Click on the
following links to see a short video on each of the following
Mission Award and Excellence Award winners. Please note - you
must use 
RealPlayer to view
the videos.
YWCA of
Minneapolis (Nonprofit Mission Award: Anti-Racism
Initiative)
Admission
Possible (Nonprofit Mission Award: Innovation)
Minnesota
American Indian Chamber of Commerce
(Nonprofit Mission Award: Advocacy)
Hmong
Women's Giving Circle
(Nonprofit Mission Award: Responsive Philanthropy)
Fergus
Falls Senior Citizen's Program
(Nonprofit Excellence Award)
Project
for Pride in Living (Nonprofit Excellence Award)
The
recipients of the 2005 Nonprofit Mission Awards are: Minnesota
American Indian Chamber of Commerce for Nonprofit Advocacy, Women’s
Foundation of Minnesota’s Hmong Women’s Giving Circle
for Responsive Philanthropy, Admission Possible for
Nonprofit Innovation, and the YWCA of Minneapolis for
Anti-Racism Initiative. Winners were selected by MCN nonprofit
member organizations through an online voting process.
The
awards presentation will be broadcast on TPT’s Minnesota Channel
in January 2006 (check MCN's website for updates). Gail Chang Bohr,
Executive Director of the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota, the
2003 winner of the Nonprofit Mission Award for Advocacy, will emcee
the ceremony.
Nonprofit
Advocacy Award:
Minnesota
American Indian Chamber of Commerce,
Minneapolis
As the
oldest continually running ethnic chamber of commerce in the state
of Minnesota and the oldest Indian Chamber of Commerce in the United
States, the Minnesota American Indian Chamber of Commerce (MAICC)
promotes entrepreneurial partnerships among American Indian
businesses, professionals, and tribal governmental enterprises to
elevate and sustain the economic vitality of local communities and
the American Indian people. In 2004, the MAICC provided effective
leadership and strategy to help coordinate the first statewide
Indian Get-Out-The-Vote campaign. MAICC conducted community
trainings, disseminated voter registration information to their
members and other community members, maintained a calendar of voter
registration-related events, fought efforts to disallow Tribal IDs
for same-day registration, coordinated an Election Day celebration,
and served as a voter registration hub for organizations state- and
nation-wide. MAICC’s
unprecedented work had a significant impact; some estimates show
that as a result of MAICC’s efforts, American Indian voter
participation in
Minnesota
increased as much as 150 percent.
Responsive
Philanthropy Award: Women’s Foundation of
Minnesota
’s Hmong Women’s
Giving Circle
,
St. Paul
The
Hmong Women’s Giving Circle (HWGC), a volunteer-driven membership
organization under the sponsorship of the Women’s Foundation of
Minnesota, has a mission to promote philanthropy within the Hmong
community, encourage activism, and create social change for Hmong
women and girls in
Minnesota
. In 2004, Hmong staff from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota
convened a group of Hmong women and girls to create new initiatives
that will have meaningful impact on their lives. Participants felt
strongly that while there has been much progress in the Hmong
community, the needs relating to women and girls continue to worsen
due to the changing political climate in the areas of health,
family, economic independence, racism, and access to education. This
impact of these worsening needs is felt most deeply in communities
of color where many members are recent immigrants with little or no
educational backgrounds, like the Hmong. Participants in the
convened group wanted to establish community-initiated philanthropy
and thus the nation’s first Hmong Women’s
Giving Circle
was born.
Nonprofit
Innovation Award: Admission Possible,
St. Paul
Admission
Possible works to help make college admission a reality for
talented, motivated, and economically disadvantaged students in
Minnesota by providing SAT and ACT test preparation services along
with college admissions and financial aid consulting. Admission
Possible takes an innovative approach to serving its students by
enlisting recent college graduates (specifically AmeriCorps members)
to work directly with low-income students who want to attend
college. Admission Possible counsels students on both the
application process including selecting colleges, writing essays and
completing the application itself. Assistance with financial aid is
provided as the cost of college is a real barrier to the
economically disadvantaged. Admission Possible also requires
students to undertake community service to help foster a sense of
responsibility and accountability. The results Admission Possible
has achieved by providing these services to its students have been
outstanding. This year alone, 100 precent of Admission Possible’s
246 senior students have been admitted to at least one college.
Anti-Racism
Initiative Award: YWCA of
Minneapolis
,
Minneapolis
The YWCA
of Minneapolis’ mission is to empower women and girls and
eliminate racism. The YWCA serves more than 25,000 people who live
or work in
Minneapolis
, with a special emphasis on people of color and low-income
households. Three years ago, the organization took an especially
bold step toward forwarding its mission and founded a racial justice
division to act as a catalyst for internal and external projects to
promote racial justice. The YWCA of Minneapolis Racial Justice
Department exists to eliminate barriers that perpetuate racism by
raising awareness of white privilege, promoting practical solutions
that individuals can use as they begin and continue their
anti-racist journey, and building commitment to policies and
practices that eliminate institutional racism to create long-term
sustainable change. Specifically,
the Racial Justice Department has conducted workshops about
unlearning racism, hosted a luncheon with activist and Cherokee
Nation leader Wilma Mankiller, facilitated smaller dialogue sessions
with members of the local community, and most recently launched the
Leadership Registry, an outreach project in partnership with MAP for
Nonprofits designed to increase the participation of people of color
and women on nonprofit boards and government commissions in Hennepin
County.
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