|
|
 |
Minnesota Grantmaker News
and Notes
January 2008
 |
The Central Minnesota Community
Foundation raised a record-setting $11 million in 2007, and its
assets rose 18 percent to $65 million. 62 new funds were created at
the foundation, for a total of nearly 500 funds. The foundation
awarded $6.3 million in grants, an increase of 8 percent from the
year before, as well as $129,500 in scholarships. |
 |
The Northwest Minnesota Foundation's
grantmaking from donor-supported component funds has, for the first
time, exceeded its traditional, discretionary grantmaking. According
to president John Ostrem, it affirms the foundation board's decision
to serve the region as a community foundation. |
 |
MTV's
“Choose
or Lose” campaign unveiled “Street Team ’08”: a
specially recruited group of 51 citizen journalists – one from every
state and Washington, D.C. – who will cover the 2008 elections from
a youth perspective and tailor their reports for mobile devices. The
members will contribute weekly, multimedia reports (short form
videos, blogs, animation, photos, podcasts) that will be distributed
via a soon-to-launch WAP site, MTV Mobile, Think.MTV.com and to the
more than 1,800 sites in the Associated Press Online Video Network.
The “Street Team ’08” program is made possible by a $700,000
Knight
News Challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation. |
 |
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded nearly $335 million in grants during fiscal
year 2006-07, the largest annual total in the organization’s history
and a nearly 17-percent increase over the previous year. The
organization has also adopted a new mission statement and will soon
launch an online public dialogue to engage others in a conversation
about this work. Foundation president Sterling Speirn said the new
mission statement "re-focuses our work on helping vulnerable
children succeed and re-aligns us with the original intent of our
founder.” |
 |
The Northland Foundation received a grant for $139,500 from the
Minnesota Department of Human Services to fund a groundbreaking
20-month collaborative effort to connect with, inform and provide
support to Family, Friend and Neighbor (FFN) childcare providers in
Duluth, Carlton County, Hermantown, Proctor and Lake County. The
ultimate goal of outreach efforts is to enhance FFN caregivers’
knowledge and skills related to healthy early childhood development,
early literacy, and school readiness. Surveys and focus groups will help identity FFN
childcare providers in the area and gain a better understanding of
their needs.
>
More information (PDF) |
 |
Ameriprise Financial partnered with
its employees and financial advisors to pledge more than $4.6
million to nonprofit organizations through the company's 2007
employee giving campaign. Employee and advisor donations totaled
more than $2.3 million, and a dollar-for-dollar match by Ameriprise
Financial, combined with other special events, resulted in the total
pledge. The campaign’s 74-percent participation rate and total
donations topped previous company records. |
 |
Thanks to gifts of $10,000 from two
donors, the Northwest Minnesota Women's Fund has
achieved its goal of establishing a
scholarship program. In addition, the donations qualified for
matching funds from the Northwest Minnesota Foundation for the
Women's Fund Visionary Partner campaign. Scholarship application
forms are available by contacting Peggy Crandall at the Northwest
Minnesota Foundation (peggyc@nwmf.org); deadline is May
1, 2008. |
>
More headlines
|
|
