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JENNIFER FORD REEDY NAMED PRESIDENT OF BUSH FOUNDATION

(Saint Paul, Minn., July 30, 2012) —The Board of Directors of the Bush Foundation announced today that Jennifer Ford Reedy will join the organization as its next president.

Reedy is the current chief of staff and vice president of strategy for Minnesota Philanthropy Partners (MN Partners), a network of organizations including The Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation, F.R. Bigelow Foundation and the Mardag Foundation.

“Over the past several months we have had a very thorough and thoughtful national search process and have taken the time necessary to find the best possible candidate,” said Jan K. Malcolm, chair of the Bush Foundation’s Board. “My Board colleagues and I were delighted to find in Jennifer Ford Reedy the experience, skills and vision that we believe are just the right formula to lead the Foundation.”

Board Search Committee Chair Irving Weiser said, “This search process produced a large number of truly exceptional candidates from across the country, but within this excellent pool we were unanimous in our selection of Jennifer Ford Reedy. We are confident that she will bring to the Bush Foundation the leadership qualities needed for us to have a positive impact in communities across our region for years to come.”

Reedy said, “The Bush Foundation has had tremendous impact in the communities it has served for nearly 60 years. I’m thrilled to join in that work and look forward to leading the Foundation toward even more significant community impact in the coming years.”

Reedy joined MN Partners in 2008 and since has guided several innovative new ventures, including GiveMN.org, an online giving portal that has helped raise more than $50 million for Minnesota nonprofits. She was also instrumental in the creation of the Minnesota Idea Open, which engages citizens in creating solutions to tough problems.

Prior to joining MN Partners, Reedy directed the Itasca Project, an employer-led civic alliance focused on building a thriving economy and improved quality of life in the Twin Cities metro area. In 2009, Reedy was honored as a "40 Under 40" leader by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal. (Read more about her experience, board service and awards at the end of this release.)

Reedy succeeds Peter C. Hutchinson, who served as president from 2008 until January of this year. Robert H. Bruininks is currently serving as interim president. She will be the fourth president in the Foundation’s 59-year history and will assume the office of president effective September 4.

The Bush Foundation is currently the fourth-largest private foundation in Minnesota and is a strong source of philanthropic funding in South Dakota and North Dakota. The Bush Foundation invested nearly $30 million in 2011 in initiatives aimed toward achieving its long-term goals.

About the Bush Foundation

Our mission is to be a catalyst for the courageous leadership necessary to create sustainable solutions to tough public problems and ensure community vitality. The Foundation was established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife, Edyth, and today works in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geographic area.

The Foundation’s three areas of emphasis are related to work it has been doing for most of its nearly 60-year history to support leadership development, education, Native nations and community vitality. Our current long-term goals are:

To help communities develop their capacity to find innovative, sustainable solutions to their own problems through a combination of leadership development, research, data, tools and opportunities to connect with others.

To dramatically improve educational achievement by assuring the effectiveness of the teachers who enter our classrooms by changing how they are recruited, prepared, placed and supported.

To improve the conditions of the people of Native nations by working with their elected leaders to improve their institutions of self-governance based on sovereignty and self-determination.

The Bush Foundation is taking an innovative approach to philanthropy in its strategies toward achieving these goals. Rather than making grants across a broad spectrum of issues and organizations, it is focusing its attention on finding solutions to specific tough public problems and on building the capacity of communities to solve their own problems. Learn more at BushFoundation.org.

About Jennifer Ford Reedy

Jennifer Ford Reedy is chief of staff and vice president of strategy for Minnesota Philanthropy Partners. In this role, she is charged with driving strategy development and implementation, as well as managing day-to-day operations of the organization. MN Partners is a network of foundations, funds and organizations that share knowledge and services to have the greatest possible impact through charitable giving. It supports The Saint Paul Foundation, Minnesota Community Foundation, F.R. Bigelow Foundation, Mardag Foundation and more than 1,600 affiliates across Minnesota.

Since joining MN Partners in 2008, Reedy has guided the development of a number of new initiatives. One new venture, GiveMN.org, is a state-of-the-art giving portal that is transforming giving in Minnesota. Another major venture is the Minnesota Idea Open, an idea platform created in partnership with Ashoka Changemakers. The Idea Open is designed to get as many Minnesotans as possible thinking and talking about solutions to critical issues facing the state.

Prior to joining MN Partners, Reedy was a consultant with McKinsey and Company and directed the Itasca Project, a CEO-led regional economic development initiative in the Twin Cities. In that capacity, she helped to create and manage community initiatives on topics ranging from early childhood education to transportation infrastructure.

Her current community involvement includes serving on the boards of the Citizens League and the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, the working team for the Itasca Project, and co-chairing the advisory board for the Honors College at the University of Kansas. She has been honored as a "40 Under 40" leader by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, as one of the “200 Minnesotans You Should Know” by Twin Cities Business magazine, and as a NextGen Fellow by Independent Sector.

Reedy holds a master’s degree in social policy from the University of Chicago and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Kansas where she received a national Truman Fellowship for Public Service.

 

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