The Key to a Prosperous Future for All Minnesotans

February 3, 2012

What would a prosperous future for all Minnesotans look like? And what will it take to get there? Presenters and participants at yesterday’s Minnesota Compass annual meeting, Positioning Ourselves for Prosperity, asked these tough questions. Steven Rosenstone, chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, kicked off the discussion by stating, “Human capital is the key to a prosperous future for all Minnesotans.” But our state is not currently effectively developing this critical resource.

Rosenstone noted that we have a significant and growing workforce shortage:

  • There is a skills gap: Unemployment remains high, while many businesses struggle to find workers who have the technical skills they need.
  • Workforce shortages will increase in the future, as Minnesota’s population ages.
  • Currently, our education system does not successfully meet workforce needs.

One critical key to addressing this workforce shortage is tackling Minnesota’s racial achievement gap.

  • Minnesota is becoming more diverse. In the Twin Cities, the population of color has tripled in the past twenty years. One in five residents is now a person of color. The same is true for one in four of our children – our state’s future workforce, parents, and leaders.
  • The gap between the percentage of non-Hispanic white students and students of color who are proficient in reading by the end of 3rd grade is about 25 points.
  • The gap between the percentage of non-Hispanic white students and students of color who are proficient in math by the end of 11th grade score is about 30 points.
  • And the gap between the percentage of non-Hispanic white students and students of color who graduate from high school on time score is about 30 points. Just over half of students of color graduate on time.

Participants discussed ways we use these hard facts to galvanize the government, nonprofit, and grantmaking communities – and ultimately all Minnesotans – to take meaningful action to close these gaps. The work will be difficult. But Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, vice president of community philanthropy for The Minneapolis Foundation and a past board chair for MCF, called the room to action. In addressing these achievement gaps, we must all be:

  • Strategic: Invest in high return upstream strategies.
  • Intentional: Ask, will this close the gap?
  • Inclusive: Listen to our community stakeholders.
  • Outspoken
  • Relentless

-Anne Bauers, MCF research manager

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The McKnight Foundation Forecasts Its 2012 Grantmaking

January 20, 2012

In a letter to grantees, MCF member The McKnight Foundation has announced its plan to invest $95 million in grantmaking for 2012. This is similar to the foundation’s 2011 grantmaking, and McKnight president Kate Wolford says it “reflects our board’s commitment to providing sound stewardship of Foundation assets while sustaining momentum across programs.”

McKnight also previewed some of its big programs and activities to come in 2012, including:

  • Working with a number of school districts to build seamless pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade programs that get children ready for school and keep them engaged. McKnight has partnered with the Urban Education Institute of the University of Chicago for this initiative, to bring research-based tools and expertise to these efforts.
  • Going “beyond the rail” to increase equity and shared economic impact of new transit investments.
  • Celebrating 30 years of the McKnight Artist Fellowships program, which makes awards to individual artists in 12 disciplines.
  • Support to communities around the globe in East Africa, South America, the Mekong River area and more.

The full letter, with more details of what McKnight accomplished in 2011 and what it plans for the year ahead, is on the foundation’s website.

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First-Hand Insights on 2012 Education Grantmaking

January 18, 2012

MCF today hosted the first of four webinars reviewing grantmakers’ giving outlook for 2012. Our topic today was education. Upcoming sessions include human services, health and arts.

We reviewed recent trends in education giving and the grantmaker outlook for 2012. Then Bill King, MCF president, chatted with Mike Newman, vice president and director of community relations, Travelers Foundation, and Susan Heegard, vice president and educational team leader, Bush Foundation. These leading grantmakers described several important trends in education grantmaking for 2012:

  • Grantmakers will continue to focus on collaboration as a way to share learning opportunities with partners, leverage resources, and prevent duplication. Heegard explained, “If there are other folks working in this area, we want to make sure that we’re adding value and figuring out carefully where our niche is.” Newman added, “We as a philanthropic sector, along with the nonprofit sector, are learning how to better connect with one another.”
  • One benefit of collaboration is enabling grantmakers and nonprofits to be learning organizations. “Learning – and sharing that learning with others – is really critical, whether you have success or not,” said Heegard.
  • Data will continue to drive grantmaker decision making. Heegard noted, “You want to use data to guide the front-end decision: How should you invest? And then you want to use data to track your progress: how are you doing?”
  • Even as collaboration becomes increasingly important, Newman noted that grantmakers will continue to fund diverse priorities and programs. Heegard added that this makes sense — to fund across the full spectrum of education needs.

The grantmakers also offered their own advice to nonprofits seeking grants in 2012:

  • Know your own work well. Newman commented, “Be clear about who you are and say it with clarity.”
  • Know your colleagues and potential partners. “Have a good knowledge of who else is doing similar or related work. Distinguish your efforts, or figure out a way to come together with others in partnership,” Heegard said.
  • Understand the grantmaker, including areas of focus. “Check out our website. Talk to colleagues. Find out who else we fund. That gets you a helpful overview,” Newman advised.

One great tool for understanding grantmakers’ guidelines and which nonprofits they’ve supported in the past is MCF’s Minnesota Grantmakers Online.

Other Grantmakers to Share Advice

Three upcoming webinars will delve deeply into other subject areas, and they will feature conversations with grantmakers from The McKnight Foundation, Medtronic Foundation, Miller-Dwan Foundation, Minnesota Philanthropy Partners and Otto Bremer Foundation.

Register today to learn more about Minnesota’s funding landscape in 2012!

-Anne Bauers, MCF research manager

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New Coalition for Early Childhood Care and Education

January 4, 2012

A newly formed coalition of funders, the Start Early Funders Coalition for Children & Minnesota’s Future, will address early childhood care and education issues and enhance Minnesota’s approach to meeting the needs of children and families through public policy, research and shared learning.

A study released by the University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development in February 2011, found:

  • for every $1 invested in a school-based early education program, $11 is returned to society over the children’s lifetimes
  • there is an 18 percent annual return on investment in early education programs (a far greater rate of return than any other common public investments)

The coalition will leverage its unique perspective as early childhood funders to advance public policy and community support for affordable, accessible, high quality care and education in Minnesota so that all children have a strong and healthy start and are prepared to contribute to Minnesota’s vitality.

The Start Early Funders Coalition currently represents more than 20 organizations that are a part of Minnesota’s philanthropic community, many of whom are MCF members.

The coalition provides critical leadership, funding, research, program development, public policy and grant making to improve early childhood efforts in Minnesota.

Together, the coalition represents:

  • Statewide leadership on early childhood issues
  • The voice of Minnesota’s philanthropic community
  • A credible and unique perspective as funders
  • A commitment to shared learning
  • Dedication to capacity building
  • A long-term comprehensive vision for children and our state

In the past year, significant progress has been made across the state to enhance Minnesota’s approach to early childhood care and education. However, half of Minnesota’s children remain inadequately prepared for school, and Minnesota’s achievement gap, currently among the widest in the country, must be addressed.

The Start Early Funders Coalition will work to combat these types of issues and others faced in Minnesota by uniting philanthropic and policy efforts with research and shared learning.

The group represents the merger of the School Readiness Funders Coalition and the Early Childhood Funders Network.

For more information, visit their new website.

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Investing in Every Resident of our State

December 22, 2011

Last week Minnesota learned it was among nine states to win a “Race to the Top” education grant.

Minnesota will receive $45 million – $20 million of which is targeted to high-poverty areas in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Itasca County and on the White Earth Reservation. The rest is designated for oversight and accountability, including a new ratings system to help parents find quality child care providers.

In recent (and not so recent) years, Minnesota seems to have had more bad than good education news. And this grant is GREAT news! I say that because it will put money toward what we know works.

When kids enter school ready to learn, learn to read in 1st and 2nd grade, and read to learn by 3rd, they have a much better shot at success in school and life.

And we know how to get kids ready to learn. According to The Minneapolis Foundation, an MCF member, the Minneapolis Public Schools have seen a 13 percent increase in the number of children entering kindergarten ready to learn after just 3 years of funding. There are lots of other examples out there too.

Art Rolnick summarized it quite nicely in his post yesterday on mpr.org:

While many of us think of Minnesota as the education state, roughly half of our children do not start school healthy and ready to learn. And research shows that when kids start school far behind they don’t catch up. Many of those kids drop out of high school and are much more likely to struggle in our society. Indeed, criminologists claim that they can predict the need for prisons in the future by the number of children who are not proficient in reading by the third grade.

That last sentence astounds me!

So Minnesota, let’s match the federal money. Let’s really start investing in every resident of our state and fund early education sufficiently, so every child has access to preschool and all-day kindergarten. And every child truly has the opportunity to become a productive citizen.

Would anyone out there really rather fund prisons?

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

Photo: cc woodleywonderworks

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We All Do Better When We All Do Better

December 1, 2011

Earlier this week I received a press release with a pleasingly optimistic headline: Minnesota Ranks Second in the Nation in Groundbreaking New Measure of Opportunity in America.

It continued: Minnesota outperformed almost every other state in the union, earning an Opportunity Score of 81.2 out of 100. Sounds good, but based on other information I’ve read recently, I’m not sure it tells a complete story.

The achievement gap, based on race and socioeconomics, persists in Minnesota. Things are above average for some state residents and far below average for others.

Excelling in Education:

  • Good News: Minnesota has one of the highest on-time high school graduation rates (87%) in the country.
  • Bad News: According to an analysis of 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress results by MinnCAN, African American students remain more than three grade levels behind white students in math and more than two grade levels behind in reading. Low-income students are more than two grade levels behind wealthier peers. Only the District of Columbia has consistently had a larger gap.

Weathering the Economic Downturn:

  • Good News: Minnesota’s unemployment rate is significantly lower than the national unemployment rate (7.4% vs. 9.1%, respectfully).
  • Bad News: An Economic Policy Institute study recently found that the rate of unemployed African Americans in Minneapolis is three-times that of whites, the highest disparity in the country. State Demographer Tom Gillaspy said the findings are similar to U.S. Census data for all of Minnesota.

So, to my mind, the news just isn’t good enough for all of our state’s residents. Paul Wellstone put it simply, “We all do better when we all do better.”

Watch for the Winter issue of Giving Forum to learn how Minnesota grantmakers are addressing these and related issues.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

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