Free paints & coatings!

Valspar Corporation (headquartered in Minneapolis) has helped us out for the last 12 years by supplying area nonprofits and communities with FREE paint and coatings. Some of last year's projects included:

• Audubon Center of the North Woods, Sandstone: Interior and exterior paint for wildlife barn, office, dining hall and outdoor structures used for activities and classes.
• City of Big Lake: Interior paint for the food shelf expansion and new senior center.
• Crow Wing County 4-H, Brainerd: Interior and exterior paint stage and new electrical room in the 4-H building at the fairgrounds.
• City of Little Falls: Exterior painting to preserve a historic barn by the Pine Grove Park.
• Long Prairie Hockey Association: Exterior and interior paint for the exposition arena which is used for hockey, 4-H presentations, trade shows and community gatherings.
• Minnesota Pioneer Park, Annandale: Exterior paint for Big Woods building and Finnish Apostolic Church at the history museum.
• The Refuge Network, Cambridge: Interior paint for addition to a home for women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
• St. Cloud Housing & Redevelopment Authority: Exterior paint for “Paint the Town” event, painting low-income homes in northeast St. Cloud area.
• Sebeka School District: Interior paint for students who will paint murals on high school walls.

Applications for this year's program are due to the Foundation office by March 5th. For more information on the program and how to apply download the fact sheet/application or the official news release that we just sent out today.

HAPPY PAINTING!

Making the Most Out of Mentoring

Ever thought about becoming a mentor? You should. Kinship Partners in Brainerd is looking to match 47 kids with area adults.

Understandably, your first thoughts might be: “What would we do, and how much does it cost?"

I'd answer with this: In my 6 years as a Kinship mentor I have simply involved my partner in doing things that I like to do anyway. And Kinship Partners is very good at matching mentors with a young person that has similar interests. When you have those common interests you don’t have to plan something special, just make room for another person to share the experience with you. The financial cost is minimal (if anything) because you'd probably be doing those same things by yourself anyway.

I look forward to my meetings with Nick. I definitely don’t think of him as a project, or a burden, but as a friend. I would recommend this to anyone who really wants to make a difference!

Read through their latest news release or Kinship's website to learn more about becoming a mentor.

A Magnificent Memorial

Today at the Foundation office, members of the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery Memorial Association along with internationally-recognized artist, Charles Kapsner, revealed five original sketches to area media and the public.

The Association commissioned Kapsner to design and paint 8x10-foot oil canvases that will be hung in the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery (7 miles north of Little Falls, near Camp Ripley). The canvases "represent all who served, commemorating their sacrifices in all wars, rather than eulogizing a particular war."

I got a chance to look at them and they are truly amazing pieces of work!

If you're interested in supporting the project, you can make a donation to the Manifest Destiny Fund through the Foundation by contacting Curt Hanson or donating online through GiveMN.org.

For more information about the project and to see the sketches visit: www.buonfresco.com/veterans.

Developing Leaders for Life

“I feel like I just left church – so refreshing and encouraging!”

“I realize I am in the driver’s seat (of my life).”

“I will try to be more self aware of my frustrations or ignorance in conversation and how I can make changes to get more out of those conversations.”

These are just a few comments from the evaluations of a recent AmeriCorps*VISTA training session on communication. I think they express the general sentiments of the group that learning to be a better communicator is not only valuable... but rewarding!

I’ve found that nearly 25% of our VISTA members go on to be employed by their project sites or other nonprofits so I realized that we have a golden opportunity to not only improve our program but also build future leaders for our area nonprofits.

To this end, we’ve experimented with a series of professional development trainings that we call Developing Leaders for Life. They provide our VISTA members with opportunities to build their “core” skills, which are essential to success in most jobs - things like:

• good communication,
  
• clear awareness of personal strengths,
  
• an understanding of goal-setting & action planning,
  
• knowledge of group development &
  
• techniques for managing conflict, etc.

These workshops are hands-down one of our VISTA members’ favorite aspects of the program as they see the value both personally and professionally. And I just have to believe that, as a result of this program, our members deliver more for their VISTA sites. I think they'll go on to do better work no matter what they do for a job or in what capacity they serve their communities.

We are truly developing leaders for life who will make a splash on central Minnesota communities and service agencies!

Do you know of a nonprofit that could benefit from hosting a VISTA member? We're currently recruiting - check our website for more info!

The Nerdery's Website Challenge

Anni O'Neill at the Southern Minnesota Foundation is a good friend of mine who recently forwarded me a great resource for nonprofits and community groups.

Every year Sierra Bravo, a website company in Bloomington, holds an overnight website development challenge. Programmers from around the midwest team up to provide selected nonprofits with 24 hours of free design, development and programming in order to create a new website for them. When all's said and done, each nonprofit receives over 200 hours of service for FREE!

This year's challenge is being held on March 20-21, 2010 in St. Paul. Nonprofits can apply for the challenge on The Nerdery's website: www.overnightwebsitechallenge.com.

Anni's husband works for Sierra Bravo and she says, "I've attended the final hours of the event for the past two years, and it is an amazing experience to witness."

Four This Friday

This Friday we'll be adding four new members to our board of trustees. We are excited to welcome:

• Ismail Ali (St. Cloud)
• John E. Babcock (Elk River)
• Mayuli Bales (Big Lake)
• Larry Korf (Genola)
  

Recruited from all over central Minnesota, our trustees provide volunteer leadership that represents an wide range of experience, expertise and personal perspectives.

Learn more about our newest members, each serving a three-year term, by reading the official news release.

Will the future be brighter?

Kathy Gaalswyk, Initiative Foundation president, just told us about a website that shows how unemployment rates have evolved over the last few years. As you'll see, it's gotten darker and darker - not only in Minnesota, but nationwide.


Will the future be brighter? We sure hope so.

Our latest issue of IQ focuses on this exact topic - sharing the latest employment trends as well as inspiring stories about everyday people doing what they can to make ends meet.

And DEED just came out with the October unemployment numbers (something we weren't able to include in IQ) - rates increased from 7.4% in September to 7.6%. Central Minnesota actually saw a slight improvement though, dropping from a regional average of 7.9% to 7.8%.

But that still leaves 30,613 people in the 14 county area without jobs!

We still have a long ways to go so please read and share some IQ...

What do I do?

Ever since I started working at the Foundation I've been asked that question by family and friends. We do lots of things and since we're not a direct service organization (like a food shelf or a youth program) it can be pretty hard to explain sometimes.

Now I can show them! We put together this 3 minute video for the GiveMN.org website but it's a great piece that I can share with people - especially my kids who still don't quite get it!

So, guys, for the past ten years this is what Mom does when she goes to work everyday...



Enjoy!

$14M on GiveMN Match Day

I was so happy to see the total amount on GiveMN.org's Give to the Max Day keep climbing as the day went on. As I kept checking back it went from $3 million to $9 to $13 and after 24 hours finally stopped at $14,000,406. That's a lot of money to a lot of worthy causes. One of the top three organizations is in our neck of the woods too. The College of St. Benedict came in 2nd with 719 total donors - way to go guys!

What amazes me more is that so many folks from so many different foundations and organizations joined forces to make this all work. I really think GiveMN.org is here to stay.

Thank you to everyone who donated that day - not only to the Initiative Foundation but to any nonprofit. November 17th was truly a great example of "Minnesota Nice"!

Online Giving in MN is Changing

Have you heard the buzz? There's a new website in town and it just might change the face of online giving in Minnesota. It's www.GiveMN.org and it went live last week.

According to my coworker, Matt (who's also on GiveMN's Strategy Cabinet), "It's a visionary & exciting project!"

Here's the deal... GiveMN.org has been pre-loaded with basic information on Minnesota 501(c)3s and gives contributors information about all charitable nonprofits in Minnesota. It provides every charitable nonprofit equal access to online contributors. And, it encourages local online giving.

A couple of big things... there is no cost to a nonprofit to participate in GiveMN.org, and, at least initially, all credit card processing fees for donations will be covered by GiveMN.org funding partners.

To learn more:

• check out the Initiative Foundation's GiveMN page,
• encourage all nonprofits (there are over 20,000 in Minnesota!) to claim their page,
• or better yet... try it out! Find your favorite nonprofit and donate today.

And if you want your dollar to go a little further... next Tuesday, November 17th is Give to the Max Day. Every donation made that day will receive a portion of a $500,000 match.

(NOTE: When this same model was tried in Dallas, donors blew through an online match of $400,000. That day, they raised over $4 million!)

With GiveMN.org, the fundraising potential for Minnesota's nonprofits and the causes they support is HUGE.

Please help spread the word!