In Conversation with Therese Casey, Controller Our colleague Therese Casey recently celebrated her 30-year anniversary with the McKnight Foundation. To recognize this milestone, we sat down with Therese to ask a few questions about her time with McKnight. Therese is the longest-serving employee at McKnight! She joined the foundation in 1988 as an administrative assistant and …
The McKnight Foundation is pleased to announce that Beyene Gessesse will join the International team as its program officer. Gessesse has extensive experience in rural development and food security initiatives, working with farmers, researchers, development practitioners, and funders. He will start his new role on November 29. “We are thrilled to welcome Beyene to our …
It started in a small church in the Lyndale neighborhood of Minneapolis about three years ago. A group of 20 or so renters met to talk about their struggles navigating the housing system in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. For Esperanza, a mother of three whom we agreed to identify by first name only, that …
Announcing a Deeper Focus on Climate Solutions and an Equitable Minnesota The McKnight Foundation is thrilled to announce that we are increasing our focus on two priority areas: advancing climate solutions and building a more equitable and inclusive Minnesota. This decision follows the release of our 2019-2021 Strategic Framework and months of in-depth reflection and planning. …
This post originally appeared at The Edge, an online magazine from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research. Recently, the McKnight Foundation has been giving more consideration to what market orientation and scalability mean for our programs, policies, and grantmaking approach. In part this is an adaptive response to the …
A new charitable fund that supports local action on climate change has awarded its first grants. The Minneapolis Climate Action and Racial Equity Fund, a partnership between the City of Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Foundation and the McKnight Foundation, today announced funding to three local organizations that are doing innovative work throughout the city, particularly in …
The Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District created the Minneapolis Safe-Zone Collaborative with the goal of making downtown Minneapolis a safe environment for those who live, work, play, and visit there. Through collaborations with public, private, nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement, they aim to keep downtown a safe, vibrant, and thriving environment. The Minneapolis SafeZone Collaborative hosts …
In honor of this anniversary, the Foundation will award unsolicited $100,000 grants to ten organizations that make Minnesota a more welcoming, supportive, and inclusive place.
New Year Reflections from Kate Wolford As we begin a new year, I am very mindful of the awesome responsibility and privilege that we have in advancing the mission of The McKnight Foundation. We have a diverse and robust portfolio of program interests, all pointing toward a goal of strengthening socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable communities. …
Aquaminous | ah-KWA-mi-nuhs | adjective The quality of air just before a rainfall; origin: the Latin aqua, meaning water, and ominous, meaning foreboding. -Mo Perry “Aquaminous” is just one of dozens of new words created for The Language of Air, a crowd-sourced dictionary comprising invented terms to describe qualities of air. It is part of …