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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MCF Welcomes Maria Salas, New Member Services Manager

December 9, 2011

We are pleased to have aboard Maria Salas, who recently joined MCF as our member services manager.  Maria has more than twenty years of experience serving the nonprofit sector, both as a professional and volunteer.

Maria holds a Masters of Nonprofit Management degree from Hamline University, and a B.A. in Public Health, Social Work and Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota.

Most recently, she served as an Account Executive at Nonprofit Solutions in St. Paul, MN, providing management of several nonprofit professional associations and societies.

Welcome, Maria!

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Yes, We DO Know: Minnesotans Are Generous!

November 16, 2011

Give to the Max Day seems like the perfect time for the Star Tribune’s Guide to Giving Back to hit the streets. This special feature includes MCF research on where Minnesota’s charitable giving comes from. It also features highlights from our donor toolkit on ways to give, whether that means giving directly, through the workplace, through a community foundation, or though planned giving.

And don’t miss the What Gives, Minnesota? feature, reflecting on why Minnesotans rank near the top of national charts on giving their time and money. Reporter Jean Hopfensperger reflects that a reputation for giving goes back to some of the early pioneering Minnesotans, like William McKnight, an early leader of 3M who went on to found The McKnight Foundation, and George Dayton, who founded what would become Target Corporation and the Target Foundation. The McKnight Foundation and Target Foundation, both MCF members, are now two of the largest foundations in the state.

Be sure to look for the section on giving in today’s edition of the Star Tribune! You can also find all of the articles on their website.

-Chris Oien, web communications associate

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Thoughts on Effective Foundations & Nonprofits

November 15, 2011

Jim Hoolihan

In the fall issue of Giving Forum, Jim Hoolihan, outgoing CEO of Blandin Foundation, shares his thoughts on what he believes makes foundations and nonprofits effective.

It’s a revealing read written as he sifted through 19 years of files, memos and other materials from his years of involvement at the foundation.

Look for his thoughts on these topics and more:

  • What matters most in an effective organization are the people. When the right people are in place, the rest falls into place.
  • Money, by itself, is useless.
  • Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • Relationships and persistence are needed to make verifiable progress.

Read his Commentary online or in the printed version of Giving Forum which is likely in your mailbox now!

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

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Funding Women’s Independence

November 9, 2011

Read the fall issue of Giving Forum if your nonprofit helps women achieve independence. The issue contains a Giving Story on the WCA Foundation, an MCF member, which funds programs designed to benefit economically disadvantaged persons, especially women.

The WCA Foundation, founded by 20 women in 1866, is Minnesota’s oldest benevolent nonprofit organization.

Today WCA Foundation is a private independent foundation, run by female volunteers who disburse human services grants of more than $500,000 annually throughout Minnesota. Two-thirds of their grants go to programs that help women achieve and sustain independence.

The group’s first project was soliciting clothing for freed slaves. By the 1920s, residences owned and operated by the organization housed approximately 1,000 of Minneapolis’s 18,000 female boarders. Then in the 1970s, they decided they could be more effective if they used their assets to support existing programs rather than run their own. Their residences were sold and proceeds were invested in three endowment funds from which grants are made today.

In this picture, WCA board members (left and right) hear from MicroGrants founder, Joe Selvaggio, and MicroGrants business owner, Mai’sah Blanton. In May 2011, WCA Foundation awarded $12,000 to MicroGrants.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

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New Annual Rankings of Top Grantmakers in Minnesota

November 7, 2011

MCF today released its annual rankings of the top grantmakers in Minnesota based on cash grants paid in 2010.

Greater Twin Cities United Way Tops Community/Public List
Revising its methodology this year, MCF added public charity grantmakers that make competitive grants to the annual rankings. Included for the first time, Greater Twin Cities United Way ranked fourth overall and first on the list of Community/Public Foundations and Public Charity Grantmakers by grants paid in 2010.

“Including the United Way creates a more inclusive picture of giving in Minnesota,” says Bill King, MCF President. “United Ways and other public charities that give competitive grants, like community foundations, receive individual and corporate contributions and make gifts to nonprofits from the funds.”

The top five Minnesota grantmakers by grants paid in 2010 are: Target Foundation and Corporation ($131.2 million); The McKnight Foundation ($96.7 million); General Mills Foundation and Corporation ($87.7 million); Greater Twin Cities United Way ($65.7 million); and Cargill and The Cargill Foundation ($61.1 million).

Of the 50 top grantmakers by grants paid in 2010, 45 also appeared on the 2009 list. Overall, grant dollars from these 45 decreased 2 percent in 2010 from 2009, but the amount given to Minnesota-based organizations increased by 1 percent. Overall assets for the 45 increased 5 percent.

“Cash giving by Minnesota’s top 50 grantmakers still totals more than $1 billion,” says King. “And the slight increase in dollars staying within our state demonstrates the stability of philanthropic support for Minnesota nonprofits.”

“Looking ahead we’re encouraged by the improvement in top grantmakers’ asset values,” he continues. “This bodes well for grantmaking levels in 2011 and beyond, as grantmakers tend to base grants paid on multi-year averages of past asset levels.”

MCF’s annual rankings are based on the amount of cash grants paid by funders with fiscal years ending June 1, 2010, through May 31, 2011. In order to ensure that grantmakers are compared consistently, in-kind or other noncash contributions are not included.

Corporations Give More than Cash
For corporate giving programs, noncash contributions such as in-kind donations of products, services or volunteer time can be a substantial part of their overall community support. Again this year, MCF invited large corporate grantmakers to self-report information about in-kind donations and other noncash contributions. This information is assembled in the Noncash Charitable Contributions by Minnesota Corporate Grantmakers list.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

Photo cc Teosaurio

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