The event will recognize 12 local winners of the prestigious Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

Among the 12 are the following MCF members who will be recognized for their notable corporate volunteer efforts:

• Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America
• Medtronic Inc.
• Securian Financial Group Inc.

Also at the event, in the spirit of community giving, the Business Journal will collect old cell phones for the nonprofit, Cell Phones for Soldiers.

For more information or to RSVP, see the Business Journal’s website.

- Susan Stehling, communications associate

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

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of sitting in on a member-initiated briefing on youth mentoring, co-sponsored by the Travelers Foundation and the Carlson Family Foundation.

Coming into the program, I already solidly believed in the importance of the subject matter, as I can recall more occasions than I can count on two hands when a teacher or tutor has made the difference between passing and failing. Even now, in my college years, I am extremely grateful to have math tutors available to help me get through my microeconomics and finance classes­. For me, the one-on-one encouragement, attention and accountability remain crucial.­

So how do we pinpoint what makes a mentorship experience effective?

The resounding reason for attending the program given by most of the grantmakers was the desire to learn more about a new online program assessment tool called the Quality Mentoring Assessment Path, or QMAP. QMAP is presented by the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota (MPM) and based on the latest policies, practices, experience and research for youth mentoring.

During the program, grantmakers were shown a video demonstration of how QMAP works, along with next steps available after an assessment is completed. One of these steps includes a follow-up visit from an MPM staff member to help design an individualized improvement program and provide additional resources.

These steps help answer the big question provoked by undergoing the QMAP assessment: “Based on results, what is the plan for improvement of your mentoring program?”

Why Assessment Is So Important

As powerfully put by Saint Paul Public School Foundation’s Karen Woodward, “Literacy is life or death.”

In today’s competitive age of information and technology, in order for kids to have the best chance at success, tutoring and mentoring have proven time and again to be key components. Involvement in these helps students socially, emotionally, psychologically, as well as academically. The research has shown it, youth can attest to it.

So, why the big push for quality now? Laura LaCroix-Dalluhn from Youth Community Connections explained: “Just bringing kids together and giving them a safe place to study is not enough.” Not all tutoring and mentoring experiences are created equal and can actually do more harm than good if they are not of quality. But different ideas of what constitutes “quality” pose a challenge, which is where the QMAP assessment system comes into play. The initiative to shift the field to more accountable quality using tools such as QMAP is meeting a serious need.

Use of the QMAP system may further inspire both volunteers and grantmakers to invest their support in programs they know are dedicated to a higher quality standard.

Graham Hartley of MIGIZI Communications elaborated on a metaphor Woodward used during the discussion to explain that high quality will have several looks: 

 “It’s a fruit salad of organizations, not a fruit smoothie. Programs participating in the QMAP process do not lose their individual flavor.”

In other words, each program that actively participates in the QMAP process will not lose its uniqueness and become a cookie cutter version of every other program, but rather enhance its way of practice, so that parents and students can depend on its quality.

 Image CC Sam Pac

-McKenzie Mackintosh, MCF Communications Intern

Here’s a list of ideas suggested by participants at a recent meeting of the MCF ComMotion Network: “Keep it Creative: Producing Out-of-the-Box Ideas for Run-of-the-Mill Communications Issues.”

Also included is a “lived experience” of what worked when Ameriprise Financial took Feeding America to employees across the country.

Tools for Creative Employee Engagement

• Web (online giving)
• Skype conferences
• Grants management software vendors
• Employees who have been previously engaged in giving programs (networks, committees)
• Incentives for responses/engagement
• Integrate the effort into professional and leadership development training, as executive support is critical

Measures of Success:

• Responses
• Views of materials

Company Example from Ameriprise Financial

Challenge:
Take a successful local community giving program national.

Goal: 
Get employee and advisor engagement — create a common experience with a collective impact.

Solutions:
All solutions were integrated across programs, company-wide.

• Focused all team/large group volunteer events on hunger-relief
• Launched National Day of Service with Women’s Network, 63 Feeding America member food banks
• Hosted volunteer events at conferences; distributed T-shirts
• Hosted “Portions for Purpose” – 15 minute onsite volunteer opportunity
• Made grants to hunger-relief organizations
• Activated “Hunger Action Month”
  • Allocated $500,000 grant to Ameriprise Financial Challenge
  • Offered 2:1 match during September
• Instituted “Can Hunger” day
• Matched meals for franchise advisors during the annual giving campaign
• Created Community Partners subcommittee for hunger-relief

Communications:

• Dashboard
• Education: Why are we involved?
• Advisor best practices: How to integrate this with your practice?
• Launched new volunteer website: Profile for Pound challenge
• Posted banner ads on ameriprise.com, FeedingAmerica.org and elsewhere

Results:

• Increased online donations to Feeding America by19% over 2009
• Increased conversion to donate rate by 30% over the previous year

Image CC Scribe and Scholar

 – Jennifer Jones, Ameriprise Financial

This is the fourth in a series of posts from MCF’s recent ComMotion meeting. Look for the next posting on Creatively Reengineering a Field Marketing Strategy on Friday, May 27.

• Create new programs
• Develop outreach tools
• Manage more than 21,000 volunteers who provided over 234,000 hours of service
• Raise over $1.6 million in grants and contributions and $1.1 million in in-kind resources

If your organization works to fight poverty, and this sounds like help you could use, consider applying to host an AmeriCorps VISTA member for the 2011-2012 service year.

The Initiative Foundation is currently looking for organizations interested in hosting VISTA members. The host-site application deadline is Friday, February 4th. Selected sites will then recruit VISTA members this spring. They will begin service in early August.

For much more information check out the VISTA page on the Initiative Foundation’s web site which includes:

• FAQ about the VISTA program
• Information on how to become a host site
• Instructions  on how to become a VISTA member
• A four-minute video about the Initiative Foundation’s partnership with VISTA

VISTA – often referred to as the domestic Peace Corps – is a national service program whose members serve full-time for a year in eligible host sites to create and strengthen services and programs that help to alleviate and eliminate poverty. VISTAs work in nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, faith-based organizations, tribal and government agencies to build their capacity to conduct anti-poverty work.

- Susan Stehling, MCF

On this year’s Give to the Max Day — Tuesday, November 16 — GiveMN aims to shatter that one-day record, and they have some great suggestions on how your organization can help by maximizing contributions and making Give to the Max Day bigger than ever.

Contests to Increase Contributions

• Show me the money! GiveMN will award $20,000 and $10,000 prizes to the two Twin City nonprofits and the two Greater Minnesota nonprofits that attract the largest number of individual donors. Increase your donors and you could end up increasing your dollars too.
• Hourly giveaways! Throughout the 24-hour event, one donor will be randomly chosen every hour to have $1,000 added to their donation. Strategize on how to get round-the-clock giving going — a 2 a.m. donation could get your organization an extra $1,000!
• Grassroots matching. This year there are no overall matching dollars, but GiveMN encourages your organization to offer a match. Nonprofits who secure matching funds for the day will be highlighted so donors can double their donations to these organizations. Let your biggest supporters know they can inspire giving by putting up a match for your organization. (More from GiveMN in October.)

Update Your GiveMN Pages

• Spend some time before November revisiting your GiveMN pages. Ensure everything is up-to-date and reflects the newest work of your organization. Don’t wait until the last-minute when the site will be busy.
• If you have a video that tells your story in a compelling way, include it on your page. GiveMN pages with video get 20 percent more donations!
• For other ideas, check GiveMN’s best practices for your page.
• Sit in on a GiveMN webinar on making your pages the best they can be. (More from GiveMN later this month.)

Spread the Word

• Help build the buzz on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Use the hashtag “#givetothemax2010” as you post related content.
• Follow GiveMN on Twitter @givemn or on Facebook at facebook.com/givemn. Encourage your supporters to do the same.
• View GiveMN’s YouTube videos at youtube.com/givemn.

Let’s all do what we can to maximize 2010′s Give to the Max Day.

Image CC Thomas Hawk

- Susan Stehling, MCF

The survey of more than 4,500 adult Americans found that 41 percent of them had volunteered in the past year, and 7 in 10 reported having donated to a nonprofit. Of those who volunteered, 84 percent felt that volunteering improved their physical health, and 95 percent agreed that volunteering also improves emotional health.

Interestingly, volunteering was also correlated with a healthier Body Mass Index (BMI), with a significantly lower amount of volunteers identified as obese (31 percent) when compared to non-volunteers (36 percent.) Twenty-nine percent of volunteers who reported suffering from a chronic condition said that volunteering helped them manage their illness.

So if you’re looking for a way to feel healthier, and celebrate Earth Day yet today, why not take a walk and pick up litter this evening in your neighborhood? Or if you’re looking for ways to volunteer your time to benefit the community that are more sustained (and sustainable!) check out VolunteerMatch.org, where you can search on volunteer opportunities that focus on improving the environment.

The new report on the civic engagement and volunteerism of veterans is the first of its kind.

The report, released by Civic Enterprises and funded by the Case Foundation and Target Foundation (a member of the Minnesota Council on Foundations), is entitled All Volunteer Force: From Military to Civilian Service.

Report Highlights:

• A Rocky Transition – Only 13 percent of returning veterans strongly agreed that their transition home was going well
• Few Contacted – Nearly seven in ten respondents (69 percent) reported that no community institution, local nonprofit, or place of worship had contacted them after returning home
• Ready to Serve - Ninety-two percent of respondents agreed or strongly-agreed that serving their community is important to them
• Diverse Interests - Veterans are interested in serving many types of organizations, from those involved in environmental conservation, to disaster relief, to those serving other veterans and their families, to those who work with older Americans or at-risk youth

What Nonprofits, Faith-based Organizations and Grantmakers Can Do

Perhaps one of the most powerful things that organizations in the independent sector can do to engage veterans is simply to ask them if they’d like to volunteer. Many of those respondents currently volunteering reported that being asked to volunteer was the reason they began volunteering in the first place.

Faith-based organizations can also help ease the transition for veterans by recognizing them during services and asking congregants to invite veterans into their homes to share a family meal. Many returning veterans are Millenials and members of Generation X. These individuals are high technology users and may be contacted via forums and using other online communications vehicles. If you have a Twitter account or enewsletter, consider making a special appeal to veterans to volunteer at your nonprofit or serve on your board of trustees.

The report outlines many other strategies — from national policy down to the grassroots — for effectively engaging and re-integrating servicemen and women into their communities. The full report can be viewed and downloaded for free at civicenterprises.net

Join the conversation: Have you talked to your colleagues about how to reach out to veterans? If you’re a veteran or service member, what advice do you have for organizations who would like to engage you?

According to a recent MAVA report, some nonprofit organizations in Minnesota are currently finding themselves in a challenging, almost paradoxical predicament. They have more volunteer inquiries than ever before because of higher unemployment. However, their decreased resources and staff capacity due to the downturn have made it a challenge for some to make use of these potential volunteers.

Eight-six percent of organizations polled in a recent survey conducted by MAVA reported that their organization is under fiscal stress. As budgets for paid work are cut at some of these organizations, unemployed workers are simultaneously volunteering at higher rates. Forty-four percent surveyed reported an increase in volunteer inquiries, and 50 percent reported an increase in volunteer hours at their organization.

Despite this surge in volunteers, relatively few nonprofits reported an increase in the administrative resources used to manage and train these volunteers. Only 12 percent of organizations reported an increase in the budget for their volunteer programs.

Regardless of the challenges of managing this windfall, many organizations surveyed disclosed that they are are enlisting novel strategies to both attract and retain these new volunteers, among them:

• Involving volunteers in new capacities
• Allowing volunteers to serve in leadership positions
• Designing volunteer opportunities to offer more robust work skill development
• Creating new streamlined and standardized intake, screening and placement practices

Both nonprofits and unemployed workers looking to keep their skills sharp stand to benefit mutually from this increase in volunteerism. Will this uptick in volunteerism be the bridge that helps nonprofits overcome these troubled times? Having a larger, more highly skilled pool of volunteers will undoubtedly help those who are able to tap into it. However, as noted in the conclusion, MAVA challenges the assumption that organizations have the capacity to effectively channel this force for good without additional resources.

To read more and download the full report from MAVA, visit mavanetwork.org.

Did you see it? There I was, sitting on my couch waiting for Pres. Obama to throw out the first pitch. Instead, what came next from St. Louis were Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Carter appealing to us to go beyond, to do good work daily, to volunteer. They highlighted the stories of five “All Stars Among Us,” individuals who were not intimidated by challenges, but inspired by the difference they could make.

What struck me about these stories is that these folks are ordinary people who are transforming their world in simple, extraordinary ways because they chose to act. Not just talk about needs and what ifs, but taking it upon themselves to step up to the plate and do something.

My colleague Juliana Tillema wrote a blog about her reflections and actions around the Sept. 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. A few days before that, I wrote about turning the word “philanthropy” into a verb. What is it about that word “do”?

Well, I’m trying to step up and do some sort of good work daily – whether it’s an organized activity or a spontaneous gesture. Opportunities abound. If you’re at all inclined to explore the possibilities for action, check out the website referenced in the All-Star video, http://www.serve.gov/.  Other appropriate names for this site could be do.org or act.com.

You get the point.

- Chris Murakami Noonan, MCF communications associate