We are delighted to announce that we are offering Seed Money funding again in Southwest Wisconsin in 2026. At our Seeds of Hope Celebration in November, our 2025 recipients and our board members expressed how renewed, energized and inspired they were by the presentations the recipients made and by the passion with which they carry out their work.
We are looking forward to celebrating with you and the other recipients at our 2026 Seeds of Hope Celebration next fall.
To that end, we invite you to apply for Seed Money in 2026. To help you determine if you should apply, here are some details. The maximum amount of funding per project is $1500; the deadline for applications is Friday, January 30, 2026; and awardees will be notified of the results of our review by Friday, February 27, 2026. We are offering Seed Money for new initiatives that extend our mission in Southwest Wisconsin and address the issues raised in our 2018 Southwest WI Rural Listening/Networking Sessions as updated to include current concerns.
In addition to evaluating whether a project meets our mission and priorities we will evaluate whether a project:
1) addresses a significant community issue;
2) outlines an innovative solution to confronting the issue;
3) builds a network of individuals/groups to collaborate on the issue and
4) demonstrates energy and commitment to achieve the stated goals.
Short descriptions of the projects we have funded in the past can be found here.
We are grateful to the Sinsinawa Dominicans, other potential funders, and individual contributors for making this initiative possible in Southwest WI in 2026.
Download the 2026 Seed Money Grant Information
Download the 2026 Seed Money Application
What a hope-filled celebration we had at our Seeds of Hope Celebration on November 4 at Taliesen! Our Seed Money recipients outdid themselves with wonderful slides and presentations. The room was abuzz from the minute people arrived to their final farewells - all reconnecting with friends and eager to connect with new faces. We basked in the energy that comes when surrounded by like-minds, all united by their love of the earth and its people. The occasion was exactly what our logo states “Connecting Community, Land and People”. The Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa can rejoice that we gave witness to the intent of their mission when they founded Churches’ Center for Land and People in the 1980s.
We thank our recipients for living their lives with purpose and a passion for rejuvenating the land and its people.
Check out the video of the Celebration here. There were a few technical glitches with the video but be patient. The content is great and the video gets better as it proceeds.
While the playlist shows a number of parts, the video flows from one part to the next seamlessly and the content in each part is indicated in the panel directly below the video. If you can’t find that, below is the part and approximate start time for each of the speakers.
Also, the start of Roger Williams’ Introduction to Food, Faith and Farming Network is missing but the text is included in the panel directly below the video.
Welcome and Prayer
Welcome--Trudi Jenny, Food, Faith and Farming Network
Prayer--Rev. Nick Utphall--6:00
Project Presentations--Part 1
Introduction--Roger Williams, Food, Faith and Farming Network --transcript included when video was not on.
Rufus Haucke, Driftless Curiosity (9:37)
Colin Treiber, Mandaamin Institute (15:45)
Start of Shelly Brenneman, Valley Stewardship Network (22:38)
Project Presentations--Part 2
Continuation of Valley Stewardship Network
Kori Blumer, Monona Grove School District (5:14)
Julia Gerlach, Fields of Sinsinawa (12:31)
Start of Chris Marion, Michael Fields Agricultural (18:17)
Project Presentations--Part 3
Continuation of Michael Fields Agricultural
Leslie Schroeder, Midwest Linen Revival (2:44)
Project Presentations--Part 4
Roger Williams for Woollets
Penny Molina, Food Is Medicine for ADHD Families (6:54)
Liam McGilligan and Jacob Hundt, Thoreau College (14:55)
Start of Joseph Childs, Crawford Stewardship Project (23:20)
Project Presentations--Part 5
Continuation of Crawford Stewardship Project
Lincoln Morris, Little Platte Catholic Worker (6:00)
Emma Kloes, Holy Wisdom Monastery (15:50)
Questions & Answers/Conclusion