Money on the table

This page is a running inventory of public money that a city of 2,400 on the Cuyuna Range — or its fire department, or a local chamber, historical society, or trail group — can lawfully apply for. It is maintained by me, Jimmy Davidson, a Crosby resident, entirely from the funders' own published program pages. Nothing here is secret or speculative: every entry links to the funder's own page, and every dollar figure, match ratio, and deadline comes from that source.

Grant programs change their rules and dates every year, and some of next year's details simply haven't been published yet. Anywhere a date, cap, or percentage still needs a phone call to the program office, it's marked "(to confirm)" rather than stated as settled. If you spot an error or a program I've missed, the address at the bottom of the page reaches me.

Three words that show up constantly in grant-land, defined once:

The near-term deadlines, September through December 2026. Anything marked "(to confirm)" follows the funder's published pattern from prior years but hasn't been announced for this cycle yet.

Sourcewell is the Region 5 service cooperative headquartered in Staples, serving Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd, and Wadena counties. It is funded by fees from its national purchasing program, not taxes, and it puts millions back into this region every year. Crosby has already won here: a $50,000 Community Impact award in 2024 for IT and communication improvements, a Boost grant in 2025, and radios for the Crosby Fire Department in the December 2025 round (Ironton's fire department got breathing apparatus in the same round).

One structural note worth knowing: eighteen area cities are full voting members of Sourcewell and help select Community Impact awards at its annual Review Day — and none of the Cuyuna-range cities is currently among them. Voting membership is initiated by the city itself under Sourcewell's bylaws.

IRRR is the state agency, funded by taconite production taxes, that invests in communities of the Taconite Assistance Area — and Crosby is inside it, via the Crosby-Ironton school district boundary defined in Minn. Stat. § 273.1341. This is not theoretical money: the city won $400,000 for alley infrastructure in 2024, and the agency's FY2027 budget grew to $76.9 million, up eight million from the year before. Most programs open July 1 and run until late May or until the money is committed — applying early in the fiscal year matters. Each application needs a city council resolution approving it.

The state's big-ticket lanes for a city like Crosby are DEED's Small Cities Development Program and the Public Facilities Authority's water money — and Crosby's own recent record proves the pipeline works: the city was awarded $3.5 million for sewer and water main replacement in 2025 and a $309,000 lead service line replacement grant in December 2025. The DNR's recreation grant programs run on a late-winter annual cycle; the 2026 deadlines have passed, so the dates below are next-cycle expectations until the DNR posts them.

USDA Rural Development is built for towns exactly Crosby's size — and smaller cities in the region carry eight-figure USDA water packages. Applications for the core programs are accepted year-round through the Baxter service center, about 15 minutes away. Crosby's numbers matter here: with a population under 2,500 and a median household income of roughly $43,250 (about half the state figure), Crosby clears the SEARCH program's income test comfortably. For the Community Facilities program, whether Crosby lands in the 75% or 55% grant tier turns on an income figure (to confirm with USDA's Baxter office, 218-829-5965) — though in Minnesota practice those grants top out around $50,000, with long-term direct loans doing the heavy lifting.

The quiet story in this whole inventory: Crosby's single most under-appreciated funder is headquartered in Crosby. The Hallett Charitable Trusts give roughly $1 million a year, fund only the Cuyuna-range communities, and explicitly accept applications from tax-exempt governmental entities — meaning the city itself can apply. The annual deadline is September 1; with 2026's window effectively passed, the realistic next cycle is September 2027, which leaves a full year to build a quality application.

This list changes monthly — funders publish new cycles, close pools early, and revise caps every year, and this page will be refreshed as they do. If you spot an error, a stale date, or a program that belongs here and isn't, write me: jimmy@agenticpersonnel.com. Corrections make the list better for everyone.

Two companion pages give this inventory its context: The Proposal explains how the city can actually work this list without adding staff, and The Numbers walks through the city finances that make every one of these dollars matter.