Fall 2002

What We've Learned:
Ten Years of Building Grantmaking in Communities of Color

by Jo-Anne Stately, senior program officer, The Saint Paul Foundation

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Diversity Endowment Funds of The Saint Paul Foundation. The Diversity Endowment Funds are statewide funds that consist of a Common Fund and four community-specific endowment funds: the Asian Pacific Endowment for Community Development, El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad, the Pan African Community Endowment, and the Two Feathers Fund. During the past 10 years, we've seen tremendous growth in the five funds, resulting in more than $2 million in grants made to community organizations throughout Minnesota since 1996.

In the early '90s, The Saint Paul Foundation began looking for ways to build a bridge to communities of color and provide a mechanism for raising funds, identifying interest areas and allocating charitable dollars. At that time, there was very little representation from communities of color on the foundation's staff and board, and the leadership made a commitment to embrace diversity both internally and externally.

The foundation created the Diversity Endowment Funds with a $1 million challenge grant from a donor-advised fund and a matching gift of $1 million from its unrestricted grantmaking funds, plus an allocation of $1 million from two other funds of the foundation. Matching grants from the Northwest Area Foundation and the Bush Foundation have provided incentives for contributions from individuals in communities of color to give to the community-specific funds.

During the Diversity Endowment Funds' formative stage, The Saint Paul Foundation invited representatives from communities of color to discuss the advantages of a multicultural endowment fund and how to structure it. The end result of this community input was the formation of four community-specific funds targeted for the Asian Pacific, American Indian, Latino and Pan African communities.

From the beginning, we've made a very deliberate effort to engage people from communities of color in the full spectrum of philanthropy — as leaders, decision-makers, donors and grantmakers. This approach has set the Diversity Endowment Funds apart as a unique multicultural endowment and grantmaking model among foundations and communities nationwide.

Lessons Learned

From the perspective of the four community-specific Diversity Endowment Funds, key lessons learned over the past 10 years include:

• Involve a broad spectrum of volunteers to best identify issues of a diverse ethnic community. "Over the years, El Fondo has made a concerted effort to focus on issues affecting the Latino community in outlying areas of Minnesota as well as the Twin Cities," said Jim Bonilla, a member of the El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad advisory committee. "Volunteers have provided an excellent sounding board for us."
       
• Allow community-specific funds to set their own priorities for grantmaking while collaborating across multicultural communities. "The Pan African Community Endowment fund has been able to address issues important to the African American community, such as health care disparities, while tapping the expertise of the foundation and the Diversity Endowment Funds on how to apply grantmaking strategies effectively," said Clarence Jones, chair of the Pan African Community Endowment advisory committee.
       
• Understand the importance of relationship-building and using culturally appropriate language. "Typical marketing language around charitable giving is foreign to many people in multicultural communities," said Kerry Bird, chair of the Two Feathers Fund advisory committee. "For example, one family that established a scholarship fund with Two Feathers did so because they learned how their desire to leave a legacy for a deceased family member could translate to education support for American Indian youth for years to come."
       
• Engage donors through personal contacts and show them how their contributions can make a difference. "In our work with donor recruitment, we have found that including an honest and sincere articulation of the growing and challenging needs of the Asian Pacific community in fund-raising appeals are quite effective," said Linda Davis, chair of the Asian Pacific Endowment Community Development advisory committee.

Currently, the Diversity Endowment Funds have combined assets of $5.5 million. The funds raise new contributions for their permanent endowments at The Saint Paul Foundation and authorize grants to address a variety of issues within each of their communities. While the funds target specific communities, our goal is for the grantmaking and endowment-building work of the DEF to impact the larger community.

On November 9, the DEF will tell its unique story through a spectacular multicultural celebration -- "The Calling of the Drums-A Decade of Giving" -- at Circus Juventas in St. Paul. This event will recognize those who have been part of this 10-year journey, celebrate our accomplishments to date and build enthusiasm in our community about the values and opportunities of promoting diversity through philanthropy. 

About the Author
A member of the White Earth Band of Chippewa, Jo-Anne Stately is active in issues and programs directly benefiting the Indian community nationally and locally.  She serves as the chair for Native Americans in Philanthropy.

More Information

Diversity Endowment Funds
www.saintpaulfoundation.org/def
Learn more about community-specific funds and their grantmaking guidelines.

© Copyright 2002 Minnesota Council on Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

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