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Fluff Free Fundraising
From Access Philanthropy
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Issue # 7 2023
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Welcome
111 years ago this month, the song “Bread & Roses” was published in a UK labor journal, providing the world with an international anthem for working women and their allies. The original poem was written by James Oppenheim about the women and children striking in textile plants in Lawrence, MA. It remains my all-time favorite mood booster. Here’s a link: Bread & Roses
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In this Issue:
- Job changes
- Grant Announcements
- Fundraising News
- Survey says
- Fundraising News
- Fundraiser's Toolbox
- Jobs in Philanthropy
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2023 Nonprofit funding from the state of Minnesota
In case you’re not poring over the Minnesota Council of Foundations’ website, you may have missed the report recently published on ALL grants the State of Minnesota awarded to Minnesota nonprofits in 2023.
This is A GREAT REPORT, whether you received a grant or not. Paid for mostly by Margaret Cargill Foundation, the report breaks down actual grantees by interest areas, by State departments and by giving trends. Here’s the full 66 page report: Hylden Advocacy & Law 2023 Nonprofit Minnesota State Funding Breakdown. Also catch some of the trends and graphics in the attachments.
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The Florida connection
A couple weeks ago, Kelly Smith at the Star Tribune wrote a great article about Richard Schulze and the Schulze Family Foundation (SFF), the fourth largest “accessible” foundation in MN. Kelly mentions the foundation’s recent $25 million gift to a Florida health group. Which raises an interesting and, for me, concerning point.
While the Schulze family is by far the largest Minnesota family fund awarding grants in Florida (560 grants, $59 million in 2021), they certainly aren’t the only Minnesota family foundation awarding grants to Florida organizations. In fact, Candid/The Foundation Directory Online reports that 235 Minnesota family foundations awarded grants in Florida in 2021. Excluding the Schulze family, Minnesota-resident funders awarded 388 grants equaling $12,700,000 to Florida groups in 2021.
Historically, this is a huge jump from Minnesota-resident giving to Florida from 2015-2017 when 278 Minnesota resident funders awarded 545 grants totaling just $3,480,000 to Florida groups.
While the number of Florida grants and the total amount of Florida giving was higher in 2015-2017 than in 2021, what’s concerning is the SIZE of these grants. In 2015-2017 grants the size of Florida grants from Minnesota funders averaged $5959. In 2021, Florida grants from Minnesota funders averaged $32,801.
Funders can pretty much give as much they want to whomever they want, wherever they want. Since many of these funders are snowbirding or permanently relocating to Florida, especially Naples, FL, we understand the shift. But we do worry about the ramifications of this shift for Minnesota organizations, especially the newer, smaller, more grassroots groups working with underserved communities. These groups rely heavily on support from small family foundations. MORE LATER.
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CARGILL: Last month Grace Gbolo joined McKnight program and grants associate for Grants & Program Operations. Grace will be focused on the Global Collaboration for Resilient Food Systems grantee partners. Prior to McKnight, she worked with Mary’s Pence and the Peace Corps in Zambia.
Since the beginning of this year, Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies has four new hires:
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Programs Administrative Specialist: Jacob Sorrells
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Program Associate: Erin Dirksen (Animal Welfare)
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Program Associate Justine Pearson (Teachers & Students)
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Program Associate Mai Neng Moua (Local Initiatives and Opportunities)
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The foundation also promoted Elizabeth (Lizz) Hutchinson Kruger to Evaluation and Organizational Learning Director. She joined MACP in April 2014 as an Evaluation Officer in Animal Welfare, Disaster Relief & Recovery, and Environment program areas.
PACKARD: David & Lucille Packard Foundation hired Elizabeth Arndorfer as U.S. Reproductive Health Director. She will lead the Foundation’s grantmaking focused on protecting and expanding contraceptive and abortion access across the U.S.
DORIS DUKE: Ashley Ferro-Murray is the new director of the Doris Duke Foundation’s Arts Program. Ferro-Murray is an expert in experiential media and performing arts
BETTER WAY FOUNDATION: Nicholas Banovetz is coming onto his one-year anniversary as Executive Director of Better Way Foundation. We knew Nick from his MINNCAN days, but he’s also been a board member for education reform and environmental groups.
SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: Linda Garrett-Johnson has joined the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation as the new Program Officer on the Community Impact team.
MCKNIGHT: The foundation has two more new folks:
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Tehout Selameab is the new Senior Program Officer for the McKnight Foundation. In this role, she will address strategic learning needs, track the progress and impact of our strategies, and leverage data and insights from a variety of sources
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Iweda Riddley, who will be Program Team Administrator for Grants & Program Operations, Vibrant & Equitable Communities. Most recently, Iweda was the finance manager for the National Council of Jewish Women Minnesota,
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CHAT WITH US!
Thirty Minutes Free with Access
Philanthropy Crew Members
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Need a sounding board for your development ideas? Need promising new ideas from the philanthropic sector? Need someone to think about the big picture or the day-to-day fundraising stuff? AP crew members offer 30-minute chats for free. Drop a note to 4info@accessphilanthropy.com to set up a time to chat. Email us! | | |
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GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Opportunities:
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Propel Nonprofits is accepting applications for the Nonprofit Infrastructure Grant Program for small, Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC)-led nonprofit organizations.
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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Pioneering Ideas: Exploring The Future To Build A Culture Of Health grant will Fund ideas that address any of these four areas of focus: Future of Evidence; Future of Social Interaction; Future of Food; Future of Work.
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Pillars Fund, a Chicago-based Muslim-focused funder has announced it new Pillars Artist Fellowship for emerging Muslim artists
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Shoreview Community Foundation Grants Program 2023 – Minnesota
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Panera Bread just started a grants program
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WCA Foundation is shifting its competitive grant program from two rounds in the spring and fall to one annual open grant round. The next grant round will open on December 6, with applications due by Jan. 11, 2024. It will provide project-specific support. Grant guidelines and an application webinar will be announced on WCA’s webpage in late November.
- These organizations provide small-to-medium sized funding for advocacy, social/climate justice, civic freedom, or women's rights.
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The Maypole Fund funds feminist activism against militarism and war. Location: international. Size: $1,200. Next Deadline: 31 January 2024.
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Global Fund for Women is offering funding for Feminist Approaches To Anti-Corruption. Size: $20,000 USD to $50,000 USD (flexible funding). Deadline: 31 October. Priority given to: Armenia, Kenya, Guatemala, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, Uganda, and Syria.
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International Women's Media Foundation Fund for Women Journalists. Location: Anywhere. Average grant: $6,000. Deadline: Rolling.
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Pulitzer Center’s Gender Equality Grants Program for journalists. Average size: $5,000. Deadline: Rolling.
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The Unless Fund: Check this one out: grants each quarter of up to $150,000 to 4 transformative projects. The website starts with a Dr. Seuss quote. Sounds like they prefer smaller, riskier projects with opportunities to make a huge difference.
Grantmaking Reports:
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CZI Giving Up On Education Advocacy
Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan slashed the staff at their foundation’s Education team, laying off 48 people. Where is Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s philanthropy education work going? In emails leaked to Business Insider, Sandra Liu Huang, the philanthropy’s head of education and vice president of product, told the education team the new strategy will focus on educational product development, while the foundation will phase out its ed policy support. They weren’t very good at policy work anyway, but education policy work is more critical now than ever before.
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YieldGiving/Mackenzie Scott Stops Announcing Grants
Yield Giving, Mackenzie Scott’s giving instrument will no longer announce grants, leaving that up to the awardee to decide how and when to announce. So far, the foundation has not announced its first round of grants from its March, 2023 deadlines/ One of AP’s clients is in the final group and hasn’t heard a word yet.
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Free Proposal Feedback. Why Didn’t We Think of This? | |
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Maine-based Unfunded List, reviews “unsuccessful first grant proposals'' by social entrepreneurs and nonprofits for free.
With the help of hundreds of volunteers (experienced grantwriters, professional philanthropists, and people outside these fields), Unfunded List accepts samples of proposals and provides writing and content feedback to organizations which were denied funding.
They focus on smaller, newer organizations and those working with underrepresented communities.
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Want to volunteer?
Unfunded List says anyone who “lives in the world and feels its effects” is qualified to evaluate proposals. They emphasize joining the committee is a great way to gain experience in philanthropy.
Want to submit a proposal?
Submit your best and most recent fundraising materials. Unfunded List will assign them to a hand-selected team of evaluators. A feedback report is shared with you along with an offer to schedule a free follow-up discussion with a staff member about your materials and the feedback you received.
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There’s Being Transparent, Then There’s Being a Snowflake
One of our favorite philanthropy critics Vu Le who operates the NONPROFITAF.COM blog has a few choice words for grantmakers who need to know how every penny they granted was spent, calling them grantmaker “snowflake reports” in his essay on the subject. He offers advice:
To funders: Stop expecting grantees to write you detailed reports on every dime spent. Instead, just accept their annual reports, 990s etc.
To donors: Stop asking how your contributions specifically helped. Your gifts were used to carry out the organization’s general mission. Read the annual report to learn to what end.
To nonprofits: Remove all opportunities for donors and funders to place restrictions on you.
- Stop listing on your website the opportunities for donors to choose which programs or category of expense their donations will go to.
- Stop putting prices on outputs and outcomes and reinforcing transactional and individualistic thinking. (i.e “Your $500 provided 50 meals for 10 hungry families”.)
- Just say the money contributed to your mission/outcomes.
Vu argues these “deep reporting” practices aren’t just a waste of time, and somewhat delusional, they “force people into transactional, individualistic mindsets, where their need to feel some sense of agency weighs more heavily than what is best for the entire community.”
Side note: If you need a little more levity, subscribe to his blog nonprofitAF.com
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How Much Do We Trust Civil Society?
Independent Sector released the results of its fourth annual report on trust of different American sectors such as business, legislative bodies, local government, and religious institutions.
AMERICANS' TRUST IN NONPROFITS TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT DROPPED 4 POINTS FROM 2022
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At 52%, the nonprofit sector is still among the most trusted; still this is the biggest drop in trust of any sectors surveyed.
- Trust in philanthropy held steady at 34%
- Many subsectors enjoy strong bipartisan trust, among them, human services, health, wildlife conservation, and youth development.
- But partisan polarization shows up in areas such as religion, civil rights, and civics.
- Americans who rated their finances as excellent or good ranked 22 points higher in trust, compared to those giving ratings of poor or fair.
- Those who engage regularly with nonprofit organizations report higher trust in the sector.
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Respondents say that a nonprofit’s Value statement means more to them than data points.
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MN Businesses ARE Evaluating Systems Change
Minnesota’s Center for Economic Inclusion publishes a Racial Equity Dividends Index for the Private Sector.
The report is designed for companies with at least 50 full-time employees to self-assess their progress on 43 racial equity standards. The Center’s 2023 report found 15 of the 22 participating Minnesota businesses achieved high scores. The equity standards span 7 dimensions of company activity, including Philanthropy.
Some Highlights
- Two-thirds of participants identify racial equity as a priority in their philanthropy.
- 24% measure the share of giving to Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Asian-led organizations.
- 55% invest assets in Community Development Financial Institutions
- Only 15% actually screen their giving to avoid perpetuating racial inequity
- Top Scorers:
- 3M
- Allianz Life
- Pohlad Companies
- U.S. Bank
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A Variety Of Views On Giving Trends | |
CCS Fundraising, a huge national fundraising consulting firm published a new (12th) edition “Philanthropic Landscape”, using data from Giving USA and others. It examines key themes in American philanthropy and the latest data on giving by US individuals, foundations, and corporations.
- Some questions it answers: How much did American donors give to charity in 2022? What giving methods are disrupting the philanthropic sector? How are organizations looking to integrate DEI from the inside out? What data innovations can a nonprofit use to effectively engage and retain donors?
Collaborative Funding is an Increasingly Important Tool in Philanthropy. The Bridgespan Group surveyed nearly 200 collaboratives–funds that channel resources from multiple donors to nonprofit organizations, NGOs initiatives “The Philanthropic Collaborative Landscape,”. Key findings:
- Although 194 foundations have participated in collaborative giving, more than 60% of the funding in collaborations came from the largest 12% of funders
- Collaborations are viewed in the philanthropic sector as a safe means to experiment with different philanthropy pathways
- 94% of collaborating foundations view their efforts as successful
- Top interest areas of philanthropic collaboration:
- Gender Equity - 18%
- Race/Ethnicity - 11%
- Climate Change – 8%
- Civic engagement – 7%
Check out the article in The Stanford Social Innovation Review
Check out their Philanthropic Collaborations Database
Two Other Philanthropy Surveys – Minnesota and China
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The Minnesota Council of Foundations chose not to report on interest area giving by Minnesota foundations, but rather on issues such as Type of Giving, Giving to BIPOC communities, geographic diversity etc. They focused on MCF member activity rather than statewide foundation trends. Check out Giving in 2022 MN Report
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Nonprofit Quarterly is a great daily (yep, daily) newsletter with great content. Recently, they published an article on new mental health terms such as climate anxiety, solastalgia, and eco-grief that “speak to the impacts of our broken relationship with the planet on humans’ mental health”.
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Climate anxiety refers to the sense of impending dread people increasingly feel when confronted with the damage climate change can cause.
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Solastalgia is the distress produced by environmental change that impacts one’s home environment.
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Eco-grief refers to the anguish and despair we feel when the places we live in and love deteriorate, along with these places’ ability to provide us with solace.
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The Not-So-Great Donor Pyramids?
More and more critics are saying Donor Pyramids have had their day. Says one fundraising expert: "Donors don’t follow a linear path. And they don’t fit into tidy boxes." Others are "flattening the hierarchy" and no longer sort donors based on giving level; everyone is listed alphabetically.
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Five Grantseeking Mistakes (or perceived mistakes)
Unfunded List (see related article above) reviews funding proposals twice annually from small and mid-size nonprofits and social impact startups. They recently publish a piece on 5 mistakes Grant Seekers Make:
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They aren’t necessarily making any mistakes "It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness that is life." (first heard on Star Trek)
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Funder fit Take your blinders off when assessing an RFP for whether or not you are a fit for a funding opportunity.
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Grant seekers did not put themselves in their funders’ shoes. Philanthropy is often conducted by professional program officers who read LOTS of proposals .
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Unanswered questions. When a grantmaker asks specific questions it means they are looking to evaluate you based on your answer to that question. You make it easy to get in the NO Pile if you dodge a question.
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Pie in the sky requests. Too much money, odd budgets, no track record, huge salaries, nebulous or ill-defined impact, and other unrealistic requests can be red flags to funders.
More tools online…
We've have new entries to the Fundraisers' Toolbox section on our Website:
- Four common grant proposal documents (free samples included)
- Why Hybrid Events are the Future of Fundraising
- Not posting a salary range? You may be losing half your applicants
- 14 Ways to Improve Your Next Proposal and Build Ties With Grant Makers
| Visit our blog with Tips, Tricks, New Terms, and more | | |
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JOBS in PHILANTHROPY
This is a completely free job board. Our intent is to help great Minnesota nonprofit professionals find jobs in national and local funding organizations.
(Quick story, when I was teaching at NYU, students would ask if I came from Minneapolis-St. Louis. Thus our desire to get Minnesotans funding jobs.)
Other Philanthropic sector Job Boards: MINNESOTA COUNCIL ON FOUNDATIONS, FUNDERS FOR LGBTQ, EMERGING PRACTITIONERS IN PHILANTHROPY, & PEAK GRANTMAKING
The Saint Paul-Minneapolis metro area’s Metropolitan Council needs a Grants Manager
The West Central Initiative, (Fergus Falls, MN) wants a new Grants Officer
Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies (Bookmark that link, MACP is always looking for new folks)
Our very own Margaret needs
Global Greengrants Fund in Colorado has three job openings. Two are Grant Associates (includng one in the UK) and one is a fundraising/partnership relations job
Wanna work for Melinda French Gates? Her organization PivotalVentures is looking for Lead in Strategic Partnerships (not a fundraising position.
UBS is looking for a Head of US Programs, Social Impact & Philanthropy - US. UBS is one of those HUGE international banking organizations (think JPMorgan Chase size) which just bought up Credit Suisse, another mega banking firm. The company needs someone to oversee their extended but expanding giving programs in the United States. This would be interesting.
The Solutions Project (co-Founded by actor Mark Ruffalo) wants Managing Director of Grantmaking/Programs
ClimateWorks Foundation: Senior Program Strategist - Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI). If you like this foundation, but not this job, go to their website, they have lots of other jobs.
Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Action: needs a Director of People, Culture, and Operations. This website has a link to other jobs at UAF
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation (CA) needs a Program Officer for Homelessness grantmaking and may still be recruiting a Vice President, Strategy and Programs
Surdna Foundation: One of the best funders in the US. They need a new Program Associate Sustainable Environments
Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has 14 job openings including a Program Administrator, New Work Exploration and a Program Officer, Technology in the Public Interest. They’ve also announced their 20 Genius Grant recipients, if you like that type of thing.
FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund One of my favorite little foundations. They support young Latina activists. They need a new Chief of Operations and Interim ED. GREAT opportunity.
Annie E. Casey Foundation: needs a Senior Associate, Equity and Inclusion. This type of position is becoming increasingly popular in foundations and major NPOs. Maybe it’s time for you to learn what they’re talking about and whether you’d fit into the position. They also have five other position openings including:
- Senior Associate, Juvenile Justice Strategy Group
- Senior Associate in Family Well-Being Strategy Group
Wellspring is one of the new models of grantmakers. They are interested in “promoting the realization of human rights and access to economic and social justice – including racial, gender, and economic justice“. They have a number of open positions including
They’re very involved with grantees and perspective grantees.
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RAISE A GLASS
America’s First Published Black Poet
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Tuesday, October 17 is national Black Poetry Day, named for the birthday of the first published Black poet in America, Jupiter Hammon (1711 – ca. 1806), who is widely considered the father of African American Literature. Besides a poet, Reverend Hammon was a preacher, a bookkeeper, a teacher and – believe it or not – a fundraiser for African missions.
Reverend Hammon was the inspiration for more than 250 years of beautiful, exciting, and often painful Black poetry. Remember the joy and pain you’ve felt after reading some of Reverend Hammon’s descendants, including Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Tupac Shakur, and Amanda Gorman.
When you’re with friends this month raise a glass to Black Poets and delight your folks with a verse or two from Alice, Langston, Maya, or any of the great Black Poets who have graced our lives.
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SO, WHAT EXACTLY DOES ACCESS PHILANTHROPY
DO FOR A LIVING?
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Fundraising
- Strategic Planning for Fundraising
- Grant Writing
- Fundraising Perception Research
- Fundraising Positioning and Messaging
- Prospect Research for Institutional and Individual Donors
- Wealth Screening
- Capital Campaigns
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Organizational Development
- Strategic Planning
- Executive Coaching
- Program Evaluation
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THANKS FOR SPENDING TIME WITH US.
Need some ideas, someone to talk to about fundraising, or just a fabulous listener/chatter?
4info@accessphilanthropy.com
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