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| Frank Forsberg |
By Frank Forsberg, Senior Vice President, Community
Impact, Greater Twin Cities United Way
Launching an Agenda for Lasting Change
A few years ago, Greater Twin Cities United Way board members began to ask
the question: What difference are we making if we assure the community that
all our funded programs – each serving 100 people or so – are effective, but
so many community conditions and problems continue to get worse? Through
much organizational soul searching, it became clear that our traditional
grantmaking strategies were insufficient to solve large-scale community
problems and meet the current challenges facing our community.
This fundamental shift in thinking launched
United Way’s current focus on 10 community goals, known as the Agenda for
Lasting Change. Each goal is set beyond the reach of what United Way and its
grantees could achieve if working in traditional ways and in isolation from
other funders, nonprofit organizations and government systems. United Way leadership realized that
in order to successfully reach or exceed a community goal, we must reach out
and engage many partners. Our impact would be greater through collaboration.
The economic challenges we face today serve as a powerful catalyst for
grantmakers and nonprofit providers to think differently about how to solve
community problems. Partnering and collaborating may sound like old ideas,
but they are being re-thought and re-imagined today.
United Way is initiating a number of new and innovative collaborations aimed
at achieving greater community-wide results. Following is an example of how
our organization is addressing one of the 10 Agenda for Lasting Change goals
through a large multi-agency, multi-sector collaboration.
A Community-Wide
Attack on Hunger
Historically, United Way provided grants to food shelves as its sole
strategy to meet the emergency food needs in our community. Today, in
addition to funding food shelves, United Way has initiated the creation of
Twin Cities Hunger Initiative – a coalition of nonprofit, government and
for-profit sector organizations, all dedicated to ending hunger in the Twin
Cities.
These cross-sector partners developed a long-term plan to end hunger, with a
short-term, measureable goal: To increase the supply of emergency food by 20
percent – 10 million additional pounds annually – by the end of 2009. The
Initiative is on track. By the end of 2008, the second year of the
partnership, the collaborative had increased the supply of emergency food by
more than six million pounds.
Supply-chain experts from local corporations worked with nonprofit leaders
to map the flow of emergency food from donors to four different food banks.
The food banks distribute to more than 100 local food shelves and hot meal
programs, which then distribute food to thousands of local families monthly.
Supply-chain mapping and improved coordination between food banks and food
shelves have resulted in more efficient food distribution methods. In
addition, strategic efforts are being made to improve the capacity of food
shelves by targeting grants to purchase walk-in coolers, freezers and
shelving.
As a result of this collaboration, there is a more efficient system of
sharing innovative best practices at food shelves, and these can then be
replicated across more than 50 locations. These improvements include:
consistent intake processes; more thorough data collection and reporting;
Bridge to Benefits services that identify and connect families to available
benefits; better customer shopping opportunities; and strategies to increase
culturally specific food. The net result is that, from the smallest to the
largest neighborhood food shelf, each one is using best practices and
consistent measures in operations and data reporting to create maximum
efficiency.
Finally, by working together, the Twin Cities Hunger Initiative coordinated
the first annual Walk to End Hunger held Thanksgiving 2008 at the Mall of
America. This large-scale event raised significant awareness and funds for
hunger relief. The endeavor continues with the second annual walk this
Thanksgiving, Nov. 26.
What Have We Learned?
Many organizations have experienced a partnership that began positively,
consumed large amounts of time getting started, then ultimately produced
very limited benefits. Based upon United Way’s experience, here are a few
suggestions for building successful partnerships:
Establish a clear and measureable goal: Agree on a goal that cannot be
achieved by a partner working alone. Most failed partnerships lack a clear
goal and agreed-upon measures.
Report results to all stakeholders: Don’t be content with poor or no
results or on building positive relationships with other members of the
collaborative. Factor in all aspects and be honest about the minimum results
required to keep everyone involved.
And most significantly, leave your ego at the door.
GF
"Akipta"
– Working Together
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| LaVon Lee |
LaVon Lee (Oglala Lakota), Program Officer, Grotto Foundation, and John Poupart (Lac Du Flambeau, Wisc., Anishinabe), President, American Indian
Policy Center
American Indian People:
Who We Are
“Akiptan” is a Lakota word that translates to the English language as
“sharing work, joining forces, working together toward a common good and
coming to one’s center.” The literal application is grounded in tradition,
beliefs and a way of life.
What does “Akiptan” mean in the world of mainstream philanthropies? It
offers an opportunity for those in philanthropy to work in partnership with
American Indians to develop meaningful relationships and a conscious
cultural understanding of Native people, so that we begin to utilize the
natural, cultural strengths of this underserved community.
Did you know that the ancestors of the Ojibwe came from both “Ishpeming,”
the heavens, and beneath the waters of this earth; or that the sacred
teachings still practiced by the Dakota people originate from Ptecincala Ska
Wakan, the oral history of the White Buffalo Calf Woman?
The reality of American Indian communities is shaped by the way they
continue to view the world around them, in a holistic, spherical fashion.
This worldview is in direct contrast to the linear manner of thinking held
by many practitioners in mainstream institutions.
American Indians also possess a certain cultural psychology that is
inextricably intertwined in their minds and culture. This knowledge is at
the core of Indian identity. Yet, the cultural psychology of American
Indians remains unfamiliar and misunderstood by non-Indians, because it is
not taught in educational institutions or in diversity and
cultural-competence training.
Research shows that cultural knowledge is critical for addressing social
issues. So that hope, promise and meaning can emerge, the spiritual and
cultural part of an Indian person’s self-identity must be recognized by
mainstream institutions, and the values, ways of thinking, being and living
must be respected and allowed.
Challenging Situation
America’s original peoples, while wealthy in traditions and culture,
represent some of the most impoverished communities in the nation. Economic
standards of health and well-being show a community confronted with
tremendous socio-economic challenges, a legacy that can be traced to the
United States’ efforts to intentionally and systemically eradicate the
cultural, physical, spiritual and social sustenance of Native people.
Compounding the challenges facing American Indians is that, relative to
their representation in the U.S. population, they are underserved by
philanthropy.
Overall, funding to American Indian communities has been scarce and
stagnant. In its 2002 report, the Harvard Project on American Indian
Economic Development revealed that American Indian people received less than
0.5 percent of national grantmaking. In Minnesota, America Indians tend to
fare a little better in the grantmaking environment compared to the national
arena, because of efforts to listen, understand and act in partnership with
the American Indian community.
Greater Understanding
Will Lead to Better Solutions
What do creation stories and sacred teachings have to do with building
partnerships between American Indians and grantmakers? Today, those working
in philanthropy often – unintentionally and unconsciously – develop,
implement and evaluate programs within the American Indian community with
little practical or cultural knowledge about the community or with
information that is not always reflective of Native
experiences.
Most American Indian communities do not want a handout, but an opportunity
to nourish self-determination and the right to define what is important to
them within an indigenous cultural framework.
While progress is slow, inroads have been made in Minnesota’s philanthropic
community. Minnesota is home to many American Indian grantmakers offering
culturally responsive grantmaking to Native communities. Examples of these
community-directed and managed organizations include the Indian Land Tenure
Foundation; Minnesota Tribal Government Foundation; Honor the Earth; and
Native Americans in Philanthropy, a national organization dedicated to
raising the level of awareness in philanthropy about Native communities.
In addition, a number of foundations and American Indians are working
together to offer solutions grounded in Native traditions and worldviews to
help communities actualize their potential. A few of these relationships
include Fund of the Sacred Circle, a cooperative project with the Headwaters
Foundation for Justice and the Wisconsin Community Fund; Two Feathers Fund
and The Saint Paul Foundation; the Grotto Foundation and the Native Language
Revitalization Initiative; and the Bush Foundation and its Native Nation-
Building Initiative.
The newly formed Tiwahe Foundation (formerly the American Indian Family
Empowerment Program, a partnership with the American Indian community and
the Marbrook, Grotto and Westcliff foundations) joins this prestigious group
of Native grantmakers in Minnesota. The Tiwahe Foundation, a culturally
responsive foundation, awards micro-grants to American Indian individuals
working toward self-determination through educational attainment, economic
self-sufficiency and connecting to their culture.
While implementing participatory approaches and culturally appropriate
strategies is time-consuming and not without challenges, the benefits of
effective partnerships are priceless in the process of generating knowledge
for the development of successful programs and policies.
We are encouraged by the above illustrations, which offer models for
engaging American Indians and foundations in meaningful relationships.
American Indian communities and foundations cannot address the needs in
Indian country without working together. They need each other.
American Indians are essential partners for determining solutions to the
challenges that affect their communities. Despite possessing invaluable
knowledge, the experiences and lived reality of American Indians remain
underrepresented in the foundation world. Without authentic participation
from the affected communities, disparities are sure to continue.
We invite Minnesota grantmakers to engage in honest dialogue with the
American Indian community in hopes of building authentic, meaningful
partnerships and, in the true spirit of Akiptan, “meeting us where we need
to be met.”
Note: Lee, Poupart and Cris Stainbrook, president, Indian Land Tenure
Foundation, will present the breakout session “Rich in American Indian
Culture and Traditions, Short on Money” at the MCN/MCF Joint Annual
Conference,“ Transforming Our Work: From Challenging Times to Hopeful
Futures,” Nov. 5-6, 2009. Details can be viewed at
www.transformingourwork.org.
GF
© Copyright 2009 Minnesota Council on Foundations
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