The conference will shine a light on practical and innovative approaches being used to help people lift themselves out of poverty for the long term.

The break-out sessions will give attendees an opportunity to examine and question these models and the presenters. The conference will also provide opportunities for participants to connect and share information to reduce poverty.

It will explore strategies involving public policy, social entrepreneurship, affordable housing and much more.

Expect to see:

• 20+ presentations on innovative poverty reduction methods and tools
• Site tours of exceptional poverty-reduction initiatives in the Twin Cities
• Renowned keynote speakers
• An optional half-day Community-Builder Institute

If you have been part of an innovative poverty-reduction initiative and would like to share it, get your proposal ready. The call for presentations will go out in December and close on January 10, 2012.

Keep checking back at the Northwest Area Foundation website for upcoming announcements about the conference, including the roll out of the conference website with new features for networking and sharing around the work of poverty reduction.

Today we welcome the perspective of Jeff Peterson, Director of Innovation & Strategy at the General Mills Foundation. He shares here the philosophy behind General Mills Foundation initiatives like Join My Village.

I recently represented Join My Village at a women’s empowerment conference hosted by Womenetics. In what would turn out to be more than coincidental, I addressed this roomful of 300+ women’s activists on the same day that the latest Betty Crocker cookbook hit the stands.  And while most audience members were fashionably nonplussed by Betty’s 90-year run and the release of her 11th edition of “Big Red,” Betty’s legacy – and ongoing utility – may have provided the most actionable lesson for all in attendance.

I paid close attention to the tenor, tone, and topics addressed by my fellow panelists. Loads of empirical – and unexpectedly unemotional – evidence was shared on the proven benefits of empowering women in developed nations and investing in women of underdeveloped ones.  “It is so obvious,” said Astrid Pregal of Feminetics, Inc., “all of the data is there. We just need to start using it.”

Indeed, as access to data has evolved, so has the dialogue on women’s issues.  Yesterday’s Gloria Steinem is today’s Muhammad Yunus.

In addition to increasing our collective consciousness, these evolutions have also increased individual empathy, which is an inarguable measure of progress; when others learn to walk a mile in the sandals of a marginalized woman, the pump of action is surely primed. Yet none of the conference attendees were ready to declare, “Mission accomplished.” In fact, the identification of empirical cost-benefit analyses and the acknowledgement of heightened global awareness seem to be causing more anxiety for advocates today than they did for similar groups yesterday.  Why?

Perhaps because we’ve created too much empathy without enough ease.

New York Times columnist David Brooks recently wrote of the false sense of accomplishment that unaccompanied empathy can provide, stating, “These days empathy has become a shortcut. It has become a way to experience delicious moral emotions without confronting the weaknesses in our nature that prevent us from actually acting upon them.”

Brooks attributes this chasm to a weakened moral state, but I have a more pedestrian hypothesis: we have empathy, but we also have errands. For while I, the father of four daughters, eagerly embraces the spiritual and socioeconomic connections between my 12-year old Alice and another 12-year old Alice halfway around the world, I’m only responsible for getting one to volleyball practice. I have empathy; I need ease.

Which brings us back to Betty’s Big Red cookbook and its relevance to last week’s room of non-culinary change makers. Over the last 90 years Betty Crocker has done less to convince the world that a home-cooked meal prepared with love is a good thing and much more to help us act on that universal – yet often unrealized - conviction.

Similarly, Join My Village is designed to do less to develop new approaches to alleviate poverty through the empowerment of women, and more to invite action in its shared theory for change.

This empathy-to-action ethos should sound familiar to fans and followers of General Mills, as it also underlies the success of Box Tops for Education and Save Lids to Save Lives. These initiatives actively engaging millions of consumer citizens in seemingly intractable social conditions through increased measures of ease, not just empathy.

Or, as Betty might say, 2 parts ease to 1 part empathy.

Photo cc Boogies with Fish

Valerie Halverson Pace, center

If you don’t think philanthropy in Minnesota and the Ukraine have much in common, think again.

On October 20-21, I attended MCF’s conference in St. Paul, The Evolution of Corporate Philanthropy: Building Value and Creating Change, where discussion revolved around truly integrating corporate citizenship and philanthropy within a company’s business strategy.

The previous week in Mykolajiv, Ukraine, the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum, in conjunction with the Center for Social Programs RUSAL, East Europe Foundation, held Ukraine’s first international conference on corporate volunteering.

Both groups heard from Valerie Halverson Pace, west region manager, Corporate Citizenship, at IBM in Rochester, Minnesota, and an MCF member. She spoke of the change that she’s seen in the past 15 years at IBM, a company cited here and halfway around the world for doing things right and pushing the boundaries of corporate citizenship.

According to Pace, IBM is working across business units in 170 countries on pressing issues including the environment, economic development, education, health, literacy, language and culture.

IBM is applying their technology and the talent of their employees to solve problems, rather than simply making cash donations. They provide leadership and insist on excellence. And, whether it’s using voice recognition technology to help children learn to read or cloud computing to make disaster relief tools instantly available to recovery workers, they collaborate with qualified partners and fully expect to effect widespread positive change.

IBM’s efforts include: the Smarter Cities Challenge, a competitive grant program awarding $50 million worth of IBM expertise over three years to 100 cities around the globe; Service Jam and more.

Turns out MCF and the Ukrainian Philanthropists Forum are both members of WINGS, a global network of 145 grantmaker associations. And Bill King, MCF president and a WINGS board member, is responsible for facilitating the Ukraine-Minnesota philanthropy connection.

It’s a great example of one way that MCF is working to promote and strengthen philanthropy in Minnesota and far beyond the borders of our state.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

The day’s first speaker, Chris Pinney, project lead for the national Council on Foundations Corporate Philanthropy 2012 initiative, started things off with a few startling facts:

• Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51% are corporations and only 49% are countries.
• 40% of all current U.S. federal workers will retire in the next few years.
• Governments can no longer fill all of the gaps; government debt is high worldwide, business is often more trusted than government, and social issues are becoming more of a shared responsibility.

And, then he asked a question: “What’s the impact of corporate philanthropy in Minnesota?”

The room was filled with community affairs and foundation leaders from Target, Best Buy, IBM, Medtronic, Ameriprise Financial, General Mills, Wells Fargo and elsewhere, but the room was silent. No one had an answer.

Every foundation and giving program knows what they fund, some can measure the outcomes of their own giving, but no one offered any ideas on the sum total of their efforts – past, present or future – or mentioned a good (or consistently used) way to measure results.

Pinney didn’t have an answer either, but he believes corporate philanthropy must evolve from being about the money to being about “managing the money to achieve results.”

He says corporate grantmakers must lead corporate philanthropy until it is truly and completely integrated with the business strategy.

He gave good examples of businesses that are further along than most in these efforts, including IBM, Cisco and Starbucks. See slides 33, 34 and 35 of Pinney’s presentation for examples of how they are creating and incorporating shared value into their giving and business models.

Stay tuned, I plan to blog about other interesting ideas discussed at the conference. And, if you were there, please add your own views.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

photo cc suttonhoo

The research sample gave $105.7 million to the arts in 2009, the most recent time period for which complete data are available. The sample includes 100 of Minnesota’s top grantmakers and a portion of their grants that represent about two thirds of the state’s philanthropic giving for the year.

The share of Minnesota grant dollars going to the arts has decreased steadily in recent years, from 15 percent in 2004, to 11 percent in 2009. Arts grantmaking falls behind giving to education, human services, and public affairs/society benefit.

“The poor economy and changing priorities at foundations have hit arts organizations especially hard,” says Bill King, MCF President. “Many funders have reduced arts giving and prioritized human services and education giving during tough times.”

Corporate grantmakers, private foundations and community/public foundations all decreased their giving to the category of arts, culture and humanities. Corporate grantmakers, who gave just over half of the arts grant dollars in 2009, decreased their funding by 7 percent.

Private grantmakers, who gave about one-third of arts dollars, decreased their funding by 5 percent to $37.6 million. And community/public foundations reduced giving by 32 percent to $11.8 million.

Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation was the state’s third largest arts grantmaker in 2009.

Sharon DeMark, program officer, explains, “At our foundations, we remain committed to supporting the arts as an important part of a vibrant community.”

As in past years, in 2009 the performing arts subcategory received the largest share – just over one-third – of arts grant dollars. Grantmaking to arts, culture and humanities includes contributions to the performing arts, museums, media/communications, cultural organizations, historical societies, visual arts, humanities and arts services.

“The arts are an essential part of life for all Minnesotans,” stresses Vickie Benson, arts program director at The McKnight Foundation, Minnesota’s second largest arts funder. “Artists help us find meaning and make sense of the world around us.”

In 2009, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated approximately $93 million from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund for projects starting between July 1, 2009, and July 1, 2011. This new taxpayer-funded source of arts funding is not included in MCF’s philanthropic research.

MCF conducts Giving in Minnesota research annually to examine long-term trends in charitable giving. MCF’s complete Giving in Minnesota, 2011 Edition, will be released in October.

This year’s summaries on giving to arts, education and human services, and complete research from prior years, can be found at www.mcf.org/research/giving.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

The George Family Foundation, the Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation  organized the briefings to explore how funders can more effectively impact health outcomes for Minnesotans at three levels:

• Institutions: Social and economic factors play a large role in the health of the general population, but much of the public discourse focuses on treating the sick and the cost of doing so. Philanthropy can help shift the orientation and understanding of health care from paying for illness to promoting health.
• Communities: Communities have the power to maintain and sustain the well-being of their members. People live integrated lives. Integrated systems serve the whole person and the community as a whole. An integrated model of health focuses on primary care and the social determinants of health.
• Individuals: Individuals have great responsibility for their health and wellness. Health reform is not a legislative issue – it is a personal issue. Payment reform is a legislative issue. We also need to invest in caregivers, as when we do, we invest in those they care for.

Here are some key take-aways for funders interested in promoting wellness:

• Fund community organizing as a form of prevention.
• Broaden policy influence to include changing behaviors.
• Review your grant investments in a cultural wellness framework. How are they aligned?
• Invest in the infrastructure of small, new and innovative nonprofits doing interesting work.

More advice to funders is included in a summary of the briefings. You can also find the presentations from the speakers on MCF’s website, as well as links to other health related news and resources.

Image CC Olle Svensson

- Stephanie Jacobs, MCF

Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) gives this perspective:

“Building democratic philanthropy is a call to action for both organized philanthropy and individuals to support the development of institutions and practices that begin with the vision of communities first, and that draw on the assets of those communities as the starting place for any blueprint to maximize their potential. It is a call to institutions and individuals to engage the voices of impacted communities, and to leverage individual action for collective good.”

To see AAPIP’s video take on building democratic philanthropy, check out this short video:

AAPIP’s Annual Membership meeting is this Sunday, April 10, 2011, preceding the start of this year’s national Council on Foundations 2011 Annual Conference in Philadelphia.

Watch AAPIP’s meeting and community program live online starting at 7:30 CST. Links for the livestream are on AAPIP’s website.

The community program will feature the Asian Mosaic Fund, one of AAPIP’s giving circle partners, which has played a growing role in supporting many of the community-based organizations in Philadelphia.  The fund has been an important part of am expanding national movement for the development of giving circles as a critical source of philanthropic capital for our communities. (Don’t know what a giving circle is? Check out mcf.org.)

The program also will feature an update on AAPIP’s Giving Circle Campaign and a panel discussion.

AAPIP is a strategic partner of the Minnesota Council on Foundations. The Minnesota chapter, established in 1998, currently has a healthy and active group of more than 25 institutional, individual and associate members. For info on the chapter, visit the website. Chairs are Dorothy Skobba, The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota; and Lorri Todd, The McKnight Foundation.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

If you’re interested in checking out and downloading some of the resources from the conference, please visit the Schedule & Resources page at mcfconference.org. Feel free to share what you find there.

Handout highlights include a deck on the Minnesota Philanthropy Tax Credit, information shedding light on Program Related Investments (PRIs), a presentation on how to use communications to develop funds for community foundations and much more.

Minnesota Council on Foundations will also be presenting two more grantmaking conferences in the summer and fall, one for corporate grantmakers and another for family and independent foundations. Stay tuned for information about these non-to-be-missed events!

Buettner might take issue with that claim, as unlike a fountain that instantly restores youth to anyone who drinks from its waters, his Blue Zones — hotzones of human health and vitality — are populated by people doing the right things, day after day, every day of their long lives.

He and researchers from the National Institutes of Health and National Geographic have discovered five small populations that claim the world’s longest disability-free life spans. Residents of the zones, from Sardinia, Italy, to Okinawa, Japan, to Loma Linda, California, live to be 100 at a rate that is 10 times the rate of the general U.S. population.

Working with a second team of scientists, he has isolated the common denominators that explain the extraordinary longevity. While there is no “magic bullet,” Buettner’s Blue Zone prescription is surprisingly simple. Sorry, I’m not going to give it to you here.

Have you ever asked questions like these:

• What is the optimal diet for making it to a healthy age 90?
• Should you be running marathons or doing yoga?
• What dietary supplements work?
• Does stress really shorten your life?

If so, you don’t want to miss Buettner’s Opening Keynote Blue Zones: Secrets of a Long Life at MCF’s Community/Public Foundation Conference March 17-18, 2011, in St. Cloud.

Buettner will debunk the most common age-related quality-of-life myths and offer a science-backed blue print that the average American can use to live another 12 quality years.

Conference and hotel rates rise a week from Tuesday, so register today!

- Susan Stehling, MCF

We all know the status quo is not acceptable and things need to change. Yet, how can we create the change we need (or “be the change we want to see” – to borrow from Gandhi) when change is so hard?

At the closing plenary of MCF’s 2010 Annual Convening last fall, Chip Heath (yes, that’s him in the photo), co-author of Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, engaged grantmakers in a lively illustration of the dynamics of change – featuring a logical, rational rider atop a massive elephant, which symbolized the power of our emotions. If we humans can balance logic and emotion, then the chance for change is good.

In directing the rider, Heath says, seek out the bright spots: Look for what’s working and do more of that. Even if the bright spots seem small, they represent positive, incremental change. Bright spots are different than best practices, which often mean “be more like them.” Strategy is about fit, he emphasizes, and highlighting bright spots is a call to “be more like me when I’m at my best.” His challenge to Minnesota: Can you scale your bright spots?

So, amidst the gloom of the current budget crisis, take a look at the bright spots we’ve highlighted in the Winter 2011 issue of Giving Forum:

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation: Reaches Beyond Health Care to Reduce Health Inequities
• Blandin Foundation: Leaders Expand Opportunities, Enhance Community
• Frey Foundation: Collaborating to End Homelessness
• Miller-Dwan: Spearheads Campaign for Mental Health Center
• Stevens Square: Seeds Innovation in Elder Issues
• Northwest Minnesota Foundation: Bands with Executives on Economic Drivers
• Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation: Eyes Workforce Needs
• Wells Fargo: Employees Coach and Mentor to Combat Disparities
• Sauer Children’s Renew Foundation: Strives to Break Cycle of Child Abuse

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate