Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation

We work with donors, professional and legal advisors, nonprofit organizations and local leaders to identify and support critical needs across the state of Minnesota. We help donors achieve their charitable goals and address critical issues facing communities around the state. We provide several grantmaking programs that support nonprofits across state of Minnesota. Our twice-yearly building community capacity endowment grant program provides critical funding in the six priority areas of community connectedness; economic opportunity and security; education; health; housing and transportation; and human services and family support. You can learn more about our building community capacity granting program by going to httpsspmcforgwhowearenonprofitswe...

We support effective grantmaking and provide administrative services for a wide variety of funds and foundations serving Minnesota and the east metro area, including dakota, ramsey and Washington counties.

Through community initiatives innovative and responsive programs that directly serve people in the community- we can support and address timely issues. A current initiative is the east metro main street economic revitalization program in partnership with the Minnesota department of employment and economic development (deed). State funding of $7 million was awarded to projects in the snelling-university-rice cultural district, the east side community and along west seventh street in Saint Paul. An additional $2.15 million was raised and distributed to further support applicants to meet program matching fund requirements and complete projects. We prioritized projects led by and serving black, indigenous, asian, latino, new americans, immigrants, refuges, people with disabilities, lgbtqi communities, veterans, low-income communities, or other communities that have been historically under-and dis-invested in by traditional funding, and 100% of projects met these criteria. More than 85% of the projects were owned or led by people of color.

The Foundation provides grants to individuals through the community sharing fund and j.c. and l.a. duke employees assistance fund. The community sharing fund provides small grants to help individuals and families weather a temporary setback and keep it from becoming a major crisis. Grants have been used to help maintain transportation to a job, cover rent or pay for childcare. Through a network of social workers, individuals can access the fund when all other forms of emergency assistance have been exhausted. 646 grants were approved from the community sharing fund during 2023. The duke fund provides assistance to 3m employees who have experienced a catastrophic illness or accident. Grants help employees regain self-sufficiency and return to the workplace. Support is designed to help employees through a transition and is not indefinite. 113 grants were approved from the duke fund during 2023.