Wright-Hennepin Members Donate $75,000 to Local Organizations

Contact: Lauren Dublin
Phone: (763) 477- 3111
Email: ldublin@whe.org

Rockford, Minn. (May 12, 2025) — Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association (WH) members who participate in Operation Round Up (ORU) donated grants totaling $75,000 in April. ORU has awarded more than $5.4 million since it began in 1994.

ORU participants allow their electric bills to be rounded up to the nearest dollar. The rounded amount is then used for donations supporting local programs. Approximately 90% of WH’s members participate in the ORU program, contributing a total of almost $20,000 each month. ORU’s board manages the donated money, which is held in a trust fund. Through a selection process and review of guidelines, the ORU trustees evaluate funding requests on a bimonthly basis.

Watch a video demonstrating the local impact of ORU at bit.ly/WH-ORU25.

At their April meeting, the ORU trust board donated the following on behalf of WH members:

• $10,000, Community Action Partnership of Hennepin County, funds to provide low-income energy assistance.
• $8,000, Hope Chest for Breast Cancer Foundation, funds to provide financial assistance to breast cancer patients.
• $7,500, Angel Foundation, funds for emergency financial assistance for cancer patients.
• $7,500, Can Do Canines, funds to support an assistance dog.
• $7,500, Helping Paws, funds for trained service dogs for people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• $6,500, Gillespie Center, funds to support weekly meals.
• $5,000, Boys & Girls Club, funds to support programming and meals for youth at Voyageur Environmental Center.
• $5,000, Friends of the St. Michael-Albertville-Hanover Library, funds to purchase books for children.
• $5,000, Open Doors for Youth, funds for the Connections program for youth experiencing homelessness.
• $3,000, TreeHouse, Inc., funds to support one-to-one mentoring, peer support groups, trips, and activities.
• $2,500, Annandale Art & Textile, funds to purchase an additional loom and related accessories.
• $2,000, Buffalo Youth Anglers Club, funds to sponsor pieces of the program.
• $2,000, St. Joseph the Worker Angel Quilters, funds to purchase quilting supplies.
• $2,000, West Village Homeschool Co-op, funds to support scholarship needs.
• $1,500, My Brother’s Keeper, funds to purchase quilting supplies for sleeping blankets for the homeless.

Learn about the activities ORU supports and find the grant application here, email oru@whe.org, or call ORU Trust Administrator Lisa Zipp at (763) 477-6126.

Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility that provides power to rural Wright County and western Hennepin County. The cooperative has been a corporate citizen to the area since 1937 and currently serves more than 59,000 electric accounts. It is headquartered in Rockford, Minn.