I’m thrilled to see that Minnesota Helps – North Minneapolis Recovery Fund will be awarded the “Outstanding Contribution to Philanthropy” award. It’s a well-deserved honor that comes just six months after a tornado slammed into the north side of our city. Thus far, the fund has provided $1,337,160 to assist the residents of North Minneapolis.

Shortly after the tornado hit, local foundations and the Greater Twin Cities United Way joined together to create the fund to quickly assist those directly impacted by the storm.

The effort has been led by the following partners, almost all of them members of MCF (marked with an asterisk).

• The Minneapolis Foundation*
• Greater Twin Cities United Way*
• GiveMN.org
• Best Buy Corporation*
• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation*
• CenturyTel, Inc.
• Comcast*
• Cummins Foundation
• Faegre & Benson Foundation*
• George Family Foundation*
• The Grotto Foundation*
• James R. Thorpe Foundation*
• Land O’Lakes, Inc.*
• Lunds and Byerly’s
• McKnight Foundation*
• North Star Fund
• Park Nicollet Foundation*
• Pohlad Family Foundation
• The Saint Paul Foundation*
• TCF Foundation*
• US Bank – Private Client & Trust Services*
• Wells Fargo Foundation*

Many of these partners made large donations and also matched contributions from city residents and others who answered the call for assistance. GiveMN.org waived credit card fees on donations, so 100% of every donation went to help those in need.

Thanks to all of the funding partners and to those who contributed to the fund. We all make Minnesota a better place to live.

Funds Still Available
And, funds are still available for nonprofits, faith based organizations and public entities providing support and financial assistance to those most affected by this disaster. Learn more about how to apply for funds.

-Susan Stehling, communications associate

1. Make sure that your own organization has a disaster/business continuity plan.
2. Have conversations with your board and staff about disaster response and recovery at least annually and be prepared to think and act flexibly.
3. If you are a community foundation, know how to activate on line and other donation mechanisms (like www.givemn.org) quickly.
4. Have a basic understanding about the roles of local, state and national government agencies in your service area related to disaster. In Minnesota, a great resource is Homeland Security and Emergency Management, a division of the Department of Public Safety.
5. Provide matching funds for fundraising efforts and have a plan for announcing those matches in the media.
6. When raising donations or matching funds, convey that dollars will be used for both short and long term recovery needs.  Long term recovery dollars are the hardest for communities to find (and you may want the flexibility to decide about “patient” capital later).
7. Leverage (don’t duplicate) short term resources that will be available if a disaster occurs including Red Cross, Salvation Army, Lutheran Social Services, Catholic United Finance Foundation.
8. Consider how disaster recovery and community rebuilding aligns with your existing grantmaking priorities (you might be surprised!) and what you can do to shorten forms, expedite approval procedures and simplify reporting requirements while supporting relief work.
9. Support the MNVOAD (Minnesota Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) framework for organizing community based planning and response.
10. Reach out to colleagues (especially those at foundations who have been thrust into disaster grantmaking by chance rather than choice) and don’t forget about these resource organizations for tools and best practices: Council on Foundations, Minnesota Council on Foundations, and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy.

Join the conversation: Has your organization been involved in disaster response? What would you add to this list?

Stephanie Jacobs, MCF director of member services

Photo cc biondisign

Margaret Cargill

Read the fall issue of Giving Forum for an update on what’s happening at Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, where grantmaking has started in the areas of Environment; Relief, Recovery and Development; and Arts and Cultures.

• Environment: Grants made in June focus on land-use solutions in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and neighboring Great Bear Rainforest in Canada; also Micronesia, to support efforts to preserve coral reefs and land-based resources. The next grants likely will be made in Asia, focused on marine- and land-use in Indonesia and Cambodia. Watch for a local subprogram focus on connecting youth with the outdoors.
  Email: environment@macphil.org
• Relief, Recovery and Development: First “rapid response” grants made in September 2011 to Midwest community foundations, to help residents affected by flooding and tornadoes.
  Email: reliefrecoverydevelopment@macphil.org
• Arts and Cultures – Native Arts, Teacher Education, and Folk Art: Organizations working on Native Arts in the Pacific Northwest are now being invited to apply for grants from the Native Arts program. Those doing similar work on Native Arts in the upper Midwest, including Minnesota, will soon be invited to apply.
  Email: artsandcultures@macphil.org

Other program areas that the organization will address are under development. They will include: Aging services; children and families; animal welfare; and planned health.

Most, if not all, of these areas will include a component of local giving. Terry Meersman, vice president of programs for Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, explains:

“We’re clear about our program areas, and we’re clear there will be local giving. As much as possible, we’d like to be consistent in the areas we’re defining for national and global giving, but until we have things laid out completely, it’s hard to say that there will be an exact parallel structure locally.”

Read the Giving Forum article for much more information.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

• The Mosaic Company has posted a $100,000 matching grant for the Minneapolis-based American Refugee Committee to GiveMN. Every donation to ARC will be matched by Mosaic, with transaction fees also covered, allowing donors to double their impact. Donate now through GiveMN.
• The General Mills Foundation is donating $100,000 to the American Refugee Committee’s efforts, in the form of an initial $50,000 donation plus an offer to match donations from other Twin Cities companies up to $50,000.
• In response to the General Mills matching offer, Best Buy is donating $50,000 and carrying the matching challenge forward, with an additional $50,000 available to be matched.
• The Cargill Foundation has made a $100,000 donation to its longtime partners, CARE and the World Food Programme, two global organizations that fight hunger and poverty and are deeply involved in the Horn of Africa crisis.

MCF has set up a page to track grantmaker responses to the famine as we hear about them. Check back at mcf.org for further updates.

Here’s a sample of how MCF members have helped thus far:

• The Minneapolis Foundation, The United Way Twin Cities and other funding partners have set up a North Minneapolis Fund to match public giving up to $200,000 at giveMN.org. Read the complete news release.
• General Mills Foundation has committed $75,000 to support immediate response efforts in Missouri and Minnesota. Read more.

• Target Corporation has donated $50,000 in monetary support and product to the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Read more.

• Mosaic has donated $25,000 for tornado relief efforts. Read more.

Scenario:

Your foundation is hosting a two-day meeting of 100 grantees and your board of directors. The foundation is footing the bill for all expenses. The meeting is being held at a Twin Cities metro area hotel and grantees are flying in from all over the country. Some are bringing family and extending their stay – before or after the meeting. The program includes four popular and well paid keynote speakers.

The evening before the meeting, the hotel experiences a fire that puts it out of commission. You, as communications lead, learn about the fire at 2 a.m. What do you do to inform guests of this incident and set up “Plan B” for the meeting?

Steps to a solution:

• Activate your command team (should include communications, project lead, finance person with access and authority to make financial transactions, logistics person)
• Check with hotel regarding their crisis plan, their back-up space and transportation details
• Immediately update websites (hotel, foundation, conference, etc.) and phone messages
• Determine a physical staging site and use it until all participants can be transported to the new meeting location
• Dispatch someone to the airport to meet those whose itineraries you know

Goal:

Ideally good communication and preemptive responses will ensure that there is minimal interruption. And while you need to be aware of legal and medical implications of communications, you must communicate.

Lived experience:

Take a look at how the Northwest Area Foundation communicated the release of, “Gaining Perspective: Lessons Learned From One Foundation’s Exploratory Decade”. And check out Sylvia’s related post at “Transparency: A Risky Business”.

Image CC sereneonion

– Sylvia Burgos Toftness, Northwest Area Foundation

This is the third in a series of posts from MCF’s recent ComMotion meeting. Look for the next posting on Engaging Employees in a National Community Giving Program on Friday, May 20.

The Minnesota Council on Foundations is supporting these efforts by hosting conversations with grantmakers and nonprofit allies, and also by publicizing news updates about activities that foundations, corporate grantmakers and their nonprofit partners are undertaking.

You can keep up-to-date with the latest resources and information on the spring floods specifically at the new mcf.org. In addition to disaster-specific information, we also have a general Disaster Giving page where resources can be found both for funders as well as individual donors on how to give responsibly and effectively in times of immediate need.

To stay in tune with all reporting by MCF on disaster giving, you can drill-down into the “disaster” category at mcf.org/news or subscribe to the RSS feed for disaster giving updates. As always, grantmakers who wish to send in their updates can submit their information to us via the website or e-mail.

Minnesota’s response to the tragic series of natural disasters in Japan continues this legacy of support. We at Minnesota Council on Foundations are tracking the money and in-kind contributions pledged by MCF members and other Minnesota grantmakers. This information is being posted at mcf.org.

To keep track of the latest Minnesota foundation and corporate grantmaker aid pledged to support the relief effort in Japan, bookmark the Minnesota Grantmakers Respond page, or follow us on twitter @FollowMCF. Minnesota grantmakers can report their giving online.

Are you an individual donor looking for guidance on how to give responsibly to ensure your donations go to reputable nonprofits? MCF’s ally Charities Review Council has tips for individual donors on disaster giving at smartgivers.org.

GiveMN, a donation platform for Minnesota nonprofits, reported yesterday that all donations to organizations supporting Japan made through their portal will have no transaction fees thanks to the generosity of their technology partner, Razoo. Visit GiveMN.org for more information.

Flood survivors use PUR sachets provided to them by Oxfam to disinfect drinking water.

Despite the magnitude of the disaster in Pakistan, the response from individual donors and grantmakers alike has been characterized as “sluggish”. Why has the response been so anemic, and what can yet be done for the survivors of this natural disaster?

Understanding the Sluggish Start

Although NGO’s now report a slight uptick in aid flowing to Pakistan, there is still much need, and the mystery remains why the response to the disaster has not mirrored the response to past natural disasters. A blog post at Asian American Giving suggests that reasons may include:

• The death-toll and  ill-effects of the flood are not as dramatic or immediate as the earthquake in Haiti in January or the 2004 tsunami.
• Donors are experiencing fatigue in this economy, and those in the West in particular are not accustomed to giving during the summer months.
• There are concerns among donors that money given to support relief efforts may end up in the hands of the Taliban.

The Prognosis, and What Individuals Can Do

Due to the nature of the natural disaster in Pakistan, the full effects will not be accounted for until well after the water line has receded.

Just yesterday the U.N. released a message warning of the specter of disease hovering over the children of Pakistan, particularly those who have been walking through sewage contaminated water with their families to find dry ground. Outbreaks of endemic cholera, upper respiratory infections and diarrhea are a part of a growing list of threats to these 3.5 million children.

If you’re interested in helping the people of Pakistan, there are many trustworthy NGO’s responding to the disaster who are eager for your support — Oxfam, MercyCorps, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF among them. For a more complete list of options visit USA Today, or Asian American Giving.

The Philanthropic Response

To track ongoing developments in the philanthropic response to the floods in Pakistan, please visit the response page on the Council of Foundation’s site.

Minnesota Council on Foundations is currently collecting information from our members regarding the philanthropic response in Minnesota to the flood. If you’re a grantmaker in the state, please email a description of your activities to news@mcf.org.

Image CC Oxfam International

Speakers:

• Monte Achenbach, senior director of programs, American Refugee Committee
• Michele Boston, co-founder and executive director, No Time for Poverty
• John Hasse, senior director for Latin America and the Caribbean, World Vision
• Ali Lutz, Haiti program coordinator, Partners in Health
• Lisa Rothstein, international manager, Healing Hands for Haiti

Following are notes summarizing the Q&A discussion:

• For some nonprofits who previously had difficulty gaining corporate support, the support of the business community has been appreciated during this disaster relief effort.
• Some lessons to be learned regarding in-kind donations:

Much of what is donated is not needed; Haiti is a small island, and there are “cemeteries” of unused product.

Storing products is a problem. With buildings demolished and hurricane season approaching, there aren’t places to store product that is currently sitting outside unprotected.

Transportation of product is also a challenge. Right after the disaster, even if product was shipped to a port other than Port-au-Prince, the gas lines were cut off, so there was not fuel for truck transport.

Some education needs to be done about what is needed in disasters. Nonprofits need to clearly articulate specifically what they need. Money is the most flexible and allows the organization to use it where it’s needed.

Nonprofits, especially small organizations, need to learn to say “no thank you” to some product donations that don’t match the need; but sometimes that’s hard, especially if the organization is trying to develop a relationship with a donor/company.

When donating product, think of the donation in baby steps: how will it get to where it’s needed, how will it be stored, will it get used before its expiration date, is there a plan to get the product from one organization to another organization that can use it?

• Nonprofits saw some coordination and sharing of goods on the ground in Haiti, but it didn’t seem like there is much coordination before the product was sent to Haiti.
• Regarding shelter and sanitation needs, the country is still in emergency mode.
• While some believe the United Nations cluster groups were on the right track in trying to facilitate communication around the relief efforts, others thought much could be improved to effectively and efficiently coordinate and lead during the immediate response phase.
• Many Haitians do not feel safe inside buildings and will not go inside, yet want to stay by their homes, so many are cooking, eating, working outside their homes and businesses, even if the building is still standing; we need to be sensitive to this when rainy season comes and rebuilding starts.
• It is a struggle to have even the large NGOs coordinate their disaster response – each disaster and situation is different; however, there could be a role for funders in helping to enable this.
• Important to track outcomes – not just what’s being done, but to make sure that what’s being done is meaningful.
• An immediate response to a disaster often fills donors’ need to feel needed and to help, but donors should also look at supporting long-term rebuilding/response efforts. This may require some education, so that employees, for example, understand that their company is responding to the disaster – even though the response is not immediate – in an effective way that works for the company. (Employees are often the driving force of corporate responses.)

Join the conversation: If you’re a funder, what are the burning questions you’d like to ask of nonprofits on the ground in Haiti? And to the nonprofits, what would you ask or discuss with funders if you could sit across the table from them?

MCF has compiled responses by Minnesota grantmakers to the Haiti earthquake. We continue to update this site as we learn more. Our website also contains valuable disaster relief resources for grantmakers.

-  Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate