Community-led grantmaking brings more than $255,000 to cultural communities

(Saint Paul, Minn.) The Saint Paul Foundation today announced more than $255,000 in grants made by the Diversity Endowment Funds – a group of funds where grant decisions are made by volunteer committees from the same racial and cultural groups that would benefit from proposed projects and programs. The funds include Asian Pacific Endowment, El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad, Pan African Community Endowment and Two Feathers Endowment.

23 organizations will receive grants through this community-informed model. Funds like the Diversity Endowment Funds are critical to a healthy community because they not only provide much needed funding to culturally-based programs, but also broaden philanthropic expression and open access to the decision making process for racial and cultural communities, creating a more equitable system of philanthropy.

“The Diversity Endowment Funds are part of The Saint Paul Foundation’s long-standing commitment to equity,” says Ann Mulholland, vice president of Community Impact. “The Foundation is grounded in a belief that communities are in the best position to identify challenges and opportunities.”

Asian Pacific Endowment supports nonprofits that use culture to address social change and capture historic experience within the Asian Pacific community and made nine grants totaling $51,623. Among these was a $5,000 grant to Sewa-Aifw (Asian Indian Family Wellness) for their Leaders of Tomorrow and Resource Building program. This program works with Asian Indian women and refugees to address cultural stereotypes and help them build networks as well as working with youth to introduce health and wellness options and create greater health equity among the Asian Indian community.

El Fondo de Nuestra Comunidad focuses on creating pathways to citizenship for the Latino community and made four grants totaling $57,000. Among these was a $10,000 to Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County for their From City Hall To Capitol Hill program. The program was created to address the Latino community’s desire for increased leadership at a civic level and works with Latino youth to build knowledge around the civic process and develop strong leadership skills.

Pan African Endowment works to improve education, eradicate health disparities, address the disproportionate rate of incarceration for African Americans and support social justice for immigrants and refugees. The Endowment made nine grants totaling $73,300, including a $10,000 grant to the Underground Media Collective for a multi-media storytelling project. The project will highlight the experiences of black immigrants and look at the ways they engage with the increasingly anti-immigrant sentiment in the East Metro.

Two Feathers Endowment is partnering with Tiwahe Foundation to distribute $73,803 through Tiwahe Foundation’s American Indian Family Empowerment Program Fund (AIFEP) and the Alumni Project Network. AIFEP provides grants ranging from $500 to $2,500 to American Indian individuals in the areas of renewing cultural connections, education and economic stability. Alumni Project Network grantmaking supports small projects that benefit the community and the leadership development of the Tiwahe AIFEP Alumni.

• To view the complete list of Diveristy Endowmen Fund grantees: https://www.spmcf.org/sites/default/files/Shared%20Assets/DEF%202017%20grant%20list.pdf

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About The Saint Paul Foundation

Since 1940, thousands of generous individuals committed to the Saint Paul area have made charitable gifts to The Saint Paul Foundation. Today, the Foundation is the state’s largest community foundation. Guided by the legacy of its earliest donors, the Foundation today helps donors achieve their charitable giving goals and have long-lasting impact in the community. Learn more at saintpaulfoundation.org.