Winter 2008
A Changing Climate for Minnesota's Environmental Grantmakers
by Vicki Itzkowitz
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Buffalo Ridge in southwestern Minnesota is a zone often referred to as "the Saudi Arabia of wind energy."
Photo courtesy of the Energy Foundation
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As critical environmental issues such as global warming and energy conservation become more complex, urgent and prominent, grantmakers across the nation are rethinking how they approach their work. In Minnesota, foundations and corporate funders are responding with new and more collaborative strategies as well as increased attention and funding.
For example, The McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, Minnesota’s largest environmental grantmaker, increased its environmental grantmaking by 60 percent in 2005, with a $5 million commitment to slow the pace of global warming through efforts to enable the Upper Midwest to contribute to the nation’s renewable energy supply for electricity and transportation. Of particular interest are advanced forms of biofuels made from diverse crops that provide multiple environmental benefits.
At St. Paul-based Bush Foundation, Minnesota’s second-largest environmental grantmaker, funding for the environment grew from approximately $2.3 million in 2002 to $3.9 million in 2006, an increase that reflects the foundation’s growth in assets. Environmental grantmaking now averages 6-8 percent of Bush’s annual appropriations.
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"Environmental grantmaking is not a stand-alone issue. ... It becomes a
social justice issue."
— Cindy Petkac, Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation |
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Environmental grantmaking has also increased at the Carolyn Foundation, a family foundation in Minneapolis with an interest in the environment dating back to the 1970s. Historically, the foundation’s environment grants have represented about 24 percent of its grantmaking; with the recent establishment of a second grant review committee focusing exclusively on environmental grants, the foundation now devotes 30 percent of its funds to environmental issues.
Corporate giving at Cargill, a global company headquartered in Minneapolis, includes a focus on environmental stewardship, an area that has seen increased allocations over the last four years. In fiscal year 2007, the company’s environmental grantmaking increased to 19 percent of corporate giving, up from 11 percent just a year ago.
Climate Change and Energy
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Lee-Hoon Benson |
Not surprisingly, Minnesota’s environmental grantmakers share the nation’s heightened awareness of global climate change, and this awareness is fueling new attention to energy issues. Minnesota has a long history of involvement in renewable energy, most notably wind energy. Bush Foundation, for example, “has been interested in helping groups develop less destructive ways to produce electricity by highlighting renewable sources such as wind,” says Lee-Hoon Benson, a Bush program officer. To keep the benefits of wind energy production in the region, the foundation has supported nonprofits that work to increase community-owned wind energy.
Funders’ interests in new forms of energy have also expanded into other areas. McKnight’s work on biofuels is one example, as is the Bush Foundation’s support for creating a policy framework for cleaner energy production in the Plains states. The Carolyn Foundation places priority on renewable energy programs in reviewing unsolicited grant requests. It looks for programs that create systemic, sustainable and replicable solutions.
A Broader, More Global View of Environmentalism
In the past, environmental work tended to be “siloed” around single issues, such as land use or air pollution. Today, program planners, policymakers and activists are aware that complex environmental problems require multifaceted solutions. Environmentalism now targets multiple issues, including environmental justice and the interconnections between the environment and social services, housing, food systems and health.
These trends have important implications for grantmakers. Some foundations that support environmental issues are moving away from funding only traditional environmental groups and concerns; they may now provide support for environmental issues as part of funding, say, a community development project.
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Cindy Petkac |
At the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, environmental grantmaking is integrated into the foundation’s interests in community and economic development. “At a community foundation, our job is to step back and see the big picture,” says Cindy Petkac, community philanthropy officer for the foundation. “Environmental grantmaking is not a stand-alone issue. We see the relationship to promoting good planning and sustainability and reducing the negative impacts of sprawl. It also relates to human services, as the rising costs of home heating oil and gas make it difficult for the working poor. It becomes a social justice issue.”
For the Carolyn Foundation, a broadening of its environmental interests has been shaped in part by younger family members on its board. “As younger members of the family have become more interested in global warming and environmental health, they have wanted to explore more systemic changes rather than protecting a particular watershed or region,” explains executive director Becky Erdahl. This broader view of environmentalism in turn has helped engage family members who have strong interests in other areas, Erdahl believes. “Family members with deep interests in social justice, community issues and health find our global warming work overlaps in a compelling way with their concerns, so this builds a broader base.”
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A father and child help restore the Mississippi River Gorge.
Photo © Friends of the Mississippi River. Used with permission.
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At the Bush Foundation, support for ecological health is based on the recognition of the interconnections between the health of humans and the health of ecosystems. Because, as Benson notes, “those with lower socioeconomic means often suffer the disproportionate impacts” of environmental decisions, the foundation is interested in environmental justice. Bush has also provided limited support for creative ways to incorporate green building principles in housing. Low-income families gain not only by living in cleaner, healthier environments, but also by retaining a greater share of income that would otherwise be spent on energy.
Cargill has expanded the reach of its grantmaking beyond North America, in recognition of the company’s “global footprint.” “Because we touch the land and use the water in our agricultural work, we have a great sensitivity to the need to be responsible in how we source and use those natural resources,” says Mark Murphy, assistant vice president, corporate affairs, and
executive director, Cargill Foundation. “We’re trying to reduce our impact as we participate in the global food system, helping farmers engage in better management practices and protecting major species.” Cargill has entered into multiyear global partnerships with environmental non-governmental organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
A Growing Public Policy Role
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Becky Erdahl |
Minnesota grantmakers have increasingly realized that if they are to be effective in helping to address complex environmental issues, they must become more involved in public education, policy and advocacy around these issues. “We’ve come to learn that there is a huge amount of education and advocacy that foundations and NGOs can do, completely legally, without concerns about lobbying,” says the Carolyn Foundation’s Erdahl. “At the end of the day, legislative and regulatory reform is absolutely essential to achieve long-term goals.”
Environmental organizations supported by Minnesota grantmakers were instrumental in the Minnesota Legislature’s 2007 passage of what is widely believed to be the strongest renewable energy standard in the country — the 2007 Next Generation Energy Act. As part of the Act, Governor Pawlenty named a 56-member Climate Change Advisory Group that includes representatives from The McKnight Foundation and several corporations that are members of the Minnesota Council on Foundations. Environmental organizations’ advocacy and public outreach also contributed to the passage of the Global Warming Mitigation Act of 2007, which calls for a reduction of statewide greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors.
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"Because we touch the land and use the water in our agricultural work, we
have a great sensitivity to the need to be responsible in how we source and
use those natural resources."
— Mark Murphy, Cargill Foundation |
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Informing federal policy is important to The McKnight Foundation’s work. Two recent McKnight-funded reports from the National Research Council of the National Academies address current and future policy issues around water quality, biofuels and government responsibilities. The first report identifies opportunities to minimize the effects of biofuel production on water resources. The second report concludes that the Environmental Protection Agency must take a more aggressive leadership role in implementing the Clean Water Act if water quality in the Mississippi River and the northern Gulf of Mexico is to improve.
Bush Foundation support for policy and advocacy has included funding to enable the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy to contribute to public health policy, particularly around children’s environmental health. Bush funding is also helping the Minnesota Institute for Public Health reduce exposure to pesticides through public education and policy changes.
The Bush Foundation’s Benson underlines the importance of policy work, especially in terms of climate change: “If the environment changes too much, the Upper Midwest and Minnesota as we know it may be a different region in 10 to 15 years. We’ll have to see if our population and our political leaders have the courage to make the changes necessary to mitigate climate change.”
The Growing Necessity of Collaboration
In addition to reaching beyond the traditional actors and strategies in their own environmental grantmaking, Minnesota funders are realizing that they need to work together in new ways if they are to have an impact on increasingly intractable environmental problems. Concerns about climate change, in particular, have contributed to local grantmakers’ interest in collaboration.
One example of this new type of collaboration is the RE-AMP initiative, a seven-state network of nonprofits and foundations striving for Midwest leadership in clean energy. The group is working to reduce electricity sector global warming pollutants by 80 percent by 2030. Minnesota grantmakers involved in the initiative include the Bush, Carolyn, McKnight and Northwest Area foundations, but the initiative has also been successful in bringing in funds from groups outside the Midwest who see the region as “pivotal to changing the energy dynamic across the country,” according to Erdahl.
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Gretchen Bonfert |
“Collaboration takes a lot of personal energy,” notes Gretchen Bonfert, director of McKnight’s environment program, “and it’s a real asset to all of us.” In addition to its participation in RE-AMP, McKnight has collaborated with other foundations in recovery and restoration work in coastal Louisiana as well as with community foundations — through the Funders Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities — along the entire Mississippi River corridor. McKnight has also worked in partnership with the Energy Foundation since 1998, engaging the San Francisco-based organization to administer efforts to encourage energy conservation and renewable power.
In addition to their own collaborative activities, grantmakers encourage collaboration among their grantees to take on environmental issues whenever possible. “With our Fund for the Environment, we encourage unique collaborations and partnerships among diverse groups in an effort to promote livable communities,” says Petkac of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation. She notes that the foundation defines livable communities as those that “prosper economically while conserving natural ecosystems to maintain the region’s high quality of life for future generations.”
Confronting the Environment’s Daunting Complexity
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"The greatest challenge is the scope and scale and fast-moving pace of
energy issues."
— Gretchen Bonfert, The McKnight Foundation |
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Minnesota grantmakers note a number of challenges in supporting environmental issues and organizations, including the sheer scope and complexity of the issues. According to McKnight’s Bonfert, “the greatest challenge is the scope and scale and fast-moving pace of energy issues.” Relevant information comes from a plethora of publications, conferences and other sources. “It’s really challenging to stay on top of trying to make the best investments based on the best information,” Bonfert says.
The Bush Foundation’s Benson includes timing and urgency as critical challenges. Because “changes in human behavior are hard to bring about, it takes a long time to see progress.” At the same time, grantmakers are often confronted by “a critical window” for action. “Sometimes the challenge is how to align and marshal resources while the window is still open,” Benson explains.
It can also be challenging to communicate the importance and urgency of environmental issues. Erdahl notes that “the complexity around environmental issues can, at the beginning, feel daunting. Keeping environmental topics simple enough for folks to understand and get excited about is a challenge.” Erdahl believes environmental groups are becoming much better at communicating what they do.
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Mark Murphy |
For corporations, the challenge may be building effective partnerships with environmental groups in light of a long history of confrontation. According to Cargill’s Murphy, “The challenge is to figure out how to build responsible and reliable partnerships. Candor and commitment to the relationship are critical. It’s not about finding the best practices but about getting better.”
Despite the challenges, Minnesota grantmakers have identified many opportunities to make a difference in addressing environmental issues, especially in this region. “The Midwest can be a region that shows the way for other parts of the country,” notes Benson. “There are great resources and intellectual capacity here. The key is to agree on some actions. We need to look for the opportunity to collaborate better, at least on the things we agree on — the quality of our waters and the air we breathe. We can’t just rely on government to do the right thing any more. We have to rely on foundations and corporations thinking about the bottom line of the future.”
Recent trends toward collaboration and new funding strategies are likely to expand in the coming years, as Minnesota grantmakers continue to respond to such serious global environmental challenges as climate change and broaden their awareness of the interconnections between the environment and other issues. “As more young people become involved in regional philanthropy, you’ll see more changes too, as they’re more aware of the global ramifications of these issues,” predicts Erdahl. “Everyone is now realizing environmental issues are not fringe issues; they are everyone’s important issues.”
© Copyright 2008 Minnesota Council on Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher
is prohibited.
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