LATEST NEWS

February 2010

2010 OUTLOOK | State of the Foundation
Letter from Lee Roper-Batker, president & CEO, Women's Foundation of Minnesota

A year ago, we shared our honest assessment of how the recession was affecting the Women’s Foundation, as well as the steps we would take to align strategic goals and outcomes with the financial realities we faced. Because of the positive feedback I received from so many of you in response to that letter, I am here now to share how we fared over the past year and what you can expect from us in 2010.

I am happy to report that the sustainability strategies we crafted and followed have assured our mission to invest in social change to achieve equality for all women and girls in Minnesota. Certainly chief among those strategies was our commitment to increase our grantmaking by 4 percent, while reducing our total expenses by 15 percent.

While the shifts in staff were challenging, we have weathered the storm of changes and know now that this was absolutely the right strategy. A year later, we are stronger for it, and so too are our grantee-partners across the state.

As I reported last February, the steep decline in the financial markets in 2008 caused our endowment to suffer a cumulative loss of 22.4 percent. Over the past year, our endowment has shown steady signs of recovery. For this, I credit our stellar Investment Committee, whose wise and measured decisions resulted in a 17.7 percent return in 2009 and rank in the top 50th percentile for institutional investing.

I am delighted to tell you that not only did we reach our four-year, $15 million Fund>>Forward comprehensive campaign goal on time (March 31, 2009), we exceeded it at $15.9 million. To have achieved this outcome during a time of economic freefall is truly remarkable. This underscored the generosity of our stakeholders, like you, to consistently come through when we need it the most. According to our latest projections, the larger endowment will enable us to double our competitive grantmaking by 2017.

In 2009, we launched a new three-year strategic plan (4/1/09-3/31/12). The plan’s new centerpiece strategic goal is to leverage the foundation’s expertise and assets to broaden support for women and girls equality. We’ll accomplish this through multi-pronged strategies related to research, the girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together) and Social Change grantmaking funds, and collaborative and public policy funding.

In June, we’ll release new research on the status of women and girls in Minnesota and publicly launch our new research collaborative with the University of MN-Humphrey Institute’s Center on Women & Public Policy. The collaborative examines four key areas: economic justice, safety & security, health & reproductive rights, and political power. We’ll then take our findings out on a statewide regional tour to eight cities over the summer, and hold Congressional and legislative briefings here and in Washington, D.C.

What makes this project unique is that it’s ongoing and annual, and enlists the expertise and input of nonprofits leaders, healthcare providers, educators, local and state government leaders, judicial leaders, funders, community activists, and policymakers at all levels on working groups for each of the four key areas.

In addition, we will have a public website rich with data disaggregated by gender and racial/ethnic group. The resulting data will serve as a pipeline feed to future public policy change that improves the lives of the state’s women, girls, families, and communities.

Another key focus of the new strategic plan is to replicate the girlsBEST Fund model at other women’s funds across the country, and to secure a national funder to help us do it. Our independent evaluations of the program (2009) prove that the model works to build girls economic well-being, as does the data about girlsBEST participants:

• 91% believe in themselves and that they can accomplish whatever they set out to do.

• 95% believe it’s important to delay pregnancy to be economically successful.

• 90% graduated from high school and 95% enrolled in post-secondary education.

• Majority of girls see the connection between supportive environments and economic readiness: 96% say supportive, caring adults matter; 95% say supportive environments help them feel safe; and 85% say older girls are good role models and mentors.

A few weeks ago, all staff met at my house for a day-long retreat to craft the Foundation’s annual operating plan for the coming fiscal year (4/1/10-3/31/11). The strategies, activities and evaluative indicators we came up with are creative, ambitious, and achievable, and the collective energy in the room was positive and electric.

We closed the meeting with a toast and each of us summing up the day’s work and how we felt about the coming year in one word. Inspired. Hopeful. Organized. Engaged. As we looked around the room, it was clear to all of us that 2010-’11 will be a very good year, indeed.

As the economy continues its slow rise, we will continue our thoughtful and strategic approach to our work. We deeply thank you for your support, understanding, and continued partnership. Each of you is a powerful contributor to the Foundation's success and our ability to advance social change and equality.

And as always, I welcome and appreciate your input and questions at lee@wfmn.org. Thank you so much.

Onward,
Lee Roper-Batker | President & CEO