In our Summer issue of Giving Forum, “Public Policy and Philanthropy: Many Roads Lead to the Same Destination – Change,” John Larsen, trustee and administrator of the John Larsen Foundation, says, “Ultimately, the work of our foundation is about creating real, systemic change, and that can only happen when we start talking to government. Whether you’re a small family foundation like us, or a very large foundation, we all need shifts in public policy in order to achieve really significant lasting social change.”

The challenge is that working to achieve shifts in public policy is often equated with lobbying. And the thought of walking up the steps of the Capitol or testifying before a legislative committee is more than many funders can fathom.

Lobbying, however, is not the sole avenue to influencing public decision making and advocating for causes. Although it is the most recognized public policy engagement tactic, it is only one of 18 distinct policy strategies that Julia Coffman outlines in “A User’s Guide to Advocacy Evaluation Planning,” published by the Harvard Family Research Project.

A “Framework of Public Policy Activities,” which we include in Giving Forum, also includes using electronic outreach and social media, coalition and network building, grassroots organizing, briefings and presentations, polling, pilot projects, research investigating issues and identifying solutions and policymaker education, among others – all of which can impact public decision making, which ultimately shapes policy development, approval and implementation.

A foundation can engage anywhere along the continuum, pursuing those activities that fit its capacity, culture, commitment and comfort levels. A public policy activity that feels right for one foundation may not fit another.

Many foundations choose a combination of strategies, leveraging their resources to: raise awareness of where the public stands on particular issues; bring together divergent points of view to first converse then collaborate; empower community members to advocate on their own behalf by providing technical assistance; increase the capacity of nonprofits to mobilize others; identify messages that resonate with policymakers and the public; determine what would happen if the status quo was allowed to prevail; aggregate what is known already about an issue and put that to work to further discussion; or identify possible solutions and best practices.

These MCF members have each chosen distinct strategies to impact public decision making that fit their capacity, culture, commitment and comfort level. Read more about their work in our just-published Giving Forum:

Lead article:

Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation: An outgrowth of its grantmaking and programmatic activities, community dialogues and business loan work, SMIF’s public policy activities, including building coalition and networks and partnering with the media to draw attention to the issues and how public policy could impact the success the foundation seeks.

The Minneapolis Foundation: As part of the School Readiness Funders Coalition, a group of funders with diverse strengths and abilities in advocacy work, The Minneapolis Foundation brings to the group its ability to lobby and testify at legislative hearings to advocate for the coalitions “Agenda to Achieve Learning Readiness by 2020.”

John Larsen Foundation: When awarding grants supporting work toward LGBT equality, the foundation  considers if educating policymakers is an end goal of the nonprofit’s work and if the organization has a research plan and a track record of communicating those findings to policymakers.

Indian Land Tenure Foundation: Striving to ensure that lands within the original boundaries of reservations is acquired, owned and managed by Indians, the foundation views education about land issues a priority, as well as identification then pursuit of strategies for achieving legal reform.

Women’s Foundation of Minnesota: The explosion of social media has created a new landscape for the foundation to leverage its expertise to educate, engage and broaden its reach to shift attitudes, behaviors and institutions that limit equality for women and girls.

Voices of Philanthropy articles:

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Identifying partners best qualified to successfully implement strategies and measuring what’s important to guide future initiatives drive the foundation’s advocacy work.

Initiative Foundation: Based on the belief that local people are the key to strengthening communities, the foundation increases civic engagement by providing training, technical assistance, resource referral and grants to help citizen-based teams develop and carry out strategic plans.

While these efforts are diverse, the common thread amongst them is the recognition by these foundations that strategically developing goals to influence public decision making and intentionally engaging in public policy activities and advocacy work can move systems change forward.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

In fact, the study says that 58 percent exceeded the minimum distribution requirement by at least 5 percent of their average investment assets.

The larger payouts are continuing into 2010, the Foundation Source also notes, reporting in May that it was seeing a 15 percent increase in grantmaking among its clients.

“Ninety-nine percent of all family foundations are under $100 million,” says Foundation Source President Andrew Bangser. “These generous foundations represent more than half of all foundation giving in the US, nearly $16 billion in 2007. … The data shows that most family foundations have not limited their giving to the minimum amount required by the IRS. And small and midsize family foundations stepped up dramatically in this tough economy to assist a wide variety of people, organizations and causes.”

Foundation Source provides support services for more than 900 private foundations across the U.S. representing $4 billion in foundation assets.

To learn more about the study, view it online on the Foundation Source’s website, or read about it in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

-Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

“While foundations traditionally have given great attention to the 5 percent of their assets they typically pay out each year, PRIs provide us with an opportunity to think about what we do with the other 95 percent and what our role could be in working with our community partners,” suggests Kathleen Fluegel, executive director of HRK Foundation, a member of the Minnesota Council on Foundations (MCF).

The Spring 2010 issue of MCF’s Giving Forum focuses on how Minnesota grantmakers are magnifying impact and creating change through innovative philanthropic initiatives. PRIs – loans, loan guarantees, lines of credit and equity investments that earn a foundation a return on its investment of 1 to 2 percent in most cases – are playing a prevalent role in energizing the field.

Fluegel recalls that when the younger generation of HRK trustees introduced PRIs to the board as a new foundation tool, the idea was “embraced by the older generation, and it energized all of us because of new, creative possibilities,” she says.

For example, HRK offered a PRI to one of its long-time nonprofit partners who was having difficulty timing cash flow to acquire pieces for its museum. “We realized that a line of credit could give the organization more flexibility,” Fluegel explains. “Raising money for the acquisitions wasn’t an issue; it was quick turn-around that presented challenges.” With the line of credit, the museum could purchase an object and then take the time needed to raise the money and repay the loan.

In this issue of Giving Forum, we also spotlight PRI maker Sunrise Community Banks.

With its community development mission, Sunrise provides financing that other institutions might view as risky. “We’re willing to take the extra steps to make some of these projects work, because we know they will positively impact the community,” acknowledges Nikki Foster, Sunrise Community Banks’ vice president of community development.

Through its Sunrise Homeownership Alliance, an innovative, nationally recognized initiative, Sunrise Banks secured deposits from organizations such as The Minneapolis Foundation and the John Larsen Foundation. These deposits fuel lending through the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation and Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services. These nonprofits provide financing to individuals to buy homes  on a three-year contract for deed, during which time the individuals participate in credit counseling to learn how to repair their credit and set aside savings, so they’re able to refinance into a conventional mortgage. Also part of the financing mix are federal dollars from the Family Housing Fund.

In this issue’s “Giving Trends” article, MCF research manager Juliana Tillema outlines how PRIs got their start, some recent trends and the opportunities and benefits that PRIs can present for both foundations and nonprofits. She notes that, because PRIs require funders to integrate deep program knowledge with financial and legal expertise, PRIs are most often made to organizations with which a grantmaker has a well-established relationship, when a strategic investing opportunity arises with those partners, and when capital is needed to realize a shared goal.

Who are Minnesota’s PRI Makers? Tillema cites MCF research that lists 11 MCF members, about half of whom made their first PRI recently – in either 2008 or 2009. The list includes: Blandin Foundation, Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, HRK Foundation, John Larsen Foundation, Lutheran Community Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, Otto Bremer Foundation, Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation, and the West Central Initiative.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

In this new reality, Minnesota foundations and corporate giving programs are looking inward at their own operations and capacity, as well as outward at the communities they support, to expand their impact and turn a stiff-sounding, fuddy-duddy word like ‘philanthropy’ into a hotbed of creativity and change.

Our spring issue of Giving Forum highlights several Minnesota grantmakers engaging in innovative work.

“We view philanthropy as a community activity, rather than an individual one,” explains Trista Harris, executive director of Headwaters Foundation for Justice, a community foundation that relies on fundraising to secure resources to support its own grantmaking. Her organization has intensified its focus on donor organizing and engagement, identifying groups of people who want to make a difference and working to help them do that together.

“People connections are what sustain our major, long-time donors,” Harris says. With a small staff, Headwaters needs to be mindful of how it spends its time and energy. For instance, if its staff is making presentations standing up in front of a room of donors, is this the most effective way to help build community or is it just conveying information? “We need to figure out how we build relationships among people with similar interests and then how we enrich those relationships.”

Last fall, Headwaters invited donors and nonprofits to tour the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit Line. Harris explains that this was a tangible way to connect donors with organizations that were putting their contributions to work. Donors want to see their dollars in action moving ideas forward.

Kevin Walker, president and CEO of Northwest Area Foundation, believes that shaping public policy has the biggest leverage potential for philanthropy. “My exhortation to our sector as a whole is that we all have a responsibility to think about public policy, not just good programs on the ground,” he says. “I hope all funders ask themselves, ‘Given the issues we care about, what are the public policy dimensions, do we have an opinion about those dimensions, and are there organizations that we ought to strengthen because we think their perspective needs to be heard?”

As Northwest Area Foundation focuses on better public policy approaches to addressing poverty, it is looking to build community leadership and strengthen the capacity of advocacy organizations that can frame and push forward an agenda that helps low-income families make ends meet.

The Hugh J. Andersen Foundation family members are conscientiously and strategically working to involve younger generations in their work. The enthusiasm and commitment of the next generation is integral to the family foundation’s future.

Sarah Andersen, board president, acknowledges some of the challenges family foundations will face as they bridge generations. Perhaps the main issue is how the generations define community. “My generation defines it more geographically – where we live. Supporting the neighborhood food shelf may be important to us. The next generation is much more global. What’s important them may be on another continent,” she says.

In addition, as more family members move to other communities, “How do we as a foundation that currently defines itself geographically, focusing on the St. Croix Valley and St. Paul areas – and that emphasizes that we support ‘community’ – address the challenge of only having one or two trustees living in the area where the foundation makes its grants?” Andersen asks.

Addressing these challenges will require innovative approaches by family foundations.

Our spring issue of Giving Forum also spotlights the innovative, energizing work of Aveda Corporation, Sunrise Community Banks, HRK Foundation, Best Buy, West Central Initiative, Mark and Charlie’s Gay Lesbian Fund for Moral Values, and Minnesota Community Foundation and .The Saint Paul Foundation.

Also in the issue, Susan Taylor Batten, president and CEO of the Association of Black Foundation Executives, challenges the philanthropic field to advocate and innovate for diversity, inclusivity and equity to foster leadership reflective of the communities it serves.

To read more about how Minnesota foundations are reinventing their giving by engaging a broader range of people and organizations, increasing the participation of those currently involved, and searching for more impactful investments in community, visit mcf.org to read the spring issue of Giving Forum.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

While the theme was noticeably less bleak at the 2010 briefing, held Jan. 29, 2010, than it was at the 2009 program, panelists cautioned that times are still tough and will remain so for the foreseeable future. No one, though, is throwing up their hands at a loss for what to do.

Joining Harris as panelists this year were: David Etzwiler, executive director, Medtronic Foundation; Kevin Walker, president and CEO, Northwest Area Foundation; and Kate Wolford, president, The McKnight Foundation. These four foundation leaders shared how their organizations are faring in these still-turbulent times, their predictions for 2010 and strategies for the road ahead.

Headwaters Foundation was founded to create systems change rather than charity. Harris portrayed its efforts as “going up to the roof to fix the leak rather than putting a bucket under it to catch the drips.” These times of great basic needs have been particularly hard for organizations doing systems-change work. She called for foundation boards to have a balanced “portfolio” that includes not only grantmaking with clear, known outcomes, but to stretch their organizations by taking some risks. “If we can’t take risks and we don’t want failure, we’re going to be in the same place. … Sometimes grants fail or don’t turn out the way anyone planned, but we’ve learned something. Going back to only those things that are predictable and comfortable is not the way to go, because that hasn’t been enough to get us where we need to be.” She concluded her comments with hope, saying, “Anytime the economy tanks the way it has, we’re reminded that ‘those people over there with their issues’ can be any one of us.’ This situation we’re in right now will move us toward a much better state and country.”

At Medtronic, leadership is increasingly asking the hard questions and responding to the hard questions being asked of them. Etzwiler said these include: “What’s changing? Are we just looking to get the bucket in the right place or are we getting up and fixing the roof?” In addressing these, Medtronic is expanding its view of philanthropy to include corporate social responsibility and a three-pronged approach: community responsibility to support needs such as those addressed by United Way, Minnesota Food Share and others; relationship building that is engaging Medtronic employees and leveraging the immense skill base that those employees can bring to communities; and shared values, which is involving some risk-taking on the part of the company in areas where, as Etzwiler explained, “The company believes we not only have a responsibility to play a role in a solution, but lead toward a solution.” He gave the example of sudden cardiac arrest. “We’re going to put ourselves out there and tell you what we think change is going to look like over the next few years in a few communities where we think we can have great impact. To the extent we miss those endpoints, we’re going to let you know and tell you why.” He concluded, “We’re much better off now than we were a year ago. … We have no choice but to think that, with radical, well-thought out thinking and innovation, we can have a positive impact on the current situation.”

Wolford of The McKnight Foundation shared how her organization has had to weigh the dramatic roller-coaster ride of the stock market, its effect on assets, the incredible needs being felt now with a mandate that the foundation exist in perpetuity. Even with tight resources, Wolford said it is important to McKnight that it continue to support existing efforts and strategies, but not close itself off from new organizations and new ideas. In these lean times, McKnight is increasingly exploring opportunities to leverage resources in ways that have broader impact and work across silos. It’s important that we all assess “what are we best positioned to do to make a difference not only with immediate impact but in the long term?” Wolford explained. She concluded by saying that, “This year will be tough, because of the state budget situation and the elections, but we need to think about moving pieces forward. This may not be so much about money as about ways of doing things and positioning for the years ahead. We need to try to instill new ideas and use strong, reliable data to guide decisions. … Foundations also have a responsibility to contribute to the civic debate.”

Walker of the Northwest Area Foundation outlined the factors contributing to his organization’s current reduction in giving. “Flat is not the new normal for us,” he said. The foundation is maintaining its focus on reducing poverty and creating sustainable prosperity by leveraging its funding. Walker defines this as “making sure our dollar pushes other dollars in a direction in pursuit of our mission.” Their approach includes developing leaders, engaging in public policy and catalyzing important conversations. The foundation is also exploring ways to put larger chunks of its funding base to work via program-related and mission-related investments. Walker agreed with the other panelists that each foundation needs to have a funding portfolio that includes both safe bets and efforts that require higher risk tolerance, but he cautioned, “There are dumb risks and there are smart risks. I support foundations taking well-informed, smart risks that other sectors aren’t going to be able to take. That’s our privilege and our responsibility.” He concluded by saying, “Hopelessness should never become an American trait. There will be setback as we try and figure our way out of this trough, but with each passing year, the outlook will get brighter.”

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

How each grantmaker chooses to work “differently” is as varied as the number of foundations and corporate giving programs. Peter C. Hutchinson, Bush Foundation president, recently wrote about the challenges facing his organization: “Like others, we are pulled in competing directions. We want to do the right thing, but there are many right things we could do…The question is: Which right things are right for us?”

In our winter issue of Giving Forum, we highlight several foundations and how they’ve chosen to address the challenge of finding and then focusing on what’s the “right thing” for them to do during these tough times:

The Bush Foundation is keeping its sights on longstanding aspirations and its Goals for a Decade. Explains C. Scott Cooper, director of engagement and communication: “We have decided that the role we need to be playing in this economy is not to react to new problems, but to stay focused on the issues that we think are important – which are the same issues that were important to us before the recession – and to be held accountable for outcomes.”

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, in the midst of developing a strategic framework when the recession hit, stepped back to look for new answers. “Our big ‘a-ha’ came when we decided that – as we sat here in Battle Creek, Mich., where the bottom has repeatedly fallen out of the job market – we needed new answers to grow the economy and to bring into our workforce development perspective entrepreneurship skills and the mindset and tenacity that go with them,” recalls Anne Mosle, vice president for programs.

The Minneapolis Foundation partnered with its donors to establish a Crisis Assistance Fund to assist individuals and families with food, heat and housing, and it matched additional funding from donor-advised funds to support workforce development, education, housing and other human and social service agencies.

The McKnight Foundation is maintaining its long-term focus to fight catastrophic climate change, among other priorities. “There is often a tension between responding to changing times and remaining focused on long-term goals, addressing the most critical issues with appropriate resources, urgency and creativity,” acknowledges President Kate Wolford. Over the course of 2009, Wolford reports that the McKnight board “sharpened our strategic focus in several priority areas, including accelerating the shift to a low-carbon economy, improving third grade literacy in the metro area, and implementing place-based strategies to increase opportunities for low-income residents.”

Land O’Lakes Foundation, in the enviable position of experiencing added funding due to the company’s record growth, launched its Feeding Our Communities initiative. “We looked at who owns us – we’re a cooperative owned by farmers,” explains Lydia Botham, executive director. “And, we looked at rising needs: people who never had to go to a food shelf before who now just can’t make ends meet. We felt that more needed to be done to address hunger, especially in rural areas, where it is somewhat hidden, but just as great as it is in urban communities. Feeding Our Communities is taking our ongoing support of hunger issues to a much higher level, using our expertise and resources locally, nationally and globally.”

Foundations’ responses to the hardships created by the economic downturn are not limited to decisions on funding priorities and strategic plans. Like the nonprofits they support, many also face tough administrative and operational choices. The wellbeing of nonprofits is always top of mind, though. For example, at the McKnight Foundation, “When looking at administrative reductions, a key goal was to minimize any negative impact on grantees,” Wolford says.

Articles in Giving Forum also address funders’ perspectives on the state budget plight, the advent of federal stimulus dollars and where they believe all this turmoil is leading.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

2009 and 2010 MCF Board Members

New directors elected to three-year terms ending in 2012 are: Julie Hara, executive director, Marbrook Foundation; Steve Joul, president, Central Minnesota Community Foundation; LaVon Lee, program officer, Grotto Foundation; Tim Ober, president, Mardag Foundation.

Directors elected to second three-year terms ending in 2012 are: Bill Linder-Scholer, executive director, ADC Foundation; Karen Rauenhorst, vice president, Mark and Karen Rauenhorst Family Foundation; Kris Taylor, vice president of community relations, Ecolab Foundation.

Officers were elected for 2010: Karen Kelley-Ariwoola, vice president, Community Philanthropy, The Minneapolis Foundation, was elected chair; Kate Wolford, president, The McKnight Foundation, was elected vice chair; George Thompson, trustee, Minnesota Community Foundation and The Saint Paul Foundation, was elected secretary; Nancy Nelson, vice president and chief actuary, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, was elected treasurer.

MCF expresses its gratitude and thanks to these retiring board members: Ellis Bullock, executive director, Grotto Foundation; James R. Frey, president/CEO, Frey Foundation; Holly C. Sampson, president, Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation; Jo-Anne Stately, director of grantmaking and special projects, The Minneapolis Foundation.

– Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

The Bremer Emergency Fund (BEF) was a joint response – with foundation grant dollars supplemented by donations from the Bremer banks. In January, the fund gave 81 grants totaling $4.2 million to community organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin to provide emergency financial assistance to families and individuals struggling to provide basics such as food, warm and stable housing, health care and reliable transportation.

“We recognize that timely financial assistance can sometimes make the difference between instability and security, enabling families and individuals to meet emergency needs and retain housing or jobs,” William Lipschultz, foundation trustee, said last January. “Once people are able to meet their basic needs and avert a crisis situation, they are in a better position to access community programs that can help them achieve long-term economic stability.”

Halfway through the one-year grant period, the foundation surveyed its grantees. The results of their responses were released today in an interim report.

“The Resources Available Have Not Kept Pace With the Need”

According to the report summary: “Three-quarters of BEF grantees are seeing more unmet needs than they expected, and many are expending funds much more quickly than they anticipated. Applicants for assistance are in deeper crisis than expected, with broader needs. More people are affected by job loss, and job searches are taking longer than in the past. Homeowners as well as renters are in need of support. Areas with high poverty rates have been especially hard hit.”

Measuring Impact

Grantees are measuring the impact of the BEF grants in a variety of ways, including:

• Increase in number of requests for emergency assistance to which the agency can now respond.
• Increase in amount of assistance the agency can provide to each individual/family.
• Percent of clients’ needs agency could meet.
• Ability to keep clients in their homes, with heating and lighting, and prevent homelessness.
• Ability to provide access to food, assistance for transportation emergencies, help with medical expenses such as purchase of prescription drugs, shelter for homeless clients, assistance in budgeting.
• Ability to help clients retain or find new employment.
• Ability to help clients who have been turned away from all other forms of assistance.
• Ability to help clients meet their goals, resolve the current crisis, prevent future emergency needs, improve family stability, and/or connect to long-term solutions.
• Indirect impacts, which include preventing child abuse/neglect and domestic violence and ensuring school continuation for children.

Sharing What’s Been Learned

Grantees overwhelmingly expressed an interest in learning from each other and sharing resources. Foundation staff are planning to follow up by:

• Facilitating learning among BEF grantees by helping them share information, tools and questions.
• Conducting a final grantee survey in early 2010, the end of the funding period, to explore outcomes, impact and lessons of the grant-supported initiatives and the program as a whole.
• Developing a final learning report on the BEF, including information about the creation, operation, impact and lessons of the program.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

Why? Today, the Bush Foundation, an MCF member, and 14 higher education institutions gathered in St. Paul to announce their partnership, guaranteeing the delivery of 25,000 new, highly effective teachers by 2020. This initiative is key to the foundation’s goal over the next decade of increasing by 50 percent the number of students in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, from pre-kindergarten through college who are on track to earn a degree after high school, and of eliminating the achievement gap among diverse student groups.

Peter C. Hutchinson, Bush Foundation president, described the launching point for this initiative:

“Research has shown that while many factors play a role in educational success, effective teaching makes a bigger difference than any other in-school variable. Research also shows that when students consistently experience effective teaching, there are no achievement gaps. By forming partnerships with institutions who are willing to ensure that children across these three states will have effective teachers, we believe that over the decade we can significantly raise the achievement of every student and reduce disparities among student groups.”

The Bush Foundation and its partners define an effective teacher as one who ensures that each child learns at least a year’s worth of knowledge for every year spent in the classroom. “That seems obvious, but that’s not happening,” said Susan Heegaard, Bush Foundation vice president and educational achievement team leader, in MCF’s summer issue of Giving Forum.

Of the 72,000 teachers currently working in the three states, 40 percent will leave the profession over the next 10 years; some will retire, others will enter another profession. Who will replace them? How will they be recruited, prepared, placed and supported? What difference will they make?

To answer these questions, the 14 partnering institutions have signed on to a partnership they described today as “transformative,” “innovative,” “rare,” “courageous,” “daunting,” and “moving us from good to great.” They stressed that the type and extent of the impact that will result from this initiative can only be achieved by way of working together – not only amongst themselves but with K-12 education institutions and others as well – and becoming a voice for change.

The 14 are: Augsburg College; Bethel University; Concordia University, St. Paul; Hamline University; Minnesota State University, Mankato; University of Minnesota; Minnesota State University, Moorhead; North Dakota State University; St. Catherine University; St. Cloud State University; University of St. Thomas; University of South Dakota; Valley City State University (North Dakota); Winona State University.

In addition to sharing knowledge and dialoguing, each partner will launch a unique strategy that plays to its strengths, while challenging the status quo to ensure the teachers they prepare will be highly effective. An overview of each partner’s plan is available through the Bush Foundation’s website.

One panelist at the announcement today summarized the proposals this way: In the area of recruitment, they move from not very intentional to very intentional; in preparation, they move from theoretical to more immediately hands on, in front of a class; in the area of placement, they move from “hope for the best placement” to “placed in only the best” – in schools that are prepared and able to support these newly trained teachers; in the area of support, they move from providing little to undertaking intensive, multi-year efforts.

For its part, the Bush Foundation is committing $40 million over the next decade, its largest investment in an initiative.

The headline of the media advisory for today’s announcement mentioned the goal of transforming teacher preparation programs and proclaimed “Effectiveness of Teachers Being Guaranteed.”

In a time when the word “uncertainty” is used and used again, the word “guarantee” is truly attention-grabbing. When questioned today about the “guarantee,” a representative of one of the partners equated his institution’s involvement in this initiative to cosmetic surgery: You wouldn’t agree to the surgery unless you were almost certain that all the pieces are in place for a successful outcome.

I would add that this undertaking is also like non-elective surgery: Whatever ailments and challenges you face will not go away on their own.

Can you imagine what our communities will be like in 10 years when the goals of the Bush Foundation and these educational partners are achieved? I can hardly wait.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate

The recently released report, “State of Funding: LGBTQ Grantmaking in Minnesota,” provides a benchmark that measures and describes this giving.

Among the key findings:

• In 2007, 29 Minnesota foundations awarded $1.1 million across 88 grants to 33 LGBTQ organizations and programs in Minnesota. In comparison, nationally 293 foundations granted $77.2 million in 3,206 grants.
• Private foundations accounted for 72 percent of Minnesota grantmaking dollars to LGBTQ issues in 2007. The five foundations that awarded the most dollars were: Kevin J. Mossier Foundation; Bush Foundation; The Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation; AHS Foundation; Otto Bremer Foundation. The five foundations that awarded the most grants were: PFund Foundation; Kevin J. Mossier Foundation; U.S. Bancorp Foundation; John Larsen Foundation; Headwaters Foundation for Justice.
• The study lists the top five LGBTQ strategies supported by Minnesota grantmakers as: 1) Advocacy; 2) Direct Service; 3) Organizational capacity building; 4) Litigation; 5) Community Organizing.
• The top five issues supported in 2007 were: 1) Community building/empowerment; 2) Civil rights; 3) Philanthropic infrastructure; 4) Strengthening families; 5) Health.

Robert Espinoza, director of research and communications for Funders for LGBTQ Issues, presented the findings at a convening of the LGBT Funders Network on Sept. 25 in Minneapolis. A copy of the full report (pdf) is located on the MCF website. A report on funding trends at the national level is also available at the Funders for LGBTQ Issues website.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate