MNSights - Fall 2011 - (Page 5)

BuzzWorthy 3 Other Highlights: $54,750 g points kin al helped Hunger Solutions create a statewide food helpline that has provided assistance to more than 2,300 people. t Fast Philanthropy Do you have a donor advised fund with The Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation or another Minnesota Philanthropy Partners afﬁliate? If so, you’ll be inspired by the Grant a Wish catalog, which will be coming your way in early November with its “wishes” from different nonproﬁts for help with tangible projects of $2,500 or less. The Community Economic Relief Fund helped nonproﬁts work quickly to ﬁght the impact of the recession. $21,140 helped AccountAbility Minnesota train its volunteer tax preparers, who then helped nearly 20,000 lowerincome Minnesotans get $35.6 million in tax credits and refunds. hen the economy cratered in 2008, everyone felt the impact— including Minnesota nonproﬁts, which saw increased need for community assistance. That necessity gave birth to a truly collaborative invention: the Community Economic Relief Fund. Created in 2009 by The Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation, F. R. Bigelow Foundation and Mardag Foundation, the fund dispersed nearly $3 million to groups working to address $80,000 urgent issues such as hunger, homelessness and housing stability. To helped ECHO produce meet pressing needs, the fund was designed for maximum swiftness, programming in with a shorter-than-usual grant cycle. It proactively partnered with English, Hmong, community leaders and nonproﬁts to identify needs and the groups best Spanish and Somali equipped to act quickly, so that grants could be distributed efﬁciently— to communicate sometimes within one week. The fund also made good ﬁnancial sense: important information Its ﬁrst $1.5 million in investments leveraged more than $40 million in to immigrant families. other public and private funding—$28 of direct return for every dollar. The Family Place is one example of the fund’s success. In 2009, the Ramsey County homeless day shelter received $53,000 to quickly expand its common areas and increase services, boosting capacity from 40 to 60 clients daily. “We were asked in May 2009 to accommodate an additional 20 people,” says Margaret Lovejoy, executive director of The Family Place. “We opened our doors to those people on July 1, 2009.” M 5 SITES FOR SMART GIVING Find a website that’s good for you, based on the sites you already love to surf. Are you an information hound who pores over ﬁnancial numbers at NASDAQ? Visit guidestar.org for data on more than 1.8 million IRS-recognized taxexempt organizations. Love the straightforward ratings at Consumer Reports? Try smartgivers.org from the Charities Review Council, where nonproﬁts that make the grade get the “Meets Standards” seal. FA L L I 2011 Can’t get enough of Amazon’s one-click shopping? Visit givemn.org, a onestop shop where you can read up on nonproﬁts and make donations with just a couple of clicks. Devoted to reading consumer ratings and reviews at Yelp? Try greatnonproﬁts. org, where donors, volunteers and clients review and rate their experiences with nonproﬁts. Hooked on experts’ technology reviews at CNET? Check out charitynavigator.org, whose professionals rate nonproﬁts’ organizational efﬁciency and capacity from zero to four stars. M N SIGHTS 5 http://www.charitynavigator.org http://www.smartgivers.org http://www.givemn.org http://www.guidestar.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MNSights - Fall 2011

MNSights - Fall 2011
Contents
Give to the Max
What Local Mayors Want
Who Inspires Us: Designer John Larsen
How to Give Smart While Giving Green

MNSights - Fall 2011