Accepting Applications: The Giving Project

Looking for an opportunity to thoughtfully consider how to give of your time, talent, and treasure? The Headwaters Foundation for Justice is kicking off its first-ever Giving Project—an innovative new model for community building, leadership development, and funding social change—this summer. Attend an information session next week or apply now to join a multiracial, cross-class group of people passionate about social change and working to build skills in fundraising, grantmaking, and community building!

Giving Project

Headwaters Foundation for Justice is looking for 25 individuals to join Headwaters’ first-ever Giving Project in summer 2015. The deadline for applications is April 6. The Giving Project is an innovative new model for community building, leadership development and funding social change. It will bring together a multiracial, cross-class group of people who are passionate about social change and interested in building their skills in fundraising, grantmaking, and community building. Participants will work together to raise and give out money to organizations that build power for social change in Minnesota.

Click here to apply.

How does the Giving Project work?

The Giving Project is a process. It requires a commitment to attend eight meetings over six months. The basic Giving Project structure is:

• A cross-class, multiracial group of volunteers commits to the entire process.
• Through workshops and trainings, the group develops a shared understanding of race, class, and power within society.
• Each person makes a meaningful financial gift -- whatever that means for you.
• Headwaters staff will train you in grassroots fundraising and provide lots of hands-on support as you raise money from your friends, family, and community.
• We train you in our grantmaking process and support you as you read and score proposals, participate in site visits, make collective decisions, and grant out money to some of the most inspiring, effective social change work in the region.

For a detailed list of required meeting dates and times, click here.

Who should apply:

Anyone. You do not have to know anything about non-profits, philanthropy, or fundraising. You could have wealth, you could be low-income – it doesn’t matter. There is no minimum (or maximum) amount you have to donate or raise as an individual. You should apply if:

• You want to learn how to fundraise, make grants, and build community
• You want to make a difference about issues of injustice in Minnesota
• You want to engage in dialogue on race and class and their impact on social change work. 

Headwaters’ Giving Project is closely modeled after the work of the Social Justice Fund, a community foundation in Seattle. Here’s what one Seattle Giving Project participant said:

“This has changed my idea of power. It gives power to people no matter how much money they donate.”

The Giving Project will be a multi-racial, cross-class cohort. LGBTQ-identified people, people of color, and low-wealth individuals are especially encouraged to apply.

What we’ll ask of you:

• Commit to the entire Giving Project, attending all eight meetings.
• Honestly engage in the process.
• Make a personal financial contribution to the project.
• Fundraise from friends, family, and community.
• Be willing to experiment and evaluate.

Application process:

The selection process consists of an application and one in-person interview. Here’s how to apply:

Step 1: We recommend applicants attend an information session the week of March 16-21. At the info session you can meet Headwaters staff and volunteers who are working on the Giving Project, learn more about the model, and get your questions answered in-person before applying. Sign up for an info session here.

Step 2: Fill out the online application and submit by Monday, April 6 at 5pm. (A PDF version is available here if you would prefer to print and send via mail.)

Step 3: After applications have been reviewed, selected candidates will be invited for an in-person interview between May 2 and May 16.

Step 4: Participants who are selected for the Giving Project will be notified on June 9.

If you are unable to attend an information session and would like to learn more, please contact Allison at allison@headwatersfoundation.org. 

You're Invited | Organizer Roundtable: Reclaiming Public Space and Building Community

The warmer weather of late is luring neighbors back outdoors to connect in our parks, streets, and communities. Curious about the possibilities that place-making holds for local food, art, economic development and justice, and more? Join the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability at the upcoming Organizer Table: Reclaiming Public Space and Building Community to hear from a panel that's working hard to do all this and more!

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Organizer Roundtable: Reclaiming Public Space and Building Community

Increasing the use of public space has the potential to create a more vibrant society. When people come together to create art, grow food, or redesign spaces, they create community and build stronger, more trusting relationships with each other.

Join the Alliance for our next Organizer Roundtable! Presenters will talk about how they are reclaiming public spaces through placemaking, art, food justice and building community in the process.

Organizer Roundtable: Reclaiming Public Spaces and Building Community
Wednesday March 18
12:30 – 2 p.m.
Rondo Community Outreach Library
461 Dale St N
St. Paul, MN

Presenters:

• Ashley Fairbanks, Native American Community Development Institute community organizer
• Michael Chaney, Project Sweetie Pie founder with Edward McDonald, Council on Black Minnesotans director
• Hua Vang, West Side Citizens Organization food justice coordinator

Organizer Roundtables are free but registration is required. Snacks will be provided, feel free to bring your own lunch. See you soon!

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability I 2525 Franklin Ave E, Suite 200 I Minneapolis, MN 55406 I 612-332-4471 

You're Invited: Pi Day!

Pi Day is quickly approaching on March 14 and Students Today Leaders Forever (STLF) wants to make sure you celebrate the realest, least rational day of the year. Join them see people getting pied in the face, eat some delicious pie, and of course, learn about what STLF is up to! It's their "March Matchness" kick-off party, so please consider contributing to help reveal leadership in young people while over 2,000 students head out on college Pay-It-Forward Tours during their spring breaks.

 

March 14th (3.14.15) will be the REALEST, least rational day of our lives. It’s Pi Day! It is also the start to March Matchness at STLF where we will be hosting a Pi Day March Matchness kickoff party here at the office in Minneapolis from 1-5 pm! Let's get nerdy, everyone!

Schedule:

1-2 pm:

• Mingling with fellow Minnesota community members from the co-hosts' networks
• Beverages and yummy snacks--including different flavors of pie
• An introduction to STLF--our mission, vision, etc.

2-3 pm:

• Nerdy Pi Activities-- Jea-Pi-Day, Are You Smarter than an--STLFer, a Numbers of Pi recitation contest, and more!
• Danny's homemade pies auction

3-4 pm:

• Donation contest to get the opportunity to pie your favorite staff member in the face
• STLF update--What we are doing now and where we are headed
• March Matchness introduction--What is it, how can you get involved?

4-5 pm:

• Last chance for mingling
• Wrap-up

As you may know, this is an important time for us because March 14th – April 8th STLF will have matching funds available. This is a great chance for our supporters to double their impact when making a donation to STLF! Help us reveal leadership in young people while over 2,000 students head out on college Pay-It-Forward Tours during their spring breaks.

You're Invited: Strategic Storytelling for Social Justice Pilot Training

Where can you find strategy, storytelling, and social justice (and alliteration) under one roof? Join Line Break Media at Intermedia Arts for a 3-part Strategic Storytelling for Social Justice workshop series later this month. Best yet, your feedback as part of this pilot series will inform the ultimate design of this important and valuable training; so just as the workshop asserts, your voice and story matters!

As a human, you are a natural storyteller. Your mind creates narratives to make sense of the world, and you share those narratives with others around you. How can you strategically apply this natural storytelling ability in your work for social justice, and why is it important to do so?

This 3-week pilot workshop series (our LAST pilot opportunity!) will share some fundamental tools and frameworks to deepen your communications strategy for social justice. Come sharpen your narrative analysis and grow your ability to make deliberate, intentional choices in your storytelling for achieving organizing and advocacy goals. 

Facilitated by Eleonore Wesserle of Line Break Media, this workshop series is informed by materials and worldviews from the Center for Story-Based Strategy, the Center for Media Justice, Ricardo Levins Morales, and other visionaries (references and background reading will be provided). Sessions will center around why and how to communicate your own social justice issue while deconstructing mainstream narratives, and will include:

1. Getting grounded: Why storytelling and communications strategy?
• Grounding
• Culture as soil: A parable
• The power of framing your truth: A brief immersion behind the buzzword
2. Unpacking Dominant Narratives and Narratives for Social Justice
• Visioning and articulating a core narrative for your social justice issue
• Case study: Analyzing a status quo narrative vs a social justice narrative
• Now, Wow, How: one message method to organize your story
3. Crafting a strategic story to achieve your goals
• Audience inquiry: who are you trying to move?
• Battle of the Story: Outlining critical elements of strategic stories

Discussion will explicitly:

• name oppressions and systems of power, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism, and others; 
• explore how these systems support and are supported by dominant cultural narratives and media structures; and 
• explore tools that can help stories for social justice break through.

Please note: We recently ran the first pilot version of this workshop series. This will be our second pilot. While we are incorporating feedback from our first pilot into this series, we would like additional feedback before we begin officially offering this series.  As such, we are:

• limiting participants to 20, 
• requiring participation in all three parts of the series,
• requesting your commitment to strong critical evaluation of the series, and 
• requesting a deeply discounted $15 fee to hold your spot (working out to $5 per session). No one will be turned away for lack of funds, please contact Eleonore directly with fee questions: eleonore@linebreakmedia.org. 

Please note: This is a 3-part workshop series. Dates/times are:

• Monday, Mar 16, 6:30 - 9:00pm
• Monday, Mar 23, 6:30 - 9:00pm
• Monday, Mar 30, 6:30 - 9:00pm

Attendance at all three dates is mandatory for participation. 

Today and tomorrow and the day after

Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo 

“Love isn't about what we did yesterday; it's about what we do today and tomorrow and the day after." 

-Grace Lee Boggs