A successful transition to a clean energy economy carries with it the long-term economic benefits of highly skilled, well-paying jobs. Last week, Governor Dayton made two important announcements relating to jobs in the clean energy economy. The first: a new $25 million solar project that will be built on top of the two parking ramps …
On Thursday, the Minnesota town of Cologne (population 1,500) signed a deal making it our first local government to go solar. This town will host a SunShare community solar garden, which will save $40,000 a year by fueling city buildings and sending electricity into the grid. The municipality looked at its assets, identified a partner, and took action. This …
A Long Tradition of Honoring Artists Here at The McKnight Foundation, the annual celebration of McKnight Artist Fellows is one of our favorite evenings of the year. In September, we celebrated the new 2015 cohort of 42 talented artists along with the eight administrative partners that make our program possible. The event is a chance for …
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.
The following article was originally published by Living Cities on April 23, 2018. It is reprinted here with full permission. This essay is part of a series titled, Accelerate This! Government as Social Innovator, which features leaders at the intersection of philanthropy and government offering ideas about how non-public dollars can be used to drive innovation and systemic change on …
The following interview was originally published on Clean Energy Resource Teams’ (CERTs) blog. Clean Energy Resource Teams: Can you tell us a little bit about what you do in the energy world in Minnesota? Kate Wolford: I serve as president of the McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation. One of our goals is to foster midwest …
Wanted: 21st-Century Working Artists Must have skills and experience in activating beauty and wonder; increasing empathy and awareness of issues; making and communicating meaning; catalyzing social cohesion; provoking and holding space for inquiry and dialogue; and engaging and mobilizing people. The McKnight Foundation supports working artists because they craft the context for democracy and deepen …
It all began with an audacious idea, said Paul Schroeder, CEO of HOURCAR, a Minnesota car-sharing nonprofit. “The Big Idea,” as Schroeder called it in 2017, involved an all-electric car-sharing service and a network of electric charging hubs to be located in historically underinvested communities across the Twin Cities. Just four years later, this idea …
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 …
I am thrilled to share additional details about the significant expansion of McKnight’s Midwest Climate & Energy (MC&E) program. As president Kate Wolford and board chair Debby Landesman announced, our board of directors has decided to double MC&E’s grantmaking budget over the next three years. The board has also approved a new program goal: Take …