Announcing a Deeper Focus on Climate Solutions and an Equitable Minnesota The McKnight Foundation is thrilled to announce that we are increasing our focus on two priority areas: advancing climate solutions and building a more equitable and inclusive Minnesota. This decision follows the release of our 2019-2021 Strategic Framework and months of in-depth reflection and planning. …
This post originally appeared at The Edge, an online magazine from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Policy Development and Research. Recently, the McKnight Foundation has been giving more consideration to what market orientation and scalability mean for our programs, policies, and grantmaking approach. In part this is an adaptive response to the …
A new charitable fund that supports local action on climate change has awarded its first grants. The Minneapolis Climate Action and Racial Equity Fund, a partnership between the City of Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Foundation and the McKnight Foundation, today announced funding to three local organizations that are doing innovative work throughout the city, particularly in …
The Minneapolis Downtown Improvement District created the Minneapolis Safe-Zone Collaborative with the goal of making downtown Minneapolis a safe environment for those who live, work, play, and visit there. Through collaborations with public, private, nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement, they aim to keep downtown a safe, vibrant, and thriving environment. The Minneapolis SafeZone Collaborative hosts …
New Year Reflections from Kate Wolford As we begin a new year, I am very mindful of the awesome responsibility and privilege that we have in advancing the mission of The McKnight Foundation. We have a diverse and robust portfolio of program interests, all pointing toward a goal of strengthening socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable communities. …
Aquaminous | ah-KWA-mi-nuhs | adjective The quality of air just before a rainfall; origin: the Latin aqua, meaning water, and ominous, meaning foreboding. -Mo Perry “Aquaminous” is just one of dozens of new words created for The Language of Air, a crowd-sourced dictionary comprising invented terms to describe qualities of air. It is part of …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.