of donations go straight to the ‘person of potential and their opportunity to reach their goal. This innovative idea is grass roots capitalism at its best.

Board Members

• Alexia Diorio, Macalester senior and former MicroGrants intern
• Chuck Garrity, Founder and CEO of Intelligent Financial Strategies (IFS)
• Jeff Heegaard, Partner with CoCo, a co-working collaborative
• Berit Johnson, Yale graduate and former MicroGrants intern
• Terry McGann, retired, former owner and CEO of Amano McGann, Inc.
• Mitch Pearlstein, President of Center of the American Experimen
• Tom Rock, General Counsel, CCO and COO at EBF & Associates, LLP
• Jim Scheibel, Executive in Residence at Hamline University’s School of Business and former Mayor of Saint Paul
• Joe Selvaggio, Executive Director and Founder of MicroGrants
• Sam Selvaggio, self-employed
• Kimberly Stokes, VP Compliance for American Bank
• Jim Weichert, Retired, former partner with Deloitte & Touche