Supporting Root River Current

Funds received through community and foundation grants provide the building blocks that underlie Root River Current’s foundational financial health. These organizations are among those that have provided grant support:

Press Forward Minnesota

Root River Current is a 2025 recipient of a major grant from Press Forward Minnesota, a collaborative initiative dedicated to supporting local news and information throughout Minnesota. Its commitment to smaller news organizations providing “hyperlocal, original reporting” to meet the needs of unique communities of interest, including rural communities, is nothing short of AMAZING! Root River Current will focus its grant on strengthening operations and storytelling capacity, and leveraging local support to expand coverage, enhance audience engagement and fulfill its commitment to “Building Community Through Storytelling.” Read more about this grant award here.

Southeast Minnesota Arts Council

Root River Current’s coverage of arts and cultural stories is supported by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund. Grant-supported stories can be found on our Regional Arts page.

Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership

The Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership has provided grant support for a 2024-25 University of Minnesota-led marketing survey and strategy planning initiative to further advance Root River Current’s community outreach efforts.

SigAvis ShermAnna Foundation

Major gifts from the SigAvis ShermAnna Foundation helped launch Root River Current in its early development. Had it not been for these initial development grants, this project might still be just a dream—a hearty THANK YOU for its generosity, support, and encouragement!

Sponsors support Root River Current, Inc.’s general operations in exchange for recognition in its publications – Root River Current’s online magazine, individual story pages or subscriber newsletters.

Acknowledgements can include a sponsor’s name, location and logo; a non-promotional description of its business or services; an established slogan or mission; and links to the sponsor’s website, address or phone number. 

Because of Root River Current’s nonprofit, noncommercial status, qualitative, comparative or promotional statements will not be included; call-to-action, prices or other inducement-related descriptions are also disallowed.

We welcome inquiries about business, corporate and organization sponsorships and in-kind support. We’d be honored to have you among our funding partners – partnerships that make it possible for Root River Current to uncover more stories, more voices, more perspectives to share with neighbors far and wide!

To share your ideas, discuss a partnership, or learn more about sponsorship opportunities, email us at info@RootRiverCurrent.org.

Thank you sponsors!

As a Minnesota nonprofit corporation, registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Root River Current, Inc., relies on the support of individual donors, business/organization sponsors and foundation grants to sustain our local journalism. 

These financial partners help Root River Current fill a void with untold or under-told stories – reliable quality news and features coverage for a diverse generation of readers.

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.

Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services, or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals, organizations, and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics, and special projects. Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

As a nonprofit, we will avoid accepting donations from anonymous sources, and we will not accept donations from government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates actively seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

We make public all donors who give $5,000 or more per year. Root River Current, Inc., is grateful to the following individuals, foundations and businesses that have made recent contributions:

$5,000 for 2024-25 from the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC) thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts & cultural heritage fund.

$40,000 in 2025 through a Closing Coverage Gaps grant from Press Forward Minnesota.

IRS Financial Statements

Through 2024, Root River Current, Inc. has been exempt from filing the standard IRS Form 990, instead filing a 990N e-Postcard (this is granted to small tax-exempt organizations with annual gross receipts of $50,000 or less). Our tax identification number is 88-1387698.

Donor contributions are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.