Meet the nine organizations selected as 2025 Bush Prize honorees!

The Bush Foundation celebrates and supports creative problem solving across the region through the Bush Prize.

Bush Prize honorees are doing big things in partnership with their communities. They are organizations that have a strong track record of community problem solving and work with others to make the region better for everyone.

The Bush Prize provides up to $250,000 in flexible funding to each organization, and the grant can be used for things like building up reserves, testing the next big idea or anything else that supports ongoing work.

The Bush Foundation offers this program in partnership with four grant partners—Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Good Relatives Collaborative, Strengthen ND and the South Dakota Community Foundation. Each partner (with Bush in an advisory role) selects the Bush Prize honorees.

Congratulations to all of the 2025 amazing honorees!

Bush Prize: Minnesota
Operated by Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation

Foster Advocates is the only organization in Minnesota that advocates for state and county legislative, policy and practice reform to improve experiences and outcomes with Minnesota Fosters (those no longer in foster care but have that experience).

Dakota Wicohan is a Native-led nonprofit based in the Dakota homelands of Cansayapi, dedicated to preserving Dakota as a living language, and through it, transmitting Dakota life ways to future generations.

Bush Prize: Native Nations
Operated by Good Relative Collaborative

Minneapolis American Indian Center provides essential services and a central gathering space for the Twin Cities urban Native community. The center serves about 10,000 people a year through its education, employment, health, social service, fitness, cultural, youth and elder programs, which are provided at no cost to participants.

Makoce Agriculture Development is a Lakota-led, community-driven nonprofit situated on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Makoce’s mission is to develop Indigenous Agriculture and Food Systems designed to regenerate equitable, healthy communities, economies and our environment.

Turtle Mountain IMPACT is a grassroots violence prevention education initiative located on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota.

Bush Prize: North Dakota
Operated by Strengthen ND

TNT Kid’s Fitness creates inclusive spaces where children and adults with physical disabilities as well as those who are neurodiverse can thrive alongside their peers.

Hip Hop & Hope engages youth and adults affected by incarceration, addiction, and homelessness through mentorship, music, and community outreach.

Bush Prize: South Dakota
Operated by South Dakota Community Foundation

Abbott House serves more than 200 children and young adults each year in Mitchell, Sioux Falls, and Rapid City by providing long-term, trauma informed support that includes therapy, education, life skills training, and consistent relationships they need to thrive.

Youth & Family Services offers a wide range of evidence-informed, developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive programs that span education, prevention and recreation, health-care services, case management, trauma-informed counseling, mentoring, healthy relationships education, nutritious meals, training and technical assistances, and other support services.