The First Universalist Foundation concluded the 2020 granting cycle in early May by awarding $105,000 in grants to 11 organizations. Awardees were among 25 worthy organizations and proposals submitted this year. 

The process started in January when the Foundation asked congregants of First Universalist to nominate organizations that operate in the Twin Cities, address human rights at risk, racial justice and/or climate justice and whose leadership includes people of color, women and other underrepresented groups. By the end of January, we had 25 organizations. Nominated organizations were then asked to submit a grant proposal. Throughout the month of April, the nine Foundation committee members reviewed all the proposals. In early May, each proposal was discussed by the Foundation and awards were decided.  

The Foundation is pleased to continue in the spirit of the original endowment by supporting projects at the forefront of racial, climate, gender and immigration justice, and for which our grant seems to truly make a difference in advancing the recipient organization’s mission or project. The 2020 recipients and projects are:

• Alafia Foundation – The Alafia Fellowship Program is a comprehensive leadership development program that invests in the ideas, enterprise and inspiration of visionary nonprofit, small business, and social entrepreneurial leaders who are transforming life in North Minneapolis. Fellowships provide educational scholarship dollars, professional executive coaching, quarterly workshops, stipends and expanded networks of support for Northside leaders as they develop themselves and their organizations for maximum community impact.

• Black Visions Collective (Base Building and Program Outreach) – During Summer 2020, BLVC will launch a seasonal series with a monthly theme (power, resilience, transformation). Each month will offer a political education session, a Black joy gathering, and a cultural workshop. The intention with this work is to build the base of the organization by direct community engagement through door knocking, canvassing, community engagement as a second step to becoming a member.

• Discapacitados Abriendose Caminos – The Emprendedores y Soluciones Legales program will empower young Latinos and their families to soar through and beyond legal status barriers, disability challenges, low household income and limited parental education by comprehensive resource connections, cultural and peer supports, and tailored problem-solving for high school and post-secondary success, and lasting legal solutions.

• Honor the Earth – The Water Protector Education Campaign works on climate justice, environmental justice, and transitional economics. It seeks to educate and empower Native and non-Native community members on water protection and taking greater community action.

• Joyce Preschool (Promoting Latinx Leadership & Advocacy) – Joyce Preschool wishes to strengthen its Latinx parent leadership and advocacy efforts which focus on promoting equity in education. By providing Latinx parents with leadership and advocacy training and direct experience, Joyce aims to involve members of the disenfranchised Latinx community in the work of social change and replace racial injustice with positive outcomes for parents and children.

• Lift Garage (Lift Community Emergency Fund) – The Lift Garage helps move people out of poverty and homelessness by providing low-cost car repair, free pre-purchase car inspections, and honest advice that supports our community on the road to more secure lives. The Lift Community Emergency Fund exists to keep customers and roads safer by subsidizing safety repairs and general repairs when a customer is unable to cover the full cost.

• Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light (Deepening Relationships for Climate Justice) – MNIPL will support a network of movement builders in North Minneapolis, providing leadership development and youth programing, and helping to connect the dots between pipeline resistance and energy democracy. They will work with Eighth Fire Solar to pilot 1 to 4 solar thermal systems in North Minneapolis. XX will lead a tour of solar panel manufacturing facilities in the northland (hopefully in person), building connections between rural and urban opportunities to build economic wealth through the new energy revolution.

• Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (Updating Science Museum Exhibit) – MPWW will collaborate with the Science Museum of Minnesota to update their standing exhibit on race, Race: Are We So Different? MPWW’s contribution will focus on the disproportionate impact of the criminal justice system on people of color. Included in the exhibit will be poetry written by incarcerated Minnesotans, as well as videos of those poets reading their own work.

• MN350 – The Missing and Murdered Indigneous Women project addresses the direct connection between the rape and desecration of our mother earth and women. Native women are suffering a terrifying epidemic of violence and disappearance — one that is oftentimes linked to the fossil fuel industry. MN350 will use its collective gifts and power to combat the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in occupied Anishinaabe and Dakotah territories in the area currently known as Minnesota.

• Navigate MN / Unidos MN (Organizational Resilience) – Navigate MN will boost programmatic capacity to support the breakthrough and resilience of the organization during these times of crisis. The grant will help offset funding and budget cuts due to COVID19- and address  an organizational gap in field work to continue at capacity and prevent layoffs.

• Public Functionary –  The Studio 400 program supports artists of color age 30 and under with subsidized studio space to address disparities in the Northeast Minneapolis art district (particularly for young artists of color) in access to work space and career development opportunities.

We are grateful to First Universalist congregants for getting us off to a great start by nominating organizations. Thank you to Suzan Klein for her chair leadership and to committee members Leila Ambrus, Jill Anderson, John Bringewatt, Jared Cruz, Ginny Halloran, Rochelle Hammer, Roberta Haskin, and Anne McBean. The Foundation was strongly supported in its work by staff person Emma Paskewitz. A big thank you to Emma. We are pleased that the Foundation is able to support organizations that help make our church’s justice goals real in the world. Thank you to all the organizations who were nominated for your great work.