Joe Selvaggio believes he can change the world $1,000 at a time.
To make that happen, Selvaggio, now 72 and renowned for founding and running Project for Pride in Living for more than 25 years, founded MicroGrants, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. “It is a financial sponsorship to an individual who is on their way to becoming self-sufficient,” he says. “I’m trying to get people off public assistance to support themselves.”
With the help of a $1,000 MicroGrant, a person can invest in supplies or clothing to start a new job, pay for enrollment in professional training courses or upgrade his or her vehicle for reliable transportation.
“We’re not based on desperation needs; we’re based on opportunities,” says Selvaggio. “I want to fund the person who has an opportunity to reach a new plateau in life.”
Mai’sah Blanton, a 34-year-old mother of four from St. Paul, was just such a person. She wanted to enroll in a nursing assistant program but didn’t have the resources. She was awarded a MicroGrant in 2005.
“I used the MicroGrant to buy textbooks and purchase insurance and gas for my vehicle, which allowed me to get to and from school,” Blanton says. “The grant gave me a push forward in life in the direction I needed to be.”
Blanton earned a Certified Nursing Assistant registration from Saint Paul College in 2006. She now uses those skills to manage Rituals, a health and beauty product business located in the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis.
“I’m able to correlate ideas of body anatomy and medical terminology I learned in school in order to help people who enter the store,” Blanton says. “I am able to direct people who deal with particular body ailments to certain products that will help them, which I could not have done without my certification.”
Blanton isn’t alone. With nearly 200 donors, MicroGrants has accumulated $2 million to be redistributed to 2,000 recipients. The organization is on pace for a record $600,000 in donations this year, which Selvaggio hopes to translate into financial assistance for 600 recipients in 2009.
“These aren’t loans, they’re grants,” Selvaggio says. “We’re trying to build equity, not debt.”
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