McNeely Center receives $750,000 grant from Manitou Fund

Saint John's University was recently awarded a $750,000 grant from the Manitou Fund for the Donald McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University. This is a five-year pledge beginning with the 2013-14 academic year. This commitment will provide the needed support to continue the core operations of the Donald McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship while SJU continues to pursue endowment and annual support to sustain the operations long term. 

"This gift from the Manitou Fund is such a wonderful way to honor Donald McNeely," said Terri Barreiro, director of the McNeely Center. "The gift provides core support for the McNeely Center and enables us to sustain its life-changing programs for students, the ongoing services to entrepreneurial alums and the campus wide engagement strategies that stimulate entrepreneurial approaches to marketplace and social issues in the world around us."

Since its founding in 2004, the Donald McNeely Center for Entrepreneurship has evolved into a highly successful interdisciplinary program that serves students, faculty and alumni of CSB and SJU. It is touted for its unique emphasis on both business entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.

The Manitou Fund was established in 1966 by Donald McNeely to fund many of his charitable interests. In 2009, The Lee and Rose Warner Foundation, another Foundation started by Donald McNeely, was merged into the Manitou Fund. The current Board of Trustees of the Fund is composed of Mr. McNeely's children and certain officers and employees of Space Center, Inc.