MicroGrants

Lights on! : lights on! Is an award-winning program with the mission to heal police-community relationships. The program was founded in 2017 after the unnecessary death of philando castile who was shot during a traffic stop. The police rationale for the stop was a broken tail light and that spark inspired the simple, yet powerful concept for the lights on! Program - replace equipment violation tickets with vouchers for free repairs. Traffic stops are often a source of stress, both for officers and drivers. Lights on! Turns the dreaded traffic stop into a positive, restorative interaction and avoids penalizing low-income individuals for vehicle conditions.

Microgrants distributes timely Microgrants, between $1,000 - $3,000, to to low-income people of potential. These individuals are identified by Microgrants' partner agencies, a network of 50 twin cities nonprofits. Based on their long-term relationships with participants, staff at partner agencies recommend individuals who would benefit from a microgrant to reach their goals in three interrelated areas: business grants, education grants, and transportation grants. In 2023, Microgrants provided 156 transportation grants totaling over $346k, 143 business grants totaling $433k and 131 education grants of over $197k.