News and Media

WINTER 2009

Headwaters Foundation Announces 2010 Fund of the Sacred Circle Grant Awards

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:

 
Dakota Wicohan, an organization working to preserve and revitalize the Dakota language and life ways.  While rooted within the Dakota community, Dakota Wicohan works across tribal and political boundaries, working to address the crisis of a mere nine affluent speakers remaining in the state of Minnesota.  Their vision and philosophy is that language is linked to the regeneration of Dakota identity, health and community.

Indigenous Environmental Network, a national environmental and economic justice network working to strengthen grassroots efforts to bring about fundamental change.  Their Ojibwe Seventh Generation Guardianship project combines native language revitalization with environmental conservation by engaging communities to understand their relationship to and role in protecting local ecosystems that grow wild food and medicinal plants.

Indigenous People’s Green Jobs Coalition, an organization formed to ensure that indigenous people have a voice in the new green economy.  The organization will launch and sustain an effective state-wide movement that will result in the development of training programs, legislation, funding and awareness of the need to create healthy and sustainable communities for Indigenous people in the emerging green economy.

Waadookodaading Language Immersion Charter School, an Ojibwe language immersion school for students in kindergarten through the fifth grade. The school is seeing dozens of children achieve language proficiency--levels that have not existed for two generations. The organization’s long-term goal is to continue to revitalize and preserve the Ojibwe/Anishinaabe as an active language.

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.

FALL 2009

Headwaters Receives Effie™ Award for Effective Philanthropic Practice

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.
 

FALL 2008

Headwaters Announces New Executive Director

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.”

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SUMMER 2008

Headwaters Board Update

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.  

Annual Report Wins AIGA Award

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!

If you would like to view the report online, click here (pdf)

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