The Northeast Entrepreneur
Fund is a non-profit organization that provides business
training, consulting, and financing to men and women
in an 11-county region of northeast Minnesota and
northwest Wisconsin.
The Northeast Entrepreneur
Fund was conceived during the early 1980’s,
at a time when our region’s industries were
declining and permanent job loss was growing. The
Northeast Entrepreneur Fund was officially established
in 1989 to provide technical assistance and financing
to individuals who would start their own businesses.
The goals were not only to help individuals create
their own jobs, but to create role models for entrepreneurship
that would be a source of inspiration for others in
the region. We believe that the most important legacy
of the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund will be instilling
self-reliance and self-determination by creating economic
opportunity through entrepreneurship.
Since inception we have helped
to start, stabilize, or expand more than 900 businesses
in northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin, leading
to the creation or retention of more than 2,300 jobs.
Our loan fund has provided over $6.5 million dollars
in financing to businesses in our region.
The Northeast Entrepreneur
Fund has been nationally recognized for its efforts
in entrepreneurial training, lending, and evaluation,
receiving one of six 1998 Presidential Microenterprise
Awards at a White House ceremony in February of 1999.
The award, for Excellence in Developing Entrepreneurial
Skills, was the first award ever given in that category.
