$390,000 in girlsBEST Grants Support Economic Prosperity for Minnesota Girls

The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) announces $330,000 in multi-year grants to 18 organizations and seed grants to four organizations through its girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together) fund. The seventh cohort of girlsBEST grantee-partners are receiving the second year of funding on a multi-year grant. Grants are renewed for up to three years, based on an annual grant review and progress towards goals. Seed grants support planning and are limited to one year.

In addition to the organizations receiving funding, WFM awarded a $60,000 grant to Propel Nonprofits to support deeper organizational learning and training to the grantee cohort. Propel will integrate a Learning Communities approach, in response to grantee input about useful evaluation methods.

In total, the awards represent an investment of $390,000 through its girlsBEST fund. As WFM’s longest\Since 2002, girlsBEST has supported girl-led programs in Minnesota that increase the readiness of girls (ages 12-18) to achieve economic well-being. $5.9 million has been granted to 159 girl-led and girl-driven programs and engaged 48,536 young women and their families. In the current cohort, 23% of partners are based in Greater Minnesota.

Grantee-Partners:

African Women and Youth Resource Center (Brooklyn Center) | $20,000 – To support unhoused African girls ages 16-24 and provide them with financial literacy and career development. The program teaches participants how to create a budget, open personal checking accounts, and about other financial topics, including savings accounts, credit cards, ROI, trading, and homeownership. The organization works with African immigrants to settle and thrive in their new community, using education as a pathway to success.

Bagosendaan (Mahnomen) | $15,000 – To continue the speaker program and encourage leadership opportunities for girls to mentor newer participants to develop horse-rider competence, promote a strong sense of positive and cultural identity, and provide support and/or intervention when a participant is unhoused or abused. A girlsBEST partner since 2010, Bagosendaan serves low-income youth, ages 11 to 18, to engage their interests, provide motivation, and build competence by engaging talking circles, counselors, guest speakers, and horseback riding.

Centro Tyrone Guzman (Minneapolis) | $10,000 – To continue Jóvenes Latinas al Poder (Young Latinas to Power), designed for Latina teen girls and femme-identifying youth to exercise their leadership and collective power to advocate for justice, inclusion, and equity. Participants are actively engaged in advocacy that explores the stereotypes and causes of anti-Blackness, strategies for changing harmful narratives, and creates safer and more inclusive environments for LGBTQIA+ Latines. In addition, they participate in the Manos Montessori intergenerational social enterprise, where they engage with elders to develop and produce Montessori learning materials for young children.

Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES) (Saint Paul) | $15,000 – To continue Youth in Action (YA!), a holistic and culturally relevant youth program focused on high school graduation and college access for Latinx youth from low-income backgrounds. This two-generation approach engages parents and community members as mentors through one-on-one sessions and leadership development to empower Latinx youth to grow into strong leaders and successful adults. CLUES is the largest Latino-led organization in Minnesota. Its mission is to advance the social and economic equity and well-being for Latinos by building upon strengths and cultures, uplifting their community, and activating leadership for systemic change.

Dakota Wicohan (Morton) | $20,000 – To provide youth programming from middle school through college focusing on Dakota heritage to increase cultural belonging and Wicozani (well-being)/health and support comprehensive money management training and guidance. A girlsBEST grantee-partner since 2013, Dakota Wicohan empowers Dakota youth and prepares them as culture bearers, positively connects them to their community, and grounds them in their Dakota culture to help them on a path to contribute to their community academically, economically, socially, and culturally.

Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys (Saint Paul) | $20,000 – To continue community engagement programs, which provide mentorship and culturally responsive programming for girls ages 12-18 in the Twin Cities, Rochester, Worthington, and River Valleys. Program topics include social emotional skills, academic skills, STEM, life skills, mental health, entrepreneurship, outdoors, and leadership/advocacy. Through the program, topics come to life as girls go on college tours, meet women working in a variety of industries, and build their own cookie business together.

High School for Recording Arts (HSRA) (Saint Paul) | $20,000 – To start a podcast with middle school girls on topics of self-esteem, mental health, peer pressure, and bullying. The girls expanded their vision by reading the book Letters To A Young Sister: DeFINE Your Destiny by Hill Harper, and were inspired to mentor their community through literacy, positive self-image, and confidence.

Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together (Saint Paul) | $15,000 – To expand the Girls Enterprise program to teach and support girls in business planning, development, understanding financial structures for business development, and sales, marketing and communication. The program has allowed 16 girls to have real-world experiences getting investors and community engagement with their business.

Liberty Community Church, PCUSA (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To expand the Investment Club programming for K-12 girls and gender-expansive youth. Participants will meet once a month to understand the stock market, review investing terminology, participate in simulated trading platforms, and improve overall financial literacy. The goal of Liberty’s 21st Century Academy is to prepare scholars to be fearless global ambassadors of radical hope and power, eliminate generational poverty, and promote community and environmental healing.

Men As Peacemakers (Duluth) | $20,000 – To continue Making Equal Genders Awesome (MEGA) youth programming, a social-emotional learning, gender equity curricula, leadership development, and mentoring for 4th-6th grade boys and empowerment and leadership development for 7th-12th grade youth of all genders. Programming will focus on girls and femme-identified youth ages 13-19 in need of additional support from Lincoln Park Middle School and Denfeld High School.

MIGIZI Communications (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To continue the Culture Leadership Academic Well-Being (CLAW) program, First Person Productions, and Green Tech Initiative programs. Participants receive programming that includes tutoring, language learning (Dakota and Ojibwe), ribbon skirt workshop, moccasin-making, traditional beading, Black-Indigenous storytelling, winter storytelling with guest elders, red willow (traditional tobacco) harvest, plant medicine exploration, podcasting and audio engineering, videography/filmography, graphic design, exploring environmental disasters like oil spills and hantavirus epidemic on Dine land, wild ricing, and environmental pollution with a focus on water quality.

Minnesota Urban Debate League (MNUDL), Augsburg University (Minneapolis) | $15,000 – To continue the Financial Literacy Leadership debate program, tailored to girls and gender-expansive individuals with a focus on economic empowerment. Participants build important skills like critical thinking, deep listening, note taking, verbal communication, and argumentation. MNUDL programming is designed to help students achieve their dreams by supporting their academic journey from middle school, high school, through the college admissions process, to college and beyond.

One Heartland (Willow River) | $20,000 – To continue Camp True Colors, a two-year progressive leadership program for participants ages 16 and 17 to develop leadership skills, job skills, or the skills needed to work at camp in the future. Participants build upon their leadership to develop campers into year-round advocates for LGBTQ+ issues and sexual health. For 30 years, One Heartland has been a beacon and a haven for youth confronting a world that attacks them based on health status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Pillsbury United Communities (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To continue the Sisterhood Boutique, a social enterprise founded by and specifically programmed for girls/femme/gender-expansive youth. Through the Sisterhood Clubs, the program will serve 65 girls and gender-expansive youth and provide trainings for the workforce, where participants have produced zines on Muslim identity and fashion, upcycled clothing, and organized fashion shows.

Project FINE (Winona) | $20,000 – To continue the Girls Reaching Above and Beyond (GRAB) program, designed to help girls ages 12-18 from refugee and immigrant families to prepare for future economic stability and success. Program activities expose girls to a variety of educational and career options, financial education, and personal exploration to define their goals and begin creating a plan to achieve those goals. Project FINE’s mission is to strengthen and enrich the Winona community by facilitating the integration of people who are ethnically diverse.

Propel Nonprofits (Minneapolis) | $60,000 – Propel Nonprofits will provide girlsBEST grantee-partners with access to Propel products that support deeper organizational learning and training. Organizations will have access to tools that will help them map out needs regarding infrastructure, finances, and organizational strengths, as well as limited-scope projects that help them address concerns in a targeted and timely manner. Finally, grantee-partners will have access to training on board recruitment and be able to engage Propel’s Board Connector service.

Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment (WISE) (Saint Paul) | $20,000 – To continue the Girls Getting Ahead in Leadership (GGAL) program, which serves low-income, immigrant and refugee girls/women/individuals on the feminine gender spectrum, in grades 6 through 12. Participants are exposed to a vast array of careers and life skills, providing a safe space to talk about difficult issues (sexual orientation, dating/sexual violence, acculturation, going against cultural expectations/norms), teaching them about financial literacy and reproductive health and rights, and helping them develop life skills that will support their self-actualization.

YWCA Mankato (Mankato) | $10,000 – To continue the Girls Inc. Handball 2 University program and launch the MindSet program, which aims to provide comprehensive support to girls and gender-expansive youth, empowering them to thrive personally and academically. Through a combination of workshops, mentorship, and resources, MindSet will foster resilience, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence among participants, ensuring they are equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential.

YWCA Minneapolis (Minneapolis) | $10,000 – To continue the Girls Inc. Out-of-School Time (OST) and Eureka! programs, which serve girls and gender-expansive youth in grades 4 through 12 to prepare them for economic success through financial literacy. Participants receive a stipend for meeting attendance goals and completing an internship. Stipends encourage the use of bank accounts, which youth open and discuss during the program. OST participants earn credits throughout their program that can be used to practice budgeting at the Girls Inc. store.

Seed Grantee-partners:

The Fields at Rootsprings (Annandale) | $5,000 – To pilot a day camp on Becoming an Artist and Becoming a Writer for queer BIPOC girls and gender-expansive teens. The Fields at Rootsprings (a.k.a. The Fields) is an innovative worker cooperative, limited-equity housing cooperative, and nonprofit partnership reimagining land ownership and healing space for Black, Indigenous, and people of color, centering LGBTQ artists, activities, healers, and communities.

Girls Dream Code (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To run Code Your Path, a computer science-based program for low-income and first-generation girls of color in the Twin Cities to learn the components of how to build, style, and add functionality to a webpage. Students will learn how to use different tools to code and how to deploy and publish their apps online. Girls Dream Code’s mission is to promote opportunities in technology, learn tech skills, decrease the gender and diversity gap in tech, increase inclusivity, and create a safe space for young girls to feel comfortable and excel in all that they do.

Sisters-N-Technology (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To provide after-school programming on coding, college placement, and career or internship support for inner-city young women and girls of color. Sisters-N-Technology’s mission is to support girls in middle school through college to learn how to code.

St. Catherine University – MN Center for Diversity in Economics (MCDE) (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To support students attending the Sadie Conference for Black Women in Economics, and the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women and Non-Binary Technologists. Upon returning from the conference, students will be working with MCDE and the Data Science director to develop programming that targets girls ages 12-18.