Students in the certified nursing assistant training program at the International Institute of Minnesota, a grantee of The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota, practice their hands-on skills.

Read the winter issue of Giving Forum – online and in your mail now – to learn more about what Minnesota grantmakers and their nonprofit partners are doing in the tough fight against poverty in our state.

Grantmakers play a variety of roles from meeting basic human needs, to creating systemic change around poverty’s root causes, to engaging the community in identifying and solving problems, to taking policy stands on matters affecting low-income residents. Whatever role foundations have chosen to play, they are working to create a brighter future for all Minnesotans.

Read this issue’s feature article to learn more about how The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation of Minnesota is partnering to train individuals for jobs that pay a living wage and how Greater Twin Cities United Way is improving access to health care for those who need it most. And read about how the Northwest Area Foundation funded an initiative to drive payday lenders from Montana and how The Minneapolis Foundation is working to level the playing field for all residents of the city.

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate

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

The 612-YEP will support nonprofit and public agencies to offer positive youth engagement activities that are reflective of the goals of the City of Minneapolis’ “Blueprint for Action: Preventing Youth Violence”: (1) To connect every youth with trusted adults; (2) To intervene at the first sign that youth are at risk for violence; (3) To restore youth who have gone down the wrong path; and, (4) To unlearn the culture of violence in our community.

Approximately $40,000 will be available for grants for summer 2012 programs. Funding is intended for youth-led programs/activities during this time, with an expectation that youth will be involved in the design and implementation of the programs/activities and in the development of the grant proposal.

Learn more at The Minneapolis Foundation’s website. Proposals are due at 2:00 pm on January 18, 2012.

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

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

New “Reading By Third Grade” grant opportunities announced today by MCF member Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) address this important issue.

A few details about what they’re seeking:

• Demonstrable capacity to implement proven and/or promising practices to support early grade literacy.
• Organizations and programs that provide services to children and families living at 200% of poverty or below within GTCUW nine-county area.
• Two or more sustainable funding sources in addition to GTCUW funds that do not include in-kind or contributed services.
• Formal partnership between the program and the public school(s) and/or district served by the program.
• Minimum funding request of $75,000 per year for up to 3 years.

See the full RFP on the GTCUW website.

There are training sessions on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 that will provide applicants an overview of the direction of the GTCUW strategic plan, the RFP content and process, annual reporting required by grantees and the Reading By Third Grade technical assistance and evaluation.

Attendance at one of these sessions is mandatory for those who wish to submit an application. Interested parties can RSVP on Eventbrite.

The good news is that there are many dedicated Minnesotans tackling this issue head-on. One such group is the Minnesota African American Leadership Forum (AALF), which just released a new report on five critical areas that contribute to this gap and what to do about them.

Highlights of their recommendations include:

1. The Preparation Gap. The achievement gap begins early, before children are old enough to enter school. Families must have access to high quality, certified Early Childhood Education.
2. The Belief Gap. The beliefs and expectations of students, parents, teachers and the community contribute to the achievement gap. These must be replaced with a no-excuses belief that all children can achieve and succeed, regardless of income and family background.
3. The Time Gap. Kids who need to catch up will never get there if they spend the same amount of time in school as other students. More after-school and summer programming must be offered to solve this.
4. The Teaching Gap. Highly effective teachers are most critical for those furthest behind. AALF recommends matching the best teachers with the students in greatest need.
5. The Leadership Gap. The achievement gap is impacted by many areas of life beyond the classroom. AALF wants to see a “One Table” approach to problem solving that brings together leaders in education, business, philanthropy and community to address the achievement gap.

The full report, A Crisis in Our Community: Closing the Five Education Gaps, is available on the Headwaters Foundation for Justice website.

To learn more and to get fired up about Youthprise’s mission, have a look at the rousing YouTube video they posted to introduce themselves:

Be sure to follow Youthprise on Facebook and Twitter, and to sign up for email updates on their website.

8/29/11 Update: MCF is also now proud to welcome Youthprise as a new member!

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

In 2012 NCL is challenging cities across the country to increase the number of low-income children reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

NCL will focus the award on communities that develop strategies for locally-owned community solutions in three areas that have real potential to drive improvements in grade-level reading:

• school readiness,
• attendance
• and summer learning.

Educators and researchers have long recognized the importance of mastering reading by the end of third grade, yet two-thirds of U.S. schoolchildren do not reach that benchmark. And children who don’t read by the end of third grade and live in poverty are six times more likely to fail to graduate from high school.

How Communities Can Apply
Communities interested in applying for the All-America City Grade-Level Reading Award must submit a Letter of Intent to NCL by Friday, October 14, 2011, to be eligible to receive valuable technical assistance and support to develop a plan from a growing national network of staff, consultants, funders, and other cities involved in the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. The plan will be the centerpiece of the application.

The 2012 award will recognize best mobilization. The 2015 award will spotlight impact.

For more information on the grade-level reading award and the steps to apply, communities should visit the NCL’s AAC Award Blog: www.allamericacityaward.com.

- MCF webmaster