The following article was originally published by Keecha Harris and Associates, Inc., on August 18, 2019. It is reprinted here with full permission. The Racial Equity Truth Tellers Series is a collection of stories, curated by Keecha Harris and Associates, Inc., centered on the racial equity journeys of InDEEP program participants and other influencers in philanthropy. Mark Muller, Mississippi River Program director for the …
With heavy hearts, we share the news that our beloved friend and former colleague, Bernadette Christiansen, has passed away. Bernadette was a long-serving vice president of operations at McKnight who retired in 2019 after receiving a diagnosis of advanced cancer. Bernadette, as a leader and friend, was incredibly generous, fair, trustworthy, and kind. She had …
Our communities have experienced transformative demographic change over the last few decades, and more arts funders and institutions are recognizing that the entire arts sector would benefit if arts funding better reflected that diversity. According to a recent study, just 2 percent of US cultural institutions receive almost 60 percent of all arts funding. In the …
A friend recently asked me an apparently simple, yet complex, question: “How comfortable are you with power?” The question did not surprise me. Power is a concept the philanthropic sector in Minnesota, a place I have called home for the past two years, is obsessed with. Who has power? Who has the power to wield it? …
Just out of high school, Jay Petre got a job ripping down an old railroad depot near his home in rural West Virginia. “We were stacking up all this wood,” Petre recalls. “And this guy came by and said, ‘Can I buy it?’ I ended up getting an extra $10,000, and I knew I was …
McKnight Foundation Leaders Comment on Passage of 100% Clean Energy Legislation (Minneapolis, MN – February 7, 2023) Earlier today, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed the 100% clean energy bill, a foundational piece of legislation that moves the state closer to economy-wide decarbonization by committing Minnesota utilities to provide their customers with 100 percent carbon-free electricity …
The McKnight Foundation announces support of the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience with $38 million over 10 years. The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience (MEFN), now in its 46th year, has always sought to support basic research that will increase our knowledge of brain function. From its inception, the MEFN has aligned itself with the …
A new charitable fund that is accepting grant applications will support local action on climate change in diverse communities throughout the City of Minneapolis. Unveiled in Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s State of the City Address, the Minneapolis Climate Action and Racial Equity Fund is a partnership between The Minneapolis Foundation, the city and the McKnight …
We hope you’ve had a chance by now to read our new mission statement and Strategic Framework 2019–2021. We are very grateful for all the insights, questions, counsel, and outpouring of goodwill since the launch in January. A special thank-you to those who took the time to complete our survey—108 of you! We read the …
Now communities are ready to rebuild, and there’s tentative optimism they could end up with something better than what was there before. The McKnight Foundation is part of a broad effort to seize this moment—ensuring that redevelopment advances racial economic justice, and ultimately puts building ownership in the hands of local nonprofit organizations, tenant cooperatives, and individual Black developers and other people of color.