The Minneapolis Foundation is launching a new fund to aid small businesses in response to the ICE surge. It’s set to distribute $3.5 million in grants through the coming weeks to “established community organizations with deep experience in small business support,” according to a press release Tuesday.

The new Economic Response Fund is intended to help small businesses pay staff, cover rent, and maintain hours and inventory. Twenty-eight Minnesota companies have seeded the fund, per the release, and companies and individuals can still contribute online.

“Small businesses and their employees are facing enormous disruptions right now, and these Minnesotans make essential contributions to our regional economy,” R.T. Rybak, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Foundation, said in the release. He described the new fund as “a great start for the business community to help mobilize resources to support the lives and livelihoods of our neighbors.”

The 28 Minnesota companies that have seeded the fund include: Allianz, Allina Health, Andersen Corporation, APi Group, Best Buy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MN, C.H. Robinson, CHS, Delta Dental, Donaldson, Ecolab, General Mills, HealthPartners, Kraus-Anderson, Land O’ Lakes, Inc., Medica, Medtronic, Mortenson, Prime Therapeutics, Securian Financial, Sleep Number, SPS Commerce, Target, Tennant Company, Thrivent, The Toro Company, U.S. Bank, and Xcel Energy.

The foundation’s announcement comes a day after it pledged to distribute $2 million in the coming weeks to organizations meeting “immediate basic needs,” including food and housing for individuals and families affected by the ICE surge. That money taps a pool reserved for “urgent and emerging needs” in greater Minneapolis, called the OneMPLS Fund and created in 2019.

Those grants build on $500,000 already disbursed by the foundation this month in rapid response, delivered to organizations working directly with individuals, families, and neighborhoods, per the foundation’s website.

“This ICE surge is creating real and immediate hardship for people across our community,” Rybak said in a Monday press release. “These grants are the latest step we are taking to move resources quickly to nonprofit organizations that are showing up for our neighbors when they need it most.”

The Minneapolis Foundation compared its new Economic Response Fund to its Restore-Rebuild-Reimagine Fund, which gathered $50 million in corporate, public, and individual contributions in support of community and business needs following Covid-19 and George Floyd’s murder.

Commenting on the Economic Response Fund, Mortenson chair David Mortenson stated, “Today’s circumstances are different, but the needs are both urgent and evolving.”