We’re excited to announce that NCF has received a total of $212,500 through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines (FHLB Des Moines) Member Impact Fund, in partnership with member lending institutions. This critical funding includes $205,000 in partnership with Greater Minnesota Housing Fund and $7,500 with Drake Bank, who provided the local match that made these grants possible.
CoMinnesota hosts first-ever statewide event – July 29–30 in Morris, MN
In fall 2024, Northcountry Cooperative Foundation proudly adopted CoMinnesota as one of our programs, with the goal of expanding cooperative education, connection, and advocacy across the state. Now, we’re excited to announce the first major event under this new chapter: the Minnesota Co-op Summit, taking place July 29–30, 2025, in Morris, Minnesota.
Meet the Newest Members of the NCF Team – Part I
We're excited to introduce three of our newest team members who bring an incredible mix of expertise, dedication, and passion to our mission at NCF. Each of them adds unique strengths to our growing organization—and we’re excited to have them on board as we deepen our work in cooperative housing development and support.
Zumbrota Residents Purchase Their Community, Become Minnesota’s 14th Resident-Owned Community
New national tracking tool reveals private equity's growing grip on manufactured home communities
Twin Cities Film Fest screening "A Decent Home" on 10/24
Northcountry Cooperative Foundation will be joining the Twin Cities Film Fest at their screening of the award-winning documentary “A Decent Home” on October 24th.
NCF welcomes newest Housing Program Associate, Ellery
NCF expands with our new controller, Julie
Julie Fliflet joined NCF in mid-April as our Controller, a newly created role designed to strengthen NCF’s internal financial management. Julie will lead all financial operations, including reporting, record-keeping, analysis, budgeting, and the development of fiscal policies. Her expertise will be instrumental as we bring these critical functions in-house for the first time.
NCF grows team with new office coordinator, Alexa
Sweet 16 - Bois de Sioux becomes newest manufactured housing cooperative in Upper Midwest
The homeowners of Bois de Sioux Mobile Estates, the only manufactured home park in Breckenridge, MN, recently purchased their 75-site manufactured home community and formed Bois de Sioux Cooperative, Minnesota’s thirteenth resident-owned manufactured housing cooperative and the 16th within Northcountry Cooperative Foundation’s service area.
Introducing the Tom Guettler Cooperative Leaders Fund - scholarship program created in honor of long-time employee
NCF welcomes new Real Estate Development Director - Dave Berglund
NCF welcomes Emerald Pines - MN's 12th resident-owned manufactured housing co-op
NCF partners with UHAB to build capacity for multifamily cooperative housing in Minnesota
In an exciting development for affordable homeownership in the Upper Midwest, NCF has formed a partnership with New York-based Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB). This collaboration is poised to launch NCF into the limited-equity cooperative multifamily housing space, in turn empowering historically underserved communities through cooperative homeownership.
NCF welcomes newest technical assistance provider
NCF is pleased to announce its newest addition to the team, Ed Hilbrich, as Housing Program Associate. Ed’s hiring brings NCF’s staff to 10, a doubling of the organization’s personnel in a year. The added capacity will allow NCF to further its work in providing technical assistance to resident-owned manufactured housing cooperatives and expanding their presence across the Upper Midwest.
NCF selected for USDA panel discussion
Last week, Northcountry Cooperative Foundation’s (NCF) Associate Director, Emily Stewart, participated as a panelist in the first of a series of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development hosted meetings that focus on connecting a diverse array of private sector cooperatives with government partners to increase collaboration and effectiveness. Focusing on housing cooperatives, the event was a part of the Interagency Working Group on Cooperative Development’s efforts, established by US Congress, to “foster cooperative development and ensure coordination with federal agencies and cooperative organizations.”
MN manufactured home owners big winners in historic 2023 legislative session
NCF named semi-finalist in $20M national grant competition
NCF was recently named a semi-finalist in the national 2023 Housing Affordability Breakthrough Challenge. Led by Enterprise Community Partners and the Wells Fargo Foundation, this $20 million grant competition seeks to “identify and propel implementation-ready innovations that transform current practices and reimagine access to affordable homes.” Organizations competing in this challenge are eligible to receive individual grants of $1 million, $2 million, and $3 million to “scale ideas that lay the groundwork for system-wide change.”
Out of 430 applicants, NCF was named one of 42 semi-finalists who are invited to move on to the second phase of the competition. NCF was selected for its proposal in the “construction” category of the challenge.
NCF welcomes Minnesota's newest resident-owned community in Gaylord
Last month, the homeowners of Gaylord Mobile Home Park purchased their 31-site manufactured (“mobile”) home community to become Minnesota’s eleventh resident-owned manufactured-home cooperative. The residents, almost entirely Spanish speaking, named their new cooperative community El Nuevo Amanecer (The New Dawn).
The Best PRICE: Pres. Biden signs first-time federal funding for manufactured housing preservation
One of the most difficult obstacles facing manufactured home communities is the continued cost of maintaining and preserving their privately owned infrastructure, such as roads, sewer, and water systems. While individual states such as Minnesota have created infrastructure grant programs specifically to help communities improve their aging infrastructure, the federal government had no such funding available.
