The Wedum Foundation was incorporated in the late 1950s by the Wedum Family of Alexandria, Minnesota. Its initial assets were the remains of the estate of Mr. J. A. Wedum who had been the first of three brothers and a daughter that emigrated from a farm near Lillehammer, Norway in the late 1880s. Mr. Wedum started, owned and operated a number of hardware and lumber businesses in the west central Minnesota area and assisted two of his brothers and several other relatives from the Lillehammer area come to America and become established in like businesses all the way into Montana.
The Foundation was started by the Wedum Family primarily to provide scholarship opportunities to worthy students in the west central towns in which they had conducted their businesses. As the Fund grew and the opportunity to expand its area of activity, the Foundation became a supporter and through grants encouraged the Citizens Scholarship Foundation of America to establish local community scholarship activities, known as "Dollars for Scholars," in over 120 communities in Minnesota. It is now actively supporting the national development of this program in a campaign to create regional support for the development of like programs in all 50 states.
The Foundation has provided support for a number of other activities: these include two very successful Christian Camps in Wyoming and New Mexico; the assistance in creation of a public school by a grant to acquire the site in a low income minority area in Martin County Florida; the successful preservation of a major wetlands habitat area with the assistance of the Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Fund and Ducks Unlimited in central Nevada; and support for several elderly care facilities.
The Foundation provided financial assistance to the development of three drug and alcohol treatment facilities in the rural areas around Minneapolis and has made a major investment in a computer software company that supported an experimental Senior HMO. It has also been instrumental in developing management tools for the development of fully integrated Health Care Maintenance Organizations, provider groups and hospitals.
The Fund has typically provided annual grants from $250,000 to $400,000 and has attempted to act as a catalyst in drawing other supporting groups into programs that it finds worthy of funding
