Marcia Erickson grew up on a cattle farm in rural South Dakota where neighbors knew and took care of one another. If one neighbor fell ill or got hurt when it was time to bring in the corn, the others were ready to help. “The crops can’t wait,” Erickson said.
That spirit of helping her rural community stayed with her and made a career in affordable housing and community development a natural fit. Erickson has worked in the field for 38 years and counting, coming up with fresh ideas, strategizing and giving voice to rural concerns. Her work as a co-founder and co-CEO of GROW South Dakota, a statewide nonprofit that advances housing, community and economic development, led NeighborWorks® America to choose Erickson as the recipient of the 2026
NeighborWorks Founders Award. Lori Finnesand, Erickson’s co-CEO, nominated her for the award, which is presented each year to a current or former leader from NeighborWorks or its network who has greatly improved the affordable housing and community development field. Recipients are chosen for their enduring legacies, their innovation and their dedication to the values that contributed to the formation of NeighborWorks America, a Congressionally chartered nonprofit that creates opportunities for people to live in affordable homes, improve their lives and strengthen their communities.
Growing with GROW SD
Erickson had been working on advertising design for a local newspaper when she came across a job at what was then known as Northeast South Dakota Community Action Program. “This job found me,” she said. “This career found me. And I settled into it and grew up with GROW South Dakota.”
It was when she was out on an assignment with her weatherization team, she said, that she knew for sure she was in the right place: She had an up-close view of the difference her organization was making in people’s lives every day. “The homeowners save energy, their home lasts longer and they’re warmer, they’re healthier. That was a turning point for me,” she said.
In a number of communities in South Dakota, Erickson can see businesses that would not be there without GROW South Dakota’s help. Main Streets have stabilized and businesses have expanded from one town to the next because GROW provided them with that first seed money to get things going. 
Drive into a neighborhood, and Erickson can find families living in their own homes where they are building generational wealth because of her nonprofit. “Seeing the smiles on their faces when they were able to open the door for the first time as a first-time homeowner – it’s been amazing. I love seeing the difference we make. I like visiting with our customers and seeing how they’re doing when they start a new business or expand a new business. There’s meaning in my job and that’s what brings the passion.”
Erickson credits her team, her board of directors, and Finnesand with helping her do her job. Her husband has been a huge support, too, she added – and she supports him on the family farm. “I’ve got two passions in my life that I’m able to be a part of,” she said. “Who could ask for anything more than that?”
An outsized impact
GROW South Dakota nominated Erickson for this award not just because of all she’s done for the community, but because her impact has been felt locally, statewide, and nationally, said Finnesand. “She goes looking for resources so we are not dependent on one sole resource to make the agency thrive. The organization would truly not be where it is without her leadership.”
As co-CEOs, the two women push each other, and their friendship has grown with the organization. “I often say it’s not lonely at the top when you have someone like her,” Finnesand said. “I don’t have a sister, so I call her my sister.”
To Finnesand, a founder is someone who is not just dedicated, but who has made lasting change “and looks beyond.” That's Erickson, she said.
"I have had the pleasure of working alongside Marcia and seeing firsthand the growth of GROW South Dakota under her leadership and the lasting impact of her work across communities,” said Marietta Rodriguez, President & CEO of NeighborWorks
America. “Marcia is deeply deserving of the Founders Award. Her leadership has not only expanded opportunity across South Dakota but has helped shape stronger communities and a more resilient field. We are proud to recognize her legacy and the meaningful difference she has made in people’s lives.”
Erickson increased GROW's service area from 17 counties to the entire state, and assets have expanded from $20 million to $118 million. Other historical impact includes: 8,345 units weatherized; 851 Governor’s Homes sold; 2,619 business loans totaling $125.6 million; 1,628 housing loans totaling $26.3 million; and $95 million in investment in educational facilities in Oglala Lakota County.
Reaching deep into communities
Toby Morris, managing director of Colliers Securities, worked with Erickson on many projects over the years. But it was their unique partnership between the school system on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Morris’s firm, and GROW South Dakota that highlighted her outside-the box thinking when they used New Market Tax Credits to renovate or build five schools, including Lakota Tech High School. After securing the financing, GROW then leased the building back to the school.
“Within the first three weeks, we were pushing 400 students,” he said of Lakota Tech. “If it wasn’t for her creativity, her willingness to want to help, that project never would have come to fruition. We never would have been able to get those tax credits to that district, we never would have been able to provide the overall impact. It’s so easy to say ‘no.’ I think she always starts a sentence with, ‘Yes, okay, now let’s figure it out.’”
Erickson’s calling, Morris said, “has always been to make South Dakota better.”
In a supporting letter for Erickson’s nomination, Tawney Brunsch, executive director of Lakota Funds and a board member for GROW South Dakota, said she worked with Erickson to advance housing and business initiatives across the state. But the access to New Market Tax Credits for the expansion of the schools was a high point, as was Erickson's work with the South Dakota Native Homeownership Coalition. “Her legacy will be felt long after she decides to retire,” Brunsch said.
Looking beyond
On the hourlong drive from her home to Sisseton, South Dakota, where GROW has its offices, if someone waves to you, you’ll be called out if you don’t wave back, Erickson said. And if someone hasn’t seen you for awhile, they check to see how you are. "It’s amazing how everyone in a small town and rural areas really cares for each other,” she said. “It’s a lovely environment to grow up in.”
That’s the environment she wants to create for others. She brings that sense of caring to her work on committees and boards. She has served as chair of NeighborWorks America’s National NeighborWorks Association and on the boards of the Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Region 8 Community Action Association and the Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines Advisory Council. In both state and national forums, she makes sure sure rural voices are heard.
She brings her passion to each project and programs: housing counseling and financial and digital literacy. And in the intentional loans for businesses ranging from beauty shops and restaurants to meat and poultry facilities that provide jobs to her state. The organization even helped with the construction of a ball field. Community building takes place family by family and brick by brick.
During Erickson’s tenure, in 2007, GROW South Dakota also joined the NeighborWorks network. “We wouldn’t be where we are without NeighborWorks America,” Erickson said. But NeighborWorks has learned much from Erickson and her organization, too.
Erickson said she and her staff do their work so that communities can thrive and “people in our small-town, rural communities can have the quality of life they love.” As a leader, that's something she wants to ensure for future generations, too. “It’s been a wonderful experience living in rural America.”
