Headwaters - Foundation For Justice

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—June 7, 2010: The Headwaters Foundation for Justice is proud to announce its Social Change Fund grantees for 2009-2010. The Foundation is distributing $245,000 to 27 Minnesota-based not-for-profit organizations in the areas of Economic Justice, Social Justice, Environmental Justice, and Racial Justice. Rather than trying to influence merely the symptoms of injustice, Headwaters awards grants to organizations that address issues at their core. By connecting groups on the front lines of change with funding and resources, Headwaters is helping grassroots organizations spread their roots deeper and wider.

Grants in the area of Economic Justice focus on programs that eliminate wealth and income disparities and advance economic opportunities for everyone. Grantees in this area include the Worker’s Interfaith Network, which, through their “Clean up the Cleaning Industry” campaign, partners with low-wage workers to secure unpaid wages from employers as well as facilitate collective bargaining working conditions. Social Justice grants support work that transforms our society to ensure that everyone has a share of its opportunities and benefits. Grantees in this area include the Somali Action Alliance and the Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Network of Minnesota, both of which are organizing to ensure access and integration of all voices in their communities, and OutFront Minnesota, working to pass marriage equity legislation by 2011.

Organizations receiving Environmental Justice grants advance solutions that address health disparities, toxic burdens, and weak enforcement of environmental protection laws. Grantees in this area include the West Side Citizens Organization, Just Equity and the Harrison Neighborhood Association, all working to affect issues of development, land use and housing, and the Center for Earth Energy and Democracy and Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, which are engaging the community to create innovative environmental solutions.

Racial Justice grants are provided to groups addressing the root causes of racism. Grant recipients include TakeAction MN and 180 Degrees, Inc.—both working to advocate for fair and responsible laws, policies, and practices enabling those who have committed a crime to redeem themselves and return to their communities to contribute to their full potential—as well as ISAIAH and the Organizing Apprenticeship Project, who are challenging the public education system to facilitate racially equitable outcomes for students of color.

Click here to see the full list of grantees.

For over 25 years The Headwaters Foundation for Justice has been committed to empowering the most marginalized communities in and around the Twin Cities. A grantmaking process led by community activists helps the Foundation to identify and understand needs that often fall beneath the radar of other funders. Priority in the funding process is given to communities that have historically been excluded from resources and power, including groups like Centro Campesino, which educates, organizes, and empowers Latino immigrants in rural Minnesota to assure their full social and civic adjustment in our communities, and the Trans Youth Support Network, which empowers transgender youth to transform institutions and organization to make them transgender-accessible and supportive.

The Headwaters Foundation is a catalyst for social, racial, economic and environmental justice. The Foundation was established in 1984 with the belief that the power for fundamental social change is in the hands of ordinary people. Through grantmaking and organizational assistance, Headwaters focuses on grassroots efforts, engaging and partnering with a committed community of donors and allies in its work. The Foundation distributes over $450,000 annually to groups working for social change. In its history, Headwaters has provided organizational support to more than 850 projects and trained 2,500 community leaders through its capacity building program. As a member of The Funding Exchange, Headwaters is part of a national network of community foundations committed to addressing social justice at the grassroots level.

Headwaters Foundation Celebrates the Collective Work of Ten Local Organizations With Allies for Justice Awards

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Headwaters Foundation for Justice announced its annual Allies for Justice Awards today, with an unprecedented focus on a group of organizations that have successfully brought community voice and representation to Light Rail Transit (LRT) development in St. Paul.

This is the first time that the Allies for Justice Awards will honor a group of organizations for their collective impact in the local community. Through their collaboration with each other and numerous other community organizations, these Headwaters grantees have brought attention to the issues of affordable housing, maintaining bus service in this transit dependent community and, in a recent victory, the need to add stops in three high-density neighborhoods. The ten organizations being recognized for their collaborative achievements with LRT include:

“This is really different for us,” remarked Executive Director Trista Harris. “We usually honor the singular achievements of individual organizations, but together these organizations have demonstrated how collaboration between many organizations is an effective method for achieving social justice.”

Allies for Justice Award recipients are chosen because they embody Headwater’s conviction that, together we can create social and political conditions that guarantee justice for all. Among this year’s awardees, Headwaters will also be honoring long-time Headwaters philanthropist and donor activist, Carl Griffin. Griffin’s lifelong commitment to social justice began in the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, which was transformed and divided by the building of Interstate 94. Griffin has dedicated a substantial part of his career to the non-profit sector and has been supporting Headwater’s grantees for over ten years.

Award recipients will be honored in a celebration Wednesday, May 19 at the Nicollet Island Pavillion (40 Power Street, Minneapolis). Tickets are $75 / $50 for nonprofit activists and available online at http://www.headwatersfoundation.org/flash/alliesforjustice.htm. Information about sponsorship opportunities is available by contacting jodi@headwatersfoundation.org.

Headwaters Foundation is a catalyst for social, racial, economic and environmental justice. The Foundation was established in 1984 with the belief that the power for fundamental social change is in the hands of ordinary people. The Foundation distributes $375,000 annually to groups working for social change. In its 25-year history, Headwaters has provided more than $8.5 million in grants to the community. Through grantmaking and organizational assistance, Headwaters focuses on grassroots efforts, engaging and partnering with a committed community of donors and allies in its work. Headwaters is a member of the Funding Exchange, a national network of community foundations committed to addressing social justice at the grassroots level.

Headwaters Foundation Receives $100,000 Grant for Grassroots Work on Water Issues

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Headwaters Foundation for Justice has received a $100,000 grant from Midwest Common Vision to address water commodification issues in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Through this grant, Headwaters will partner with the IATP Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy (CEED) and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) to increase awareness around water use issues within low-income communities, tribal communities, indigenous groups and communities of color, creating an informed and organized network of community activists who are prepared to address water commodification issues at the ground level.

Central to the work will be a regional convening this fall bringing environmental justice activists together with scientific and academic experts to identify key issues of concern and the tools and strategies for addressing them. CEED at IATP will provide ongoing support to the grassroots network, linking local groups to resources and technical assistance to inform their education and policy efforts. LVEJO will serve as a grassroots pilot for addressing water issues locally, focusing its efforts on the current proposal to privatize the City of Chicago water system, which has repercussions for the entire Midwest and beyond.

Midwest Common Vision is comprised of a group of regional social justice grantmakers. Spearheaded by the national funders network Funders for LGBTQ Issues (FLGBTQ), Midwest Common Vision came together as a one-time funders collaborative in order to achieve a broader community of practice focused on building healthy communities with widespread equity. In order to bring the theoretical learning into practice, FLGBTQ made monies available to operationalize the work and develop a demonstration grant. Midwest Common Vision partners include: Maria Cadenas, Cream City Foundation, Milwaukee, WI; Gregory Grinley, PFund Foundation, Minneapolis, MN; Ryan Barker, Missouri Foundation for Health, St. Louis, MO; Evette Cardona, Polk Bros. Foundation, Chicago, IL; and Consuella Brown, Woods Fund of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Headwaters Foundation for Justice is pleased to announce $40,000 in grant awards to four Wisconsin- and Minnesota-based nonprofits through the Fund of the Sacred Circle.

The Fund of the Sacred Circle supports the work of Native urban, rural and tribal groups to address systemic issues affecting American Indian communities. Focus areas include language and cultural revitalization, land and environmental restoration, sovereignty and treaty rights, and self-determination and civil rights. Established in 1999, the Fund of the Sacred Circle is operated in conjunction with the Wisconsin Community Fund and directed by Native community leaders who make funding decisions. Since the Fund began making grants in 2001, it has awarded 49 grants totaling $440,000.

“The Fund of the Sacred Circle is a key component of our community-led grantmaking,” said Headwaters Executive Director Trista Harris. “As a permanent resource for the community, The Fund of the Sacred Circle will do its part to ensure that the sovereignty and self-determination of Native people is secure.”
$10,000 grants were awarded to each of the following organizations:

Effective Communities LLC recently announced the 2009 winners of an Effie™ Award for Effective Philanthropic Practice. This year’s open competition provided recognition for effective uses of philanthropy to advance social justice and racial equity.

Three categories of awards were created to honor this year’s winning entries. Headwaters was a winner of the 2009 Effies Community Leadership Award, for effectively leading their community in implementing initiatives that address a pressing community opportunity or problem.

Headwaters Fund for Social Justice – For mobilizing a group of Minnesota foundations, donors and activists to address inequalities in the electoral system in follow-up to the 2000 Presidential elections. With a goal “to increase participation and political power of disenfranchised groups,” the specially created Democracy! Fund made grants to increase civic engagement, support public policy and advocacy, and build political power in disenfranchised communities.

Click on the link to see our winning case statement.

Winners earned points for how well they described their use of six different pathways to progress. For more information about the Effies™ and to see a complete list of winners, please visit www.JustPhilanthropy.org.

Trista Harris will take over as Executive Director starting on September 2, 2008.

“Being asked to serve as the Foundation’s Executive Director is both an honor and a privilege,” said Harris. “The Headwaters Foundation for Justice has a well-deserved reputation as a leader in the field of social justice philanthropy. I am thrilled to join this team and continue this work because I'm convinced that through strong partnerships with donors and nonprofits, ambitious goals, innovation, and a commitment to impact, we can create a more just community."

Harris comes to Headwaters from the Saint Paul Foundation where she was Program Officer. Harris has provided leadership on the Foundation’s initiatives related to civic engagement and philanthropy. She is also responsible for a broad ranging grantmaking portfolio which reflects the Foundation’s interest in comprehensive solutions to community issues and manages scholarship funds for the Foundation.

Harris has 15 years of nonprofit experience. Prior to the Saint Paul Foundation, Harris was the Advancement Director for Portico Healthnet, an innovative nonprofit that provides health coverage and health education to uninsured Minnesotans.

Harris received her M.P.P. degree in public policy from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, with a focus on philanthropy and nonprofit effectiveness, and her Bachelor’s degree in sociology from the honor’s program at Howard University. She has recently been recognized as a Connecting Leaders Fellow through the Association of Black Foundation Executives. Through this fellowship intensive mentoring and educational opportunities are provided to influential new leaders who are committed to building Black communities through organized philanthropy. Harris is currently the Chair of Minnesota’s Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy Chapter, whose mission is to strengthen the next generation of grantmakers, to advance effective social justice philanthropy.

“We are very excited that Trista will be joining Headwaters. Her vision and creative approach to social justice philanthropy will take Headwaters to the next level of community leadership,” said Penelope Haru Snipper, co-chair of the Headwaters Board of Directors. “Trista is joining Headwaters at a time when we have completed a number of important transitions. Under her leadership and building upon Headwaters’ first 25 years of social justice work, we feel we have what it will take to distinguish our role within the changing philanthropic landscape.”

Headwaters extends special recognition and a sincere thank you to outgoing board members Anne Haddad, Arif Mamdani, Dan Hawkins, David Waterbury, Elaine Salinas, Mai Thor, and Munir Meghjee. We are also delighted to welcome five new members to the Board of Directors: Amalia Anderson, Main Street Project; Tim Davies, donor activist; John Kostishack, former Executive Director of the Otto Bremer Foundation; Steven Renderos, Chicano Studies, U of M; Duke Schempp, People Escaping Poverty Project.

This spring, Headwaters' 2007 Annual Report won AIGA Minnesota's 2008 Judges' Choice Award. Special recognition goes to designer Linda Henneman of ThinkDesign Group. Congratulations Linda!