A New Narrative for North Minneapolis

Funders work together to change the story and trajectory of a low-income neighborhood that's emphasizing its assets.

Originally published in the June issue of Twin Cities Business magazine. 

Which Minneapolis neighborhood has wonderful views of the downtown skyscape, a ready workforce and plentiful residential housing? North Minneapolis, home to more than 63,000 residents. The majority of residents are people of color, and poverty rates are high, which has influenced many in Minnesota’s white majority to view this neighborhood as one deserving of charity and access to social services. The Northside Funders Group, a coalition of foundations, has learned that the neighborhood actually wants business investment, coordinated action by policymakers to encourage these investments, and more urgent responses to strengthen the neighborhood’s underperforming schools.

The north side’s new narrative is that neighborhood change and development can be driven from the inside out. Neighborhood leaders are working toward transformational change, built on the foundation of their neighborhood’s assets, not its deficits. What are the north side’s assets? Talent (a large workforce; 56 percent has some college or a four-year or higher degree), leadership (civic leaders working with common purpose and energy) and geography (including proximity to downtown).

One organization whose work is nearly always mentioned in this new narrative is the Northside Funders Group and its dynamic leader, Tawanna Black. Founded in 2008 when a small group of foundations gathered to share ideas and plans, NFG now has 20 members who have come together to learn about the neighborhood, align their grantmaking for maximum impact, and advocate for policy changes that will benefit the neighborhood’s vitality. Collectively these funders provide $12 million to $17 million annually to about 200 nonprofits serving the area. Black was hired to lead the group in 2013. Since then she’s accelerated NFG’s progress and brought energy and visibility to the role.

Sarah Hernandez, program officer at the McKnight Foundation, co-chairs NFG. She says, “We talk about our levers: the opportunity to learn together, to leverage our giving together, to influence together and to invest together. As a collective of funders, we can realize we can influence not only our own giving but also policy, opinion and investments beyond our own.” Jo-Anne Stately, director of impact strategy at the Minneapolis Foundation, is NFG’s other co-chair. “Through NFG we are getting much better at talking to one another to deal with the larger systems issues. Things are changing, and changing faster,” Stately says.

Two programs in particular seem notable for Twin Cities Business readers; they both offer ways for the business community to get involved. North@Work is a targeted, five-year effort to place 2,000 African-American men in living-wage jobs. When successful, this effort can bring more than $50 million annually in new wages to north side residents and families. Created in response to data that show African American men are the second least likely to achieve stable employment after participating in a public workforce program, North@Work provides training, support and placement services to cohorts of men seeking jobs. While 11 percent of the Minnesota workforce today is African American men, by 2040 that percent will rise to 24. The urgency to help African American men develop the skills, networks and experiences needed to fill new jobs is one shared by businesses, government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Employers will find North@Work a great place to get involved in this “everybody in” collaboration.

The newly announced Opportunity Neighborhoods for Regional Prosperity program builds on North@Work but also brings together multiple workforce development initiatives and has broader efforts. NFG wants to increase the number of jobs reachable by north side residents within a 30-minute commute, develop working capital to invest in neighborhood-based minority-owned businesses, align philanthropic strategies related to economic and workforce development, and integrate this body of work within government agencies whose roles include these sectors. NFG members have identified the mismatch between programs and services in the various sectors as a challenging obstacle to economic development. Activities like making sure locations in the neighborhood are “business ready,” developing transit options that make it easy for residents to get to work, and promoting safety and discouraging crime are all actions that require cross-sector approaches.

“Business leaders can help us by thinking about how they can fully leverage all their strengths to help build the north side’s economy,” Black says. “While they could think in charity mode by giving money or volunteering, the real impact will come from economic development. Business leaders have something major to offer communities. We need your strategy minds,” Black continues. “We need to hear what you think business can do to help our efforts.” Too often, she says, the collaborative nature of Minnesota’s culture is cited. Yet in reality, there is segmented collaboration “at the business table, at the philanthropy table, and at the community table” instead of purposeful pursuit of coordinated, cross-sector approaches. “I know it’s harder, I know it’s slower,” she says. “But it pays off. What we’re trying to do demands deep, cross-sector work, and we’ll need to persevere.”

“Our state can only be as strong as the north side is strong. The economic development of the north side will affect our entire state’s economy and well-being,” Black says. Sounds like a call to action—why not heed it? 

Re-cap of trends reports for 2016, from a non-profit perspective

Minnesota and national nonprofits are responding to sweeping changes in the world world and in the public square.

Three major trends affecting how we work, tackle complex problems and express our political views took firm hold in 2015. They foreshadow the types of activities we can expect to see in the nonprofit world this year. It’s clear that Minnesotans and the nonprofits based here are helping to define these dominant national trends.

Work is changing

Lucy Bernholz’ influential Blueprint report for the national Foundation Center, and the Center for the Future of Museums’ TrendsWatch report, authored by Elizabeth Merritt, crystallize the changing nature and structure of work. The rise of the “gig economy” affects individual workers but also results in shifts in the community support systems people need. A growing number of people earn a living by doing “on-demand” work rather than going to full-time jobs where their work is organized in steady chunks of time. Everything from grocery stores to transit systems to child care services to schools must adjust as workers and their families fit paid work into less predictable, more hectic schedules. Bernholz’ report cites a 2015 study that found 34 percent of workers self-identify as freelancers, and about 43 percent of Americans working a 40-hour week do not have a single full-time employer.

Minnesota nonprofits are seeing these trends playing out on multiple fronts. One prominent example is the Working Families Agenda in Minneapolis, whose advocates were seeking city regulation of workers’ scheduling and hours and requiring mandatory sick leave for part-time workers who may have to navigate policies of several employers. Social service agencies are responding to these workplace trends with extended hours, on-location services and support for higher minimum wages.

For-profits, in particular small businesses, have frequently and strongly disagreed with such proposals for further regulation. But trend watchers say we should pay attention and respond. If the nature of work is shifting, how can businesses and nonprofits work together to help people create an economically viable and satisfying life? Bernholz argues that some systemic changes in the provision of health insurance, retirement planning, disability coverage and professional credentialing are needed.

Networks matter more

The website SocialVelocity.net publishes a widely circulated “Nonprofit Trends to Watch” article every year, written by Nell Edgington. For 2016, it calls out a “greater emphasis on networks” as one of five key developments in play. Other reports describe this trend in different language, but the underlying observation is the same: We’re moving from the binary relationship of service provider/target population, donor/recipient or performer/audience to a networked system of influencer-connectors who act together to solve problems, deliver services and raise money.

This trend is easily observable in Minnesota as large networks of nonprofits tackle big social issues “at scale,” often by creatively aligning their own budgets and service delivery rather than building what might be duplicative organizational structures. Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) is taking a coalition approach to align efforts to end intergenerational poverty in north Minneapolis. Pollen is a growing network of people self-identified as community connectors who gather online and in person to build social capital, work on community problems and help each other by sharing job openings, events of interest and news.

You can find further evidence of this trend in the abundant webinars, workshops and articles for nonprofit leaders to help them navigate the leadership requirements of the networked environment. New to the subject? Check out Stanford Social Innovation Review’s series on “The New Network Leader,” providing examples and drawing lessons from people excelling at a network approach.

Protests are increasing

SocialVelocity.net and the Chronicle of Higher Education both draw attention to the increase in protests that occurred in 2015, and they predict more growth in active protesting in the future. A key factor in the acceleration of recent protests is the widespread availability of social media for organizing like-minded people, allowing quick and direct communication to networks and to authorities. The Chronicle says that in an age of social media in higher education, “the ability to react has become a survival skill.” It also cites the “fresh wave of attacks on free speech, often coming from students” as the No. 1 higher ed trend to watch. For organizers and advocates, the ability to reach and rally constituents on an immediate basis means that both grievances and ideas can be aired in real time and can move public opinion rapidly.

The most visible local example of increasing protests is the Black Lives Matter movement in Minnesota. That growing coalition gets its voice and news to the public without assistance from traditional media outlets. During the 2015 Fourth Precinct occupation in Minneapolis, Black Lives Matter was active on Twitter and Facebook, and it used Periscope to reach new people for press conferences and live events.

Boiling dozens of trends down to three means leaving out many other noteworthy currents. But these three also are connected. As more people find it difficult, if not impossible, to find work through a single full-time employer, and as communications tools allow people to form networks and speak their truths, we have new conditions for social movements. Minnesotans have the choice to harness these trends to create positive social change or to ignore them and increase social unrest. Which will we choose?

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New Perspectives and Local Solutions, an interview with Ben Cameron

Ben Cameron became president of the St. Paul-based Jerome Foundation in January. He previously led Target’s giving in the arts and most recently worked in New York for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, one of the nation’s largest arts funders. With a background in theater, Cameron also served as director of the theater program at the National Endowment for the Arts, and as executive director of the Theatre Communications Group, a national service organization for the theater community in the United States. TCB spoke to Cameron recently to learn about the Jerome Foundation’s vision for arts funding.

TCB: What brought you back to the Twin Cities and to this particular position?

Ben Cameron: Really, three things. I’ve been very public ever since I left, that I considered the Twin Cities my home. This was an opportunity to come back to a city that I really love. The second thing that was really powerful for me was, I’ve gone to the national mayors’ conference, and I remember Mayor [Eric] Garcetti of Los Angeles standing up to say that today, national governments will never be the home of successful innovations. They are too mired in bureaucracy and self-interest. Going forward, the breakthrough solutions to the problems we face today will be found on the local level, and it will be the federal government’s job to bring successful innovations to scale. Third, I think we’re in a moment of profound realignment and reorganization for the arts in this nation, and I think the most interesting experiments and solutions are going to happen at the local level.

So as much as I loved my job as a national grantmaker, the opportunity to work with a local focus, with the potential to think about these issues, was deeply attractive.

TCB: You just said that our society’s most important innovations are going to come at the local and regional level; tell me how they will occur.

BC: As a national grantmaker what’s fantastic is you get to interact with great ideas wherever they are. But change, I think, comes from a denser, concerted mass of people working together, and in the local community. There is different potential to watch a system move and adapt when you make many grants in the same community. You can have a kind of local impact that helps nudge a needle that is more likely, compared to, say, 15 grants given across 15 states. Those grants are wonderful for those 15 organizations, but they may not move a system. So it’s about the density of activity.

TCB: Tell me about the characteristics and signals of what you’re calling a critical moment.

BC: The landscape in which we operate is radically different. At least four things define it. First is that the 501(c)(3) model is increasingly challenged and is increasingly limited. Frankly a lot of the most exciting work now—especially among young artists—is not happening in a nonprofit context. We prided ourselves on our “sector purity” when I was growing up, that we were “nonprofit artists.” Young artists want to get the work done, whether it is commercial or nonprofit. The rigidity of the divide is breaking down. Second, we’re clearly in a country where who we are is under radical redefinition. And on the one hand, when I say who we are, that’s thrilling and fantastic, and the possibilities of new cultural expressions and collaborations are unbounded. The landscape today is not based in a presumed understanding of Euro-centric art forms. The third thing that’s different is how we congregate, how we gather, how we spend our time, and not unrelated, the fourth factor is the impact of technology on the arts. What we are dealing with now are the possibilities of the Internet in ways that were inconceivable a generation ago. Artists have to respond. And the arts community has to respond.

TCB: What will be the Jerome Foundation’s role helping people navigate these complexities?

BC: That’s what the coming year’s planning is going to reveal to us. We’ve posted a survey that asks artists and organizations: What do you need? What’s most important to you? What value has Jerome had in the landscape for you? We’re [also] asking: Are we responsive? Do we pay attention? And finally, what should we be thinking about as we move forward? What should we protect? What should we let go of?

TCB: What are your thoughts for the business readers of TCB?

BC: For people in business, it’s important to think about the ultimate value that can be brought through nonprofit board service. While oversight is a critical role, I think what people in nonprofits are hungry for is insight and foresight. By miring too deeply in the mechanics of an organization, and in a sense wanting to oversee management, not only is that potentially vexing on all sorts of levels for everyone involved, but it deprives everybody of the ultimate richness of what board service can be, which is really about foresight and insight. When people think, “What can I bring as a business person?” recognize it’s not just management expertise; it’s those other capacities, which are even more important right now.

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HAFA works to build wealth among Hmong farmers

Nonprofit not only helps farmers with crops, but also with growing their businesses

The ground is still frozen, but the Hmong American Farmers’ Association (HAFA) already has made plans for the 2016 growing season. Seeds were long ago ordered, and seedlings are sprouting in hothouses. What’s more, member-farmers have attended classes throughout the winter, such as “Introduction to Business Development,” “Soil Health and Fertility” and “Marketing Tactics for a Successful Season.”

HAFA is the brainchild of co-founders and siblings Pakou Hang (alumna of Yale and the University of Minnesota Humphrey school of public affairs) and Janssen Hang (St. Olaf), who wanted to help Hmong farmers prosper in Minnesota. Their goal is not merely to help farmers earn more money from their crops, but also to build wealth in the Hmong community by helping farmers become self-sufficient and improve their business skills. HAFA takes a multifaceted approach to working with its members, helping them understand and expand the marketplace for produce, navigate regulatory requirements, and master financial planning and management skills.

The 128 farmers who belong to HAFA have met the annual membership requirements. They farm for a living, have done so for at least three years, and farm on at least 3 acres. They belong to an established farmers’ market and have the appropriate insurance to do so. To date, most farm within a relatively short drive of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Nearly 130 farmers belong to the Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA). By joining together, the farmers enhanced their ability to market their produce to grocery stores and other customers. Photo by Mike Hazard/HAFA

A centerpiece of HAFA’s work is its 155-acre incubator farm near Hastings. “I was sent to the farm for a tour and was blown away,” says chef Gibson Price. “It is gorgeous. The fields of flowers are something I never expected to see in Minnesota. Our cooks love to work with the produce which is beautiful, perfectly cleaned, and fun to work with.” That’s high praise coming from Price, who has visited more than a few farms in his role as sous-chef at Carleton College, where Bon Appétit Management Co. energetically pursues a “farm-to-fork” program to buy food locally when possible. “I can get a lot of produce from HAFA, but I want even more,” Price explains. “They are a step above.” He’s currently negotiating with HAFA to increase the Hmong farmers’ supply of onions for Carleton, whose students consume 1,000 pounds a week.

The HAFA farm is divided into 5-acre plots. Members can lease one or two plots; the farm is fully subscribed. Each farmer has a 10-year lease, allowing long-term planning, income stability and some perennial, rather than annual, crops, such as asparagus and strawberries. Based on a survey, involvement of member-farmers in HAFA has helped individual farmers increase their average sales per acre from $5,000 to $7,500 annually. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture reports that farmers of specialty crops such as fresh produce typically earn $8,500 per acre in gross sales, says Pakou Hang. “Some organic and specialty farmers earn as much as $20,000,” she adds. A self-described “data geek,” she wants to see HAFA member-farmers reach these higher returns over time.

“Pakou is that rare mix of visionary and doer,” Kirstin Brost Grantham says enthusiastically. “She proposes something incredible, on a time frame that seems unrealistic, then finishes early, overperforms and is on to the next goal.” Grantham leads AgriBank’s philanthropic giving programs and has helped HAFA with grants and other support. “I was looking for people in Minnesota working to help farmers, and Pakou’s name was at the top of everyone’s list. Lives are being changed at the farm,” Grantham continues. “You can see it on the ground.”

HAFA’s annual budget has grown from $10,000 in 2011 to $1.2 million, fueled by a combination of private foundation and federal grants and some earned income. By marketing to businesses, to government buyers such as school districts, and to grocery stores and area co-ops, HAFA is expanding sales for its farmers’ produce and helping its members think beyond the farmers’ market as a primary outlet. HAFA’s food hub helps farmers centrally negotiate with stores and buyers, and it also provides area food shelves with “seconds” throughout the growing season.

HAFA is a prime example of a growing trend that involves philanthropy and enterprises coming together to support prosperity in Minnesota and help build wealth in communities of color. These nonprofits demonstrate savvy in both grantseeking and philanthropic support systems, as well as new ways to generate income and succeed in the marketplace. Watch for similar efforts as the idea of social enterprise increasingly takes root.

What’s new at HAFA for 2016? “There is a growing market for our purple sweet potatoes, and people are big on ground cherries,” Pakou Hang told me. Look for HAFA’s labeling on fresh produce or for their collective brand, Vameng Produce. “Vameng means ‘prosperity’ in Hmong,” Pakou explains.

So, eat more vegetables—you’ll be helping more than just yourself.

Initially published in the March 2016 issue of Twin Cities Business.

 

Is the Chan/Zuckerberg initiative a game changer?

Originally published in the February, 2016 issue of Twin Cities Business Magazine

What are the ripple effects from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's charitable giving?

 

When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, welcomed their baby girl, Max, they simultaneously announced their intent to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares “to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation.” The size of this whopping gift was estimated at $45 billion.

It only makes sense that the Chan-Zuckerbergs chose Facebook to tell their story, scripted as a letter to their newborn and accompanied by a picture of the new family. The multi-page letter is worth a read, as it lays out the rationale and likely interests of what will be a major new philanthropy. What’s unusual, controversial, and therefore the focus of most news coverage: the way the couple decided to structure their “gift.”

What the couple announced is the creation of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a Delaware-based limited liability corporation that Zuckerberg will lead while he continues as Facebook’s CEO. Using the LLC structure, the initiative can do things that a traditional foundation or nonprofit cannot.

Like what?

First, the LLC can invest in startups and existing businesses whose purposes align with the initiative’s stated areas of initial focus: personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people through the Internet, and building strong communities.

Second, the LLC can engage in public policy debates and lobbying in ways that are prohibited within the statutes governing the nonprofit sector.

Third, the LLC can operate outside the regulatory environment of the nonprofit sector, which requires transparency with respect to governance, operations, investments and spending. As private entities, LLCs bear none of these reporting burdens.

And fourth, it can make charitable gifts. It can behave like a traditional charitable foundation by making grants to nonprofits and it can fund individuals without the restrictions faced by traditional foundation structures.

Trista Harris, president of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, shared her thoughts about the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s impact on the philanthropic sector. “Maybe tech entrepreneurs, in particular, don’t want to be hindered by the tools they use for philanthropy,” she says. “There is more blurring of the lines between business and philanthropy. Entrepreneurs see many ways to make change happen; charitable gifts are one way, but not the only way.”

What does she mean by blurring the lines between business and philanthropy? “The B corporation, in Minnesota, is a good example,” she says. “These are for-profit businesses with a social purpose. People are trying to figure out how to make a difference. They can volunteer, make a gift, invent new things or start a business. These approaches seem equally valid.”

She and Jon Pratt, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, agreed that the most controversial element of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is the lack of transparency in an LLC compared with a nonprofit organization. “There is a public trust that happens when anyone gives a gift to a foundation or public charity. The donor gives up control and they receive a significant tax advantage in return,” Harris explains. But in the case of Chan Zuckerberg, “the couple is preserving their options,” Pratt says. “This was not a transfer of control but a structure that allows [them] to maintain it.” Should nonprofits be worried about this? Neither Pratt nor Harris thinks so. “I think it’s generous,” Harris says. “It follows in the tradition of the Dayton family and the Minnesotans who founded the 2 Percent and 5 Percent clubs in the 20th century” with their statements of philanthropic intent.

“It’s a public expression of commitment,” Pratt explains. “It’s a positive development when people of extreme wealth show that their fortunes should benefit the public.” Harris thinks the couple’s move will stimulate other people to give and reflects a willingness to innovate, exploring all the tools available to achieve the desired results.

Traditional philanthropies in Minnesota are already exploring some of the avenues that Chan Zuckerberg can pursue, though again, the LLC structure allows much more freedom and requires less public reporting. For example, in 2014 the McKnight Foundation announced it would invest 10 percent of its $2 billion endowment assets in businesses that can advance its programmatic aims. Further, many local charities and foundations have invested time and dollars in grassroots public policy work. While their activities fall short of the direct lobbying that Chan Zuckerberg can engage in, they’re nonetheless collaborating on major education efforts to inform public policy. The Minneminds’ campaign—aimed at improving families’ access to quality child care in our state—is a strong example.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will allow all these activities, but under one roof. “These folks have transformed entire industries in relatively short periods of time,” Pratt observes. “So when it comes to solving [seemingly] intractable problems like social justice, better educational outcomes, improved health and environmental protection, they think, ‘How hard can this be?’ They want to get going.”