NOTE: First-come, first-served until funds are spent for the year.

Purpose

At Northwest Minnesota Foundation, we believe in the power of the whole, that everyone deserves to have their voices heard and valued. We strive to create welcoming spaces to help each other achieve our best possible future, together. We acknowledge that some populations have not had the same access to resources, capital, education, housing, employment, social networks, and other critical elements that have advanced health and wealth for some but not for others. We understand a person cannot prevent their ethnicity, ability, gender, socio- economic status or other aspects of who they are from being politicized by others. In doing this work, we will not elevate opinion or political bias but instead focus on real lived experiences and historical facts. Our role as a funder and community facilitator means we must model adaptive and accepting behavior. We encourage our staff, board, and partners to live in service of others. Our personal growth is strengthened when we take the time to listen and understand our neighbors. We must not forget the historical inequities that got us to this point in history. We also have a responsibility to do better to close opportunity gaps now. We continue to learn from each other and have a deep commitment to working with our diverse communities.

Project Summary

This grant opportunity supports the development and advancement of locally driven diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in Northwest Minnesota. We want to empower local initiatives that give voice to communities not often included at decision-making tables or in policy development. Grant proposals should demonstrate the local situation or need, identify who is involved in the initiative, and define the greater goals of the effort.

Project Requirements

• Share progress reports, media coverage, social media campaigns, and other relevant updates with NMF.
• Share impact stories related to the project.

Amount

Maximum grant awards are up to $20,000. The average expected grant is estimated at $10,000.

NOTE: The Management Improvement Fund has a rolling application. All interested applicants are highly encouraged to email the Management Improvement Fund before applying to ensure that the Fund fits your needs.

Nonprofit organizations work hard to meet the needs of our communities and raise the funds needed to support the day-to-day operations of their programs, leaving them little time and resources to devote to essential professional and technical services.

The Management Improvement Fund supports vital capacity-building work and technical assistance that expand organizational capacity, improve management capabilities to better serve the community, and nurture Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) leadership in the nonprofit sector. As a result, grant recipients can bolster fundraising, expand important programs and improve their services to the community.

The Management Improvement Fund

The Management Improvement Fund, a special fund of the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, provides grants to nonprofit organizations operating in or serving the Twin Cities East Metro (Ramsey, Washington and/or Dakota counties). This Fund makes grants to small to midsize nonprofit organizations to finance the cost of consultation or technical assistance to expand organizational capacity, improve management capabilities to better serve the community, and nurture Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) leadership in the nonprofit sector.

The staff of the Foundation provide assistance to potential grant applicants to help them define needs appropriate for funding and works closely with grant recipients to monitor their progress on their projects. Since 1991, the Foundation has provided more than 600 Management Improvement Fund grants totaling $6 million to nonprofit organizations across Minnesota.

In 2023, the Foundation expanded its approach to supporting the management and leadership of Minnesota nonprofits. Specifically, we saw the lack of support and resources available to BIPOC leaders and decided to expand the Management Improvement Fund to provide resources that are meant to be agile and responsive to nonprofits as they continue to pivot and grow from the racial reckoning and COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this expansion, the Management Improvement Fund has broadened its funding guidelines so that BIPOC nonprofit leaders and organizations have what they need to thrive.

Challenges Addressed

Many nonprofit organizations struggle financially to raise enough revenue for their programs to serve BIPOC and/or low-income individuals and families and don’t have the financial resources to pay for much needed professional consultation and technical services. Management Improvement Fund grants to nonprofit organizations help them stay strong and healthy, paying dividends to the communities they serve.

The needs of nonprofit organizations vary widely due to the type, age and size of organizations as well as external factors influencing the nonprofit environment. Because of these differences, Management Improvement Fund grants offset the expenses of a variety of capacity-building activities.

The Foundation acknowledges that the needs of our communities, and especially our BIPOC communities, cannot be properly addressed by a single source. More specifically, BIPOC communities have a multitude of needs and strengths requiring flexibility and responsiveness. A priority of the Management Improvement Fund is to reflect community-defined needs and identify mechanisms that work to enhance and improve conditions in low-income and BIPOC communities. The Management Improvement Fund is committed to being an ongoing, responsive opportunity for organizations to meet community needs.

NOTE: McKnight has a one-step application process and accepts proposals on a rolling basis. We strive for a three-month turnaround time from your application to a decision and, if your grant is approved, receipt of payment. We will make a decision within three months of receiving your application. Given year-end priorities, grants submitted and reviewed in the fourth quarter may take additional time. We recommend submitting your request by September 1 if funding in the current calendar year is critical.

If, after reading our approach and funding FAQs, here , you feel your organization fits within our funding strategy, please contact the Arts & Culture team before submitting an application. 

Arts Program Goal: Support working artists to create vibrant communities. Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive.

As creators, innovators, and leaders, Minnesota’s working artists are the primary drivers of our heralded arts and culture community. Artists nurture our cultural identities, imagine solutions, and catalyze social change.

Organizations can provide critical support structures to working artists, helping artists sustain themselves through their creative work.

The McKnight Foundation invests in the arts and other sectors to support Minnesota’s working artists and advocate for the value of their work.

Our Approach

Ensuring that Minnesota is a place where artists choose to live and work strengthens our communities, our cultures, and our economies. The McKnight Foundation’s arts grantmaking is focused on working artists and the organizations that help them advance artistically and professionally.

Support for working artists has been a mainstay of the Arts program since it began. In 2010, after a comprehensive evaluation, McKnight’s board of directors decided to focus on impact at the source: the artists.

McKnight’s arts grantees are organizations that do the following:

• prioritize compensation to artists
• enable unique artistic opportunities
• facilitate meaningful relationships between artists and their communities
• demonstrate a deep understanding of their field
• respond to broad trends
• work to eliminate deep and persistent cultural, economic, and racial barriers

McKnight’s Arts program funds arts organizations across many disciplines that offer support structures for working artists. It also provides fellowships and other re-granting to working artists through key partners.

Our Strategies

Fuel exceptional and diverse artistic practice

We fund organizations, programs, and projects that provide support structures for working artists to develop and share their work.

For example, here are some ways that grantees advance this strategy:

• develop, exhibit, publish, produce, or promote new work or compelling interpretations of existing work, and facilitate community-embedded arts practices
• connect artists to funding, physical space, networking, and other opportunities
• provide funding and other material support to artists for professional development and technical assistance
• facilitate experimentation and collaboration

Maximize the value of artists’ work in their communities

We fund and leverage local and national collaborations, networks, knowledge, data, and policies that maximize artists’ value inside and outside the arts sector. For example, grantees carry out this strategy in various ways:

• elevate perceptions of artists as primary drivers of our arts and culture sector
• enable sector-wide capacity development
• conduct research that enhances capacity for arts advocacy, field sustainability, and managerial excellence
• support arts organizations and artists as partners in community development, leveraging collaboration among cultural, municipal, and economic development interests

NOTE: Prior to submission of a funding request, organizations are required to contact Foundation staff to talk about how a project fits with the Foundation’s guidelines. This opportunity is for direct-services and advocacy grants only. Applicants for the Episcopal Faith Communities Grant can find information here.

The Sheltering Arms Foundation supports high quality direct service programs and a limited number of advocacy efforts that raises the level of public awareness and commitment to the well-being of children. Advocacy programs might include public education campaigns, public policy development, research, coalition building, or community organizing

What We Fund

Advocacy

The Sheltering Arms Foundation’s vision of success is that the opportunity gap will be significantly diminished because broad public will exists to make investments to assure that all Minnesota children succeed in school and life. To achieve this goal, we fund advocacy efforts that increase access to high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood care and education and youth development/out of school time opportunities.

We fund political networks, coalitions and campaigns that lobby, advocate and organize for children’s early learning and life success. We also support training to help parents become advocates for their children’s early learning and out of school time success.

Early Childhood

The Sheltering Arms Foundation’s vision of success is that all Minnesota children with the least access to resources are socially and emotionally, as well as physically and cognitively ready for kindergarten. To achieve this goal, we fund high quality culturally appropriate early childhood programs that support children’s social, emotional, physical and academic development with strong family engagement strategies.

Eligible programs include innovative early care and education, targeted home visiting and parent education, and early childhood mental health programs.

A high quality early care and education program has the following elements:

• A 3 or 4 star Parent Aware rating or is on a pathway to attain it
• A research based high quality curriculum
• Opportunities for family engagement in programming
• Quality assessment tools where data informs program improvement
• Access to professional development for staff that supports growth in their job in areas such as: program design, evaluation and assessment, inter-cultural skills, and child development.

A high quality parent education and targeted home visiting program has the following elements:

• A focus on strength-based whole child and family development that includes cognitive, physical, social and emotional development
• A research based high quality curriculum and evidenced based model
• A parent-child interaction component
• Active involvement of parents/caregivers in their child’s learning process
• Intensity and duration of contact appropriate for goals of the program
• Quality assessment tools where data informs program improvement
• Access to professional development for staff that supports growth in their job in areas such as: program design, evaluation and assessment, inter-cultural skills, and child development.

A high quality early childhood mental health program has the following elements:

• Priority given to mental health programs that align with high quality early care education and targeted home visiting programs
• Primary focus on Relationships
• Culturally appropriate interventions
• Research based high quality methodology
• Opportunities for family engagement in programming
• Initial assessment of each child including for trauma and chronic stress
• Intensity and duration of client services appropriate to the goals of the intervention
• Quality assessment tools where data informs program improvement
• Access to professional development for staff that supports growth in their job in areas such as: new developments in early childhood mental health treatments, program design, evaluation and assessment, and inter-cultural skills.

Youth Development

The Sheltering Arms Foundation’s vision of success is that all Minnesota children are socially and emotionally, as well as physically and academically prepared to succeed by 7th grade. To achieve this goal, we fund high quality culturally appropriate youth development programs for 5-12 year olds that support children’s social, emotional, physical and academic development with strong family engagement strategies.

Eligible programs are out of school time and mentoring programs in school based settings, community settings or affordable housing locations.

A high-quality youth development programming should include the following elements:

• Sequential activities that teach skills
• Active and experiential learning
• Focused and explicit skill development
• Developmentally and culturally appropriate program design
• Intensity and duration of contact
• Social and Emotional Learning competencies (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making)
• Opportunities for family involvement and participation in programming
• Quality assessment tools where data informs program improvement
• Access to professional development for staff that supports growth in their job in areas such as: youth programming, evaluation and assessment, inter-cultural skills, and program design.

Battlefield Preservation Fund

Grants from the Battlefield Preservation Fund will serve as a catalyst to stimulate efforts to preserve battlefields, viewsheds, and related historic structures and to leverage fund-raising activities.

Eligible Activities

National Trust Preservation Fund grants are awarded for planning activities and education efforts focused on preservation. Grant funds can be used to launch new initiatives or to provide additional support to on-going efforts.

Planning

Supporting existing staff (nonprofit applicants only) or obtaining professional expertise in areas such as architecture, archaeology, engineering, preservation planning, land-use planning, and law. Eligible planning activities include, but are not limited to:

• Hiring a preservation architect or landscape architect, or funding existing staff with expertise in these areas, to produce a historic structure report or historic landscape master plan.
• Hiring a preservation planner, or funding existing staff with expertise in this area, to produce design guidelines for a historic district.
• Hiring a real estate development consultant, or funding existing staff with expertise in this area, to produce an economic feasibility study for the reuse of a threatened structure.
• Sponsoring a community forum to develop a shared vision for the future of a historic neighborhood.
• Organizational capacity building activities such as hiring fundraising consultants, conducting board training, etc.

Education and Outreach

Support for preservation education activities aimed at the public. The National Trust is particularly interested in programs aimed at reaching new audiences. Funding will be provided to projects that employ innovative techniques and formats aimed at introducing new audiences to the preservation movement, whether that be through education programming or conference sessions.

Guidelines

Grants from National Trust Preservation Funds (NTPF) are intended to encourage preservation at the local level by supporting on-going preservation work and by providing seed money for preservation projects. These grants help stimulate public discussion, enable local groups to gain the technical expertise needed for preservation projects, introduce the public to preservation concepts and techniques, and encourage financial participation by the private sector.

A small grant at the right time can go a long way and is often the catalyst that inspires a community to take action on a preservation project. Grants generally start at $2,500 and range up to $5,000. The selection process is very competitive.

Eligible Activities

National Trust Preservation Fund grants are awarded for planning activities and education efforts focused on preservation. Grant funds can be used to launch new initiatives or to provide additional support to on-going efforts.

Planning: Supporting existing staff (nonprofit applicants only) or obtaining professional expertise in areas such as architecture, archaeology, engineering, preservation planning, land-use planning, and law. Eligible planning activities include, but are not limited to:

• Hiring a preservation architect or landscape architect, or funding existing staff with expertise in these areas, to produce a historic structure report or historic landscape master plan.
• Hiring a preservation planner, or funding existing staff with expertise in this area, to produce design guidelines for a historic district.
• Hiring a real estate development consultant, or funding existing staff with expertise in this area, to produce an economic feasibility study for the reuse of a threatened structure.
• Sponsoring a community forum to develop a shared vision for the future of a historic neighborhood.
• Organizational capacity building activities such as hiring fundraising consultants, conducting board training, etc.

Education and Outreach: Support for preservation education activities aimed at the public. The National Trust is particularly interested in programs aimed at reaching new audiences. Funding will be provided to projects that employ innovative techniques and formats aimed at introducing new audiences to the preservation movement, whether that be through education programming or conference sessions.

NOTE: All applicants must be invited to apply for a grant from Bayer Fund. Invitation codes can be requested from the Bayer site in your community or through the Contact Us page.

We support high-quality educational programming by schools and nonprofit organizations that enable access to knowledge and information and empower students and teachers in communities around the nation, with a focus on furthering STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) education. Priority is given to programs that take place during the school day, but also includes after school and summer programs, technical training programs, and academic programs that enrich or supplement school programs.

The in-school educational programs we support target grades K-12 and under-served students (50%+ students qualify for free/reduced lunch) and take place during the school day. The after school and summer programs we support include those offered by youth development organizations that take place outside of the regular school day and provide students in grades K-12 with opportunities to enhance their skills and interests through exposure to STEM fields.

All funding requests and budgets must be for program activities and expenses that start after funding decisions are made. All programs must be completed within one year of the start date, except in limited situations where longer term programs have been agreed upon. Grant award amounts vary, depending on the size of the community, the type of programming, and the reach/impact of the organization.

Resilient Communities Grants

We established the Resiliency Fund in March 2020 to respond to the immediate COVID-19 needs of our region and the long-term recovery of west central Minnesota. This grant round, we’ve transitioned to Resilient Communities Grants that emphasize promoting sustainability and racial equity in west central Minnesota. Both of these areas tie directly to the Sustainable Development Goals, the heart of our strategic plan.

Sustainable Region

Resilient Communities Sustainable Region Grants are intended to support community-led projects and nonprofits with a focus on sustainability and climate action. We suggest grant requests be between $5,000 and $10,000. We may award a grant of up to $25,000 based on scope, need, and impact. The project timeline may extend to two years. The final amount awarded may differ from your request. A team of peers with lived experience and expertise in sustainable development will review proposals and recommend awards.

Listed below are some examples of things that grant dollars might be used to do.

• Training and development needed by a local sustainability-focused organization to operate more effectively or maintain services.
• Technical assistance that builds the capacity of local partners who are working together to figure out a complex sustainability focused issue, such as transportation of local foods.
• Expenses associated with work that mobilizes community members to take sustainability focused action.
• Research to better understand the scope and relevance of a sustainability issue in the community.
• Community convenings to identify sustainable development priorities and prompt dialogue.
• Community learning opportunities that educate and guide the general public on tangible ways of making sustainable choices.
• Educational campaigns targeted to getting important information into the hands of community stakeholders and decision-makers.
• Equipment or supplies needed to implement a local food system project, sustainable agricultural project, or a project designed to combat climate change.

Equitable Region

Resilient Communities Equitable Region Grants are intended to support organizations that are BIPOC-led and/or serving. We suggest grant requests be between $3,000 and $10,000. We may award a grant of up to $25,000 based on scope, need, and impact. The project timeline may extend to two years. The final amount awarded may differ from your request. A team of peers with both lived experiences and a professional background in advancing racial equity will review proposals and recommend awards.  

Listed below are some examples of things that grant dollars might be used to do:

• Training and development needed by a BIPOC-led and/or serving organization to operate more efficiently or maintain services.
• Expenses associated with work that mobilizes community members to take action that will lead to a more racially equitable community.
• Equipment, supplies, communication, and/or staffing needed to take action that encourages BIPOC civic engagement or to deliver services that promote racial inclusion and justice.     

About the Illinois Arts Council Agency

The Illinois Arts Council Agency was created as a state agency by the Illinois General Assembly in 1965 through legislation sponsored by Senators Paul Simon, Thomas McGloon, and Alan Dixon. The agency is governed by up to twenty-one private citizens chosen for their demonstrated commitment to the arts and appointed by the Governor. Council members serve in a voluntary, non-paid capacity and are charged with developing the state’s public arts policy, fostering quality culturally diverse programs, and approving grants expenditures. A small professional staff with in-depth knowledge of the arts develops and administers the agency’s programs, provides technical assistance, and ensures the responsible and impactful distribution of all funds. Resources to support the Illinois Arts Council Agency are provided by the Governor and General Assembly of Illinois and the National Endowment for the Arts.

About GIG Fund

The GIG Fund provides flexible grants for nonprofit organizations to support programs and activities featuring professional artists. GIG Fund grants help cover fees for touring or local artists. Funds may also be used for project costs such as accessibility accommodations and marketing. We work with a panel to help us review applications and distribute grants annually.Sample activities include:

• A rural community hosting a short artist residency at a local school.
• An artist hosting a creative writing program with justice-impacted citizens.
• An artist talkback or meet & greet in an exhibition featuring the work of LGBTQ+ photographers.
• Presenting a concert series focused on the music of BIPOC composers.
• Initiating a new partnership to provide art classes with people with disabilities.