Submitted Photo From left to right, Jared Stoll, Ashely Stoll, Megan Langley, Aaron Vetter and Mary Podoll stand with a check presented to Strengthen ND from Farm Credit Services Rural Community Grant Fund.

Strengthen ND is a nonprofit organization that supports and accelerates community development all across North Dakota.

Founded in Minot in August 2015 by Megan Langley, after shared recognition around the increasing disparities seen in rural communities versus urban areas, the organization specializes in working with rural communities to support their long-term viability and livability throughout all of North Dakota.

Langley said this is done in three ways: by building nonprofit and community capacities, advancing regional issues and facilitating community solutions.

Strengthen ND offers a formal nonprofit certificate program, an Americorps program and technical assistance offerings and opportunities.

One of its most recent projects is a strong farms incubator in Baldwin that is looking to revitalize small production agriculture and small family farms.

“We will be officially kicking off our strong farms incubator program with our inaugural class of participants. We will be able to have folks begin their journey into small production agriculture and owning and operating their own businesses beginning in January. They will be on the farm beginning in April or May, depending on when the frost is out of the ground,” Langley said.

Langley said while this is a huge milestone for the organization, there are more ways the organization believes it can support communities in North Dakota.

“It has achieved everything we would have hoped for and so much more, yet we have so much further that we want to go,” Langley said.

In early 2022, the Bush Foundation announced Strengthen ND as one of its four partners to develop, implement and evaluate a new funding initiative: Community-Based Grantmaking Programs. Strengthen ND’s approach has been to deconstruct current inequitable systems by increasing the accessibility of available charitable dollars, and elevating fellow North Dakotans to make the decisions about how the funds will be invested.

In the future, Strengthen ND is looking at a regional processing facility on its property and hopes to continue growing grant-making opportunities.

“We will also be seeing the Bush prize North Dakota coming back to North Dakota again for 2024,” said Langley.