Trista Harris Selected as 2015 Bush Fellow

MCF President Trista Harris has been awarded a 2015 Bush Fellowship!

Bush Fellows receive up to $100,000 over 12-24 months to pursue learning experiences that help them develop leadership skills. Trista will use her fellowship to advance her work examining how the tools of futurism can be used to strengthen the field of philanthropy.

Trista will continue to serve full-time as MCF President, and she will leverage the insights she will gain from her Bush Fellowship to better serve the field.

Trista joins 22 others awarded a fellowship this year. Get an introduction to the whole cohort in this short video put together by the Bush Foundation:

Learn more on Bush’s website, and learn a bit more about the work Trista will be doing in this Pioneer Press article.

Big congratulations to Trista and to all of the 2015 Bush Fellows!

2015 Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellows Announced

Today MCF announced the 2015 Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellows. The Fellowship, launched as a partnership with the Bush Foundation in 2013, prepares high-potential individuals from underrepresented communities for careers in philanthropy.

Fellows are employed by MCF and placed at participating foundations for three years. This year’s Fellows will join the Bush Foundation, the Headwaters Foundation for Justice or The Minneapolis Foundation, where they will start on January 12, 2015.

“For foundations to remain credible partners, their staff must reflect the shifting diversity of communities,” says Alfonso Wenker, MCF’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion. “These leaders bring strong community relationships that will help position their host sites for the future.”

Meet the 2015 Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellows:

• Allison Johnson (pictured, middle) is a community organizer with Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, where she has worked across the Twin Cities to build support for affordable housing and stronger communities. She will join the Headwaters Foundation for Justice.
• Aya Johnson (right) is currently a community representative in the United States Congress focusing on immigration, foreign affairs, unemployment and outreach to communities of color. She has also served as a domestic violence advocate in St. Cloud and Blaine. She will join the Community Innovation team at the Bush Foundation.
• Adrian Mack (left) is presently the program and curriculum director of STATURE, a leadership program designed to guide Minneapolis youth toward academic and career success. He also participates in several initiatives to engage the broader African American community. He will join the Bush Foundation’s Community Innovation team.
• Patrice Relerford (second from right) is now the institutional support coordinator and grantwriter at People Serving People, a family-oriented shelter that provides emergency housing and community services to help homeless families achieve stability and reconnect with the community. She began her career as an education reporter at the Star Tribune and will join the Community Impact team at The Minneapolis Foundation.
• Avi Viswanathan (second from left) has served as the campaign director for HIRE Minnesota, a campaign working to achieve racial equity in employment. He lives with his family on the East Side of St. Paul where he is engaged in many community activities and has served on the Dayton’s Bluff Community Council. He will join the Leadership Programs team at the Bush Foundation.

“I’ve seen firsthand how poverty and inequality erode communities,” says Fellow Patrice Relerford. “Through this fellowship, I believe I can better understand disparities by asking the tough questions to find solutions. For example, why does our region continue to have such glaring academic achievement, employment and home ownership gaps between whites and people of color?”

About the Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellowship
The Fellowship is dedicated to the late Ron McKinley, a longtime member of the philanthropic and nonprofit communities who embodied justice and equity and worked tirelessly throughout his career to ensure that those from underrepresented communities were afforded equal access, opportunity and the resources necessary to fully participate and be heard.

Applications for the 2016 Ron McKinley Philanthropy Fellowship will be open in fall 2015. Learn more at http://www.mcf.org/about/philanthropy-fellowship or contact Alfonso Wenker, MCF’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, with any questions.

Photo credit: Anna Min, Min Enterprises

HBCUs Share Best Practices for Student Success

Today on the blog we welcome MCF member Kayla Yang-Best of Bush Foundation, who will share what she learned from a recent event about Tribal Colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Thank you, Kayla!

I had the great pleasure of attending a presentation and panel discussion on Historically Black Universities and Colleges this past week. The presentation was part a larger convening hosted by the Center for School Change on “Learning and Teaching with Fire: Lessons from HBCUs and Tribal Colleges.” What an invigorating discussion – one well participated by community leaders and people from a wide range of organizations and sectors, including K12 and policymakers.

We heard many examples of students of color who are succeeding in postsecondary education. I’d like to focus on a couple examples from HBCUs that left an impression on me:

• HBCUs retain and graduate low-income, academically under-prepared students at higher rates than non-HBCUs.
• 40 percent of Black students with degrees in STEM graduated from an HBCU.

What accounts for this success? Dr. Brian Bridges of the United Negro College Fund, one of the speakers, attributed it to “a culture of experimentation” – where HBCUs are doing things differently and intentionally. He highlighted several practices, including:

• High level of student/faculty engagement
• Proactive advising
• Promoting culture and a high level of self-identity and
• Setting high expectations.

He concluded his talk by saying “these strategies can be adapted to all education levels and settings.”

At the core of these practices is connecting to culture, that in turn creates a high level of self-identity, belonging and relationship that the kids desperately need. A good illustration of that came from the audience, a young black man, who stood up and said that he has often been told his history starts with slavery. And that is a very negative foundation to identify with. In his words, “what about before slavery? There is more to me and who I am.”

I was really moved and energized coming out of that convening. Besides learning about the great results of the practices of HBCUs and Tribal Colleges, the convening presented a positive and asset-based narrative about kids of color and achievement, which we don’t hear enough about.

Thank you to the Center for School Change for the convening.

Archibald Bush Legacy Grant Opens to Benefit Saint Paul

As a tribute to Archibald Bush, the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation and Bush Foundation have together pledged $200,000 to support a nonprofit organization that embodies Archie Bush’s legacy of working to strengthen the civic, social and cultural vitality of St. Paul.

To be considered for the Archibald Bush Legacy Grant, nominated organizations must:

• Be a 501(c)(3) public charity
• Have an impact in St. Paul
• Exemplify Archie’s legacy in St. Paul

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman will work with the Foundation to review the nominations and select five finalists. The finalists will be asked how they would use the grant money in a way that is a fitting tribute to Archie’s commitment to St. Paul. The Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation will review the five finalist organizations and their responses to determine the final recipient of the grant.

Nominations close on Friday, Sept. 26, with the recipient to be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

Head over to the Bush Foundation’s website to see how to apply and learn more about Archie and Edyth.

Announcing the 8th Annual Local Government Innovation Awards

Are you a school, city, township, or county that has been innovating to improve services or reduce the cost of local government? If so, share your innovation for a chance to win $5,000 and a professional video highlighting your effort!

The Local Government Innovation Awards—sponsored in partnership between the Humphrey School’s Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center, the Association of Minnesota Counties , the League of Minnesota Cities, the Minnesota Association of Townships, and the Minnesota School Board Association—recognize the creative ways counties, cities, townships and schools are making Minnesota better and doing things differently. All types of local government innovation are encouraged to enter. Through a partnership with the University’s Center for Integrative Leadership this year, the Awards are particularly interested in surfacing innovations involving cross-sector or cross-systems collaborations.

This year up to 20 local government entities will be recognized as award winners for their innovative work. The winner in each of the four categories will also receive a professional video highlighting their innovation work and a $5,000 grant from the Bush Foundation to continue local government innovation and redesign work!

Learn more and help spread the word.

 

Apply Now for a 2015 Bush Fellowship

Earlier this week, the Bush Foundation announced it is accepting applications for the Bush Fellowship program now through September 11. This fellowship is both a recognition of extraordinary achievement and a bet on extraordinary potential, with Fellows awarded up to $100,000 to be spent over 12 to 24 months.

The Bush Foundation seeks leaders who are active learners of outstanding character and a record of success, and who could benefit from intensive development through self-designed or academic programs.

There are two ways to use a Bush Fellowship:

• To start, make progress toward or complete an academic degree.
• In a self-designed learning program where the learning experiences including conferences, classes, seminars, etc. are chosen by the Bush Fellow.

The Fellowship is an opportunity for Bush Fellows to increase their capacity for leadership by pursuing learning experiences that will increase their knowledge and develop important leadership skills and attributes, especially in the areas of communications, self-awareness, creativity, cultural competency and cross-sector leadership.

See the details and apply through the Bush Foundation website, and have a look at the 2014 Bush Fellows to see some successful applicants and what they’ve been up to. Semifinalists will be selected in October, with in-person finalist interviews in February and 2015 Fellows announced in March.

What’s Your Verb?

Jennifer Ford Reedy addressing the YNPN National Conference

A couple of weeks ago, the national conference of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network came to Minneapolis. As a board member of the local chapter, I was thrilled to see so many young leaders from around the country in town and for them to hear Jennifer Ford Reedy of the Bush Foundation during day two’s opening keynote.

One insight from Reedy’s keynote in particular has been sticking with me and others who attended. It came during her description of her career path and how she figured out what her dream job was. A lot of her career, she said, involved doing a good job and seeing what new opportunities emerged, but there was a pivotal moment — involving deep thinking and visualizing her dream job — that got her to where she is today.

That moment came with a question from a CEO she’d been working with. The question wasn’t, “What’s your dream job?” Instead the CEO asked, “Can we fund you to be you and keep doing what you’re doing in the community?” Reedy knew that wasn’t feasible and that she’d need to have a platform and a place to belong. But it did get her thinking, “What do I want to do? Not what job do I want, but what is the verb in my life?”

She thought about what she was good at, what she enjoyed doing and the impact she wanted to have. From there she considered organizations she could be a part of that would allow her to do that. That frame of mind allowed her to make conscious choices that led her to Bush Foundation.

Reedy’s story demonstrated that the familiar question about someone’s dream job might have it backwards. The most important thing to know is what you’ll be happy doing. The best place to do it flows from there, not vice versa. So what about it, what’s your verb?

Watch Reedy’s full keynote and Q&A session from the conference below:

– Chris Oien, MCF digital communications specialist

Bush Foundation Launches Leadership Network Grants

For decades, the Bush Foundation has worked on leadership development in Minnesota and the surrounding region. Earlier this week, it announced a new grant program with that focus.

The new Leadership Network Grant program supports organizations working to inspire, equip and connect leaders to effectively lead change. Grants of up to $200,000 will support efforts that:

• Inspire and equip people to successfully lead in their communities
• Connect people of different backgrounds and perspectives across geographies, sectors, ideological divides or cultural communities

Bush Foundation is particularly interested in proposals that build the cultural agility of leaders or expand leadership development opportunities for communities underrepresented in leadership positions in our region.

It is accepting applications now through June 12, 2014. Access the application and learn more about the grants on the foundation’s website.