What’s the most critical element of success in grantmaking? A new initiative from Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) says that it’s a strong, well-led nonprofit sector. With foundations only as strong as the nonprofits they fund and nonprofits only as strong as those who lead them, EPIP argues for increased grantmaker and nonprofit support of leadership development.

To that end, EPIP has launched Generating Change. It seeks to help funders do three things:

• Fill the leadership pipeline
• Develop and harness leadership talent
• Transition and re-engage seasoned leaders

Perhaps most valuable, EPIP has put together a tool kit for grantmakers who want to support this work. It showcases the stories and activities of a variety of funders who’ve seen their leadership development efforts pay off, in order to provide support and resources to those looking to pick up the torch.

Watch EPIP’s introductory video below, and head over to their website to learn more.

Join the conversation: How does your foundation or nonprofit support leadership development?

“All of us are smarter than any of us.” When foundations and nonprofits come together to share stories, ideas, and insights, we build powerful strategies for change. One of the strengths of our sector is that our work is highly relational. We build and rely upon networks that connect us to emerging ideas, to the buzz about effective programs, to shared anticipation of pending opportunities, and to leaders who inspire us. As a consequence, our organizations encourage a variety of convenings to advance our work.

Sometimes frequent gatherings of small cohorts result in deep relationships, partnerships, and accomplishment. In the 1980s, we worked together to change food systems and farming practices with an intent to protect family farms, increase local assets, and sustain strong communities.

Other convenings help us turn crises to opportunities. When welfare reform threatened Minnesota’s programs, foundations, nonprofits, and the faith community convened quickly and dubbed their collaborative MC3: Minnesota Council on Foundations, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and Minnesota Council of Churches. MC3 tapped its networks to examine best practices for state-based responses. Gathering large groups of people who provide services, other thought leaders, and program participants, MC3 found ways to move people out of poverty, not just off welfare. A government and foundation partnership was formed, The Minnesota Futures Fund, and our state developed the soundest model for reform in the nation.

Our sector comes together to share intelligence and solve problems. We count on several key conferences to understand the state and direction of our work. These include the annual conferences of the Minnesota Council of Foundations and Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, as well as meetings of the national Council on Foundation’s affinity groups. Conferences put on by EARN, the Association of Social Workers, Human Rights Advocates, and the Minnesota Citizen for the Arts consistently provide platforms for effective, time- and money-saving models and tools. They all help us put names and faces to efforts that help our society address critical needs and build on-ramps to better futures.

For those intent on reducing poverty, the Northwest Area Foundation’s Grassroots and Groundwork has proven to be a thought provoking and highly interactive opportunity for learning, developing ideas, and connecting to funders and activists working to address equity and opportunity.

The 2012 conference, Working Together to Reduce Poverty and Build Prosperity, will be held June 6-8, at Mystic Lake Casino, Prior Lake, MN.  This event is one example of how we can become the best that we can be at making a difference in our communities. I hope to see you there. But understand, if you attend, your questions, criticisms, ideas and perspectives will be sought. In addition to breakout sessions, keynote speakers and workshops, the conference will feature facilitated conversations to tap the wisdom of the room. For information and to register, visit www.grassrootsandgroundwork.org.

At the Minnesota Council on Foundations, we don’t think it’s a coincidence that these seven companies are also all MCF members. Employees value employers that care about the communities where they live and work.

The ranking—compiled by global research and consulting firm Universum Communications—is based on input from nearly 60,000 students at 318 U.S. colleges. The survey was conducted between November 2011 and March 2012, and the rankings are broken down based by students’ primary areas of study.

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation ranked 18th among humanities and liberal arts students, 28th among business students, 37th among natural sciences students and 70th among IT students.

Rochester-based Mayo Clinic was the only health care provider to make the cut. It ranked second among natural science students, 19th among humanities and liberal arts students, 44th among engineering students, and 70th among business students.

Golden Valley-based General Mills came in 52nd among natural sciences students, 66th among engineering students, 75th among business students, and 88th among humanities and liberal arts students.

Richfield-based Best Buy Company was ranked 43rd by IT students, 69th by humanities and liberal arts students, 85th by natural sciences students, and 87th by business students.

Maplewood-based 3M Company came in 35th on the engineering students list, 75th on the IT students list, and 92nd on the business students list.

St. Paul-based Ecolab ranked 23rd among natural science students and 88th among engineering students.

And Wayzata-based Cargill was ranked 83rd by natural science students.

View Universum Communications’ complete Ideal Employers lists for each area of study.

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate

Photo cc Herkie

According to the site, Bolder Advocacy advances and protects the role of nonprofits in influencing public policy, using its expertise to ensure that the legal and political environment in which organizations operate is fair, balanced and open to hearing them.

Here’s some of what the new site offers:

• Resources on a wide range of topics, including Ballot Measures, Influencing Legislation, Funding Advocacy and much more. Some resources are intended specifically for foundations, while others are just for nonprofit organizations. Searches can be filtered by organization type, activity, tax status and state, so results are specific and relevant.
• An Advocacy Capacity Tool that measures the effectiveness of an organization’s advocacy work.
• A list of Bolder Advocacy attorney-led workshops and trainings and connections to one-on-one technical assistance available over the phone and via email.
• A special Focus on Foundations section that calls out related blog posts and more.
• A blog for the latest commentary on what’s new at AFJ and on BolderAdvocacy.org, policy changes and issues affecting advocacy as well as highlights of advocacy in the news.

Have you used any of the resources available on the new site? If so, let us know how they helped you change the world with confidence!

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate

Photo cc niallkennedy

The Nonprofit Excellence Awards accept self nominations from Minnesota-based 501(c)(3) organizations that are at least five years old and have a local governance and management structure. Two nonprofits will win: one with a budget under $1.5 million, one over $1.5 million. Award criteria are based on how closely the organizations align with MCN’s Principles and Practices for Nonprofit Excellence.

The Nonprofit Mission Awards recognize outstanding contributions in the categories of:

• Innovation
• Advocacy
• Anti-Racism Initiative and
• Responsive Philanthropy

Staff members, board members, volunteers, program recipients, donors or other supporters may nominate a nonprofit for a Mission Award. Nominees will be judged by leaders in the nonprofit community coordinated by MAP.

Get your nominations in soon! They’re due May 31 at 4 p.m.

Recipients will be announced in September and presented on November 2 at the MCN/MCF Joint Annual Conference. Registering for the joint conference gets you free admission to the presentation. If you would like to attend the ceremony, but not register for the entire conference, special luncheon tickets are available. Visit www.alliedforaction.org to sign up.

Innovation is one of those buzzwords that we see everywhere in the discussions of how nonprofits, foundations and, well, everyone, need to evolve in a changing world. It can feel cliched, it can feel daunting — sometimes both at once. That’s why I appreciated what they had to say about what innovation is and isn’t.

Innovation is not:

• Jet packs and flying cars.
• So cutting-edge and futuristic that you’ll never be able to afford it.
• Something out of reach.

Innovation is:

• Accessible to all.
• Using what you already have to address a core need.
• Something you might not even realize you’re already doing.

I personally identify as being something of a hacker. Not in the sense of breaking into computers to steal information (heaven forbid!), but in taking the tech tools available to me and poking, prodding, twisting, turning and recoding them until they let me accomplish my goals for a fraction of what it would cost to start from scratch and build something custom. I hadn’t associated that mindset with the word innovation before, but you better believe I will now.

The event was held at Lifetrack Resources, where we heard the story of Lifetrack using closed-captioned webinars to reach a broad new base of people in need of their programs but unable to travel to their events. That and other examples are available  in the full report, available on MAP for Nonprofits’ website. Also be sure to read the recent posts about the report on the Stanford Social Innovation Review and on Beth Kanter’s blog.

-Chris Oien, MCF web communications associate

Image cc opensourceway

Join MCF and the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits for Allied for Action: Bridging Differences for the Greater Good, November 1 & 2 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. This two-day event will bring together nonprofit and philanthropic leaders intent on working together on behalf of a new Minnesota. Join us for mold-breaking plenaries, interactive breakouts and productive dialogues, where we all will learn how to harness the power of our differences and truly work together toward a greater good.

Visit the conference website for a sneak peek at what’s in store for you and 1,400 of your nonprofit and grantmaker colleagues, and then get registered! Keep checking back as we’ll soon be announcing speakers, breakout session details, exhibitors and more. And follow all the conference conversations from now through November on Twitter with the hashtag #allied4action.

We’ll see you there!

According to Cole Nussbaumer, people analytics manager at Google, we’ve taken the first step in presenting our data, not the last.

Nussbaumer believes Excel and other number-crunching programs have made it very easy to create very bad graphs.  She suggests we step back and answer some basic questions before we make a pie — like we do before we bake a pie.

Here’s a quick summary of the process she walked us through at a meeting of the Grants Managers Network last week. For much more, check her website at: www.storytellingwithdata.com.

Answer some questions.
These are the sorts of questions we ask before writing an article, but this step is often skipped when creating visuals.

• What story are you trying to tell with your data?
• Who is your audience? What do they need to know?

Determine the right type of graphic to tell your story.
Goal: Make it easy for your audience to understand the data.

• Bar charts are good for categorical data and are easy to read.
• Line graphs are good for plotting continuous data over time.
• Pie charts are difficult to interpret — use with care.

Eliminate clutter.

• Much of what your spreadsheet program adds to your chart should be stripped away by you, including everything that muddies your message. This might include, unnecessary color, 3D, grid lines, backgrounds, etc.
• Use Gestalt principles (color, size, intensity) to cut items with no informative value. What remains should help tell your story.

Draw attention where you want it.

• Use certain attributes (color, size) to direct your audience’s attention and provide a visual hierarchy of information.
• Don’t use color to make your chart colorful — use it draw the eye to important data.

Tell a visual story.

• Use text to give context, title, label and help you tell your story.
• Align text at the upper left of your chart, as that’s how we read.

Practice makes perfect.

• Seek feedback from colleagues, especially from those less familiar with the data.
• You will likely need to repeat these steps, several times, until you get a visual that truly tells your story.
• Realize that your spreadsheet program may make it difficult, but not impossible, to get this done.

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate

Photo cc AlyssssylA

Rachel Hart

One of the services MCF offers to grantmakers is supporting peer learning networks, including the Minnesota chapter of Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP). Rachel Hart, EPIP-Minnesota member and community affairs specialist at H.B. Fuller Company, joins us today to share insights from this network’s recent conversations.

As a young professional in philanthropy, keeping up with the more seasoned professionals in the local grantmaking scene can seem daunting. In typical Millennial fashion, many of us want to bypass the grunt work and establish ourselves as experts right away, but it’s important to remember respect and experience don’t come overnight.

There are numerous sure-fire ways to build experience such as joining professional associations, connecting with a mentor in the field, going on informational interviews and simply asking questions. Honing in on a few key ideas may help you focus your career building plan to seem more manageable. Here are some we identified at last month’s EPIP-Minnesota networking lunch:

• Find other young professionals. Connect with other fresh-faced professionals in the field as a way to learn from those who are at the same stage in their careers. They are a safe audience to say “I don’t know that yet” or to share a ‘light bulb’ moment that may seem obvious to others. Although the Twin Cities philanthropic community is refreshingly nurturing, finding a supportive group to learn and grow together makes the journey seem less lonely.
• Budget your career-building time and resources. Once you know how much time you’re willing to devote to enhancing your skills, it makes setting realistic goals more manageable. Whether it’s talking to your employer or looking at your personal time and finances, it’s important to understand your limits and potential.
• Have a network to hold you accountable. Anyone can set a goal, but it means nothing unless you actually follow through. Having accountability by sharing career goals with others makes them real and motivates you to work that much harder to reach them.

If you’re an emerging professional in the philanthropic community, just itching to build your experience and meet others in the same boat, consider connecting with the budding and welcoming members of EPIP-Minnesota. We are brimming with ideas, and are currently engaged in a series of discussions like this one based on Trista Harris and Rosetta Thurman’s book How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar.

Lue Her

As part of his Archibald Bush Leadership fellowship, Lue Her has had an opportunity to visit with and learn from fellow Hmong-Americans around the country. Not surprisingly, he has found that complex issues continue to plague Hmong-American communities.

But he has been surprised to see that few in the community realize that many of the challenges facing its members could be addressed if Hmong-Americans had their own philanthropic vehicle to leverage financial, intellectual and cultural assets — assets that Her believes exist within the Hmong-American community now.

Hmong-Americans have long participated in a variety of traditions and practices that presume donations of time, effort and money, but for many the concept of giving back through philanthropic channels remains foreign — possibly because they have not been invited to contribute.

To remedy this, he is embarking on an endeavor to create a new Hmong Community Foundation. Read more about what he envisions for the new foundation in the “Voices in Philanthropy” section in the spring issue of Giving Forum on community philanthropy.

- Susan Stehling, MCF communications associate