Four Fond du Lac County communities are proving partnerships can be just as powerful as capital when supporting rural small businesses.

Raina Lyman, senior director of economic development for Envision Greater Fond du Lac, moderated a discussion between what she called “a quirky, funny group of administrators” at the 2025 WEDA Fall Best Practices Conference Sept. 25 at the Oshkosh Waterfront Hotel & Convention Center.

About 200 attendees from around the state gathered for the three-day conference exploring economic development issues including technology advancements, entrepreneurship, talent attraction, business expansion and retention, and redevelopment and revitalization opportunities.

The panel Lyman moderated featured the administrators of Ripon, North Fond du Lac, Campbellsport and Waupun who, with guidance from Envision Greater Fond du Lac, launched the WRNC Business Opportunity Fund. This new initiative aims to fuel local business growth and innovation by providing flexible, low-interest loans to support startups and expansions in the four participating communities.

It was spurred by a conversation on the housing shortage that started more than a year ago. Envision Greater Fond du Lac convened the group to discuss the shared housing challenges their communities faced.

“That was the first time the four of us were in an actual room together,” says Adam Sonntag, Ripon city administrator.

“It took these conversations to realize we were sharing the same challenges and frustrations,” says Charlie Kudy, Campbellsport’s first village administrator. “We are a lot more similar than we are different.”

These conversations and the housing forum that resulted were “the door to this collaborative spirit,” says Waupun City Administrator Kathy Schlieve.

The WRNC Business Opportunity Fund, supported in part by a $240,000 Small Business Development Grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, focuses on enhancing local economies through two funding tracks: the WRNC Start-Up Fund and the WRNC Expansion Fund.

The WRNC Start-Up Fund offers loans up to $10,000 for new businesses and the WRNC Expansion Fund offers loans up to $25,000 for businesses growing their operations.

Each award includes a forgivable grant component for businesses that meet specific milestones like opening, job creation or revenue growth. Applicants are required to receive technical assistance from Envision Greater Fond du Lac.

“The technical assistance [requirement] is something you don’t see in other programs,” Sonntag says. “Getting that assistance is something that really was the value add to other programs.”

Schlieve says as local entrepreneurs continue to struggle to access capital, the need for such programs is even more vital.

“Revolving loan funds exist because there’s a gap and there’s risk inherent to that,” she says. “The structure of this will be a case study to follow. I see it as a pilot and the hope is we continue to grow.”

Nick Leonard, village administrator of North Fond du Lac, says the loans offer a flexible payback schedule, anywhere from 48 months to 10 years, to make them manageable for entrepreneurs outgrowing home-based businesses.

“We were watching entrepreneurs trying to get access to Fond du Lac County loans and it was painful,” Sonntag says. “We wanted to make this very flexible and appealing to entrepreneurs. As administrators in the community, we are engaged with these people and understand their ideas. Why are we treating this like they want millions when they just need $10,000?”

Three loans have been issued through the program so far, with interested applicants from each participating community. The first three are all women-owned businesses and include two startups and one expansion.

Sonntag sees the WRNC Business Opportunity Fund as the first of many future collaborations between the communities.

“Beyond this program, we’ve formed relationships where we can discuss other things,” he says. “It’s finding each other’s strengths and bringing them to the table to further the reach of what we could do by ourselves.”

The communities are currently discussing a potential collaboration on ambulance service, for example.

“The real heart of this program is that collaborative spirit,” says Lyman, who points to a new accelerator launching this fall as another initiative to support rural businesses.

IGNITE Rural is an business accelerator program designed specifically for solopreneurs. Hosted by IGNITE Small Business & Startup Success, a program of Envision Greater Fond du Lac, this initiative offers a series of workshops to empower and support entrepreneurs in Waupun and throughout Fond du Lac County.

Raina Lyman

Adam Sonntag

Charlie Kudy

This article was published in Insight on Business