Women’s Foundation Awards $330,000 in Grants to Support Future Economic Prosperity for Minnesota Girls

Today, the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota (WFM) announced $330,000 in multi-year grants to 17 organizations and seed grants to five organizations through its girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together) fund. The seventh cohort of girlsBEST grantee-partners is receiving the third year of funding for a multi-year grant. Grants are renewed for up to three years, based on an annual review of progress toward their program goals. Seed grants support emerging programs or newly established organizations with a one-time, one-year investment.

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 continue supporting African girls ages 16-24 with financial literacy, career development, and college readiness. 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) | $15,000 – To continue Jóvenes Latinas al Poder (Young Latinas to Power) 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 continue the youth programming from middle school through college focusing on Dakota heritage to increase cultural belonging, 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 continue building a mentor and mentee relationship with the middle school participants by presenting at the Remix Ed Conference on stress reduction and mental health in youth.

Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together (Saint Paul) | $15,000 – To continue the Girls Enterprise program to teach and support girls in business planning, development, understanding financial structures for business development, and sales, marketing and communication.

Liberty Community Church, PCUSA (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To continue the Investment Club programming for K-12 girls and gender-expansive youth. This year’s focus is on using a healing-centered engagement tool that will support youth to design their own response to their future considering the challenges of their past. 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 youth programming at five Duluth schools serving 230 students, by equipping students with practical skills to co-create thriving communities through social-emotional learning, mentoring, storytelling, and art.

MIGIZI Communications (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To provide the Indigenous Pathways (IP) program for girls and gender-expansive people to develop soft skills such as professionalism, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Minnesota Urban Debate League (MNUDL), Augsburg University (Minneapolis) | $15,000 – To continue the Financial Literacy Leadership debate program for 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, the college admissions process, to college, and beyond.

Pillsbury United Communities (Minneapolis) | $20,000 – To continue the Sisterhood Boutique, a social enterprise founded by and for girls, femme, and gender-expansive youth. This year, the Boutique will provide over 15 school-year internships, where youth participate in hands-on learning and entrepreneurship training through daily programming.

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.

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, and 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) | $15,000 – To continue the Girls Inc. Handball 2 University program and 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 fosters resilience, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence among participants, ensuring they are equipped to overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential.

YWCA Minneapolis (Minneapolis) | $15,000 – 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:

Code Savvy (Minneapolis) | $5,000 – To provide Technovation Girls Minnesota to 100 girls and gender-expansive youth ages 8-18, designed to build economic self-sufficiency through skill development, leadership, mentorship, and workforce exposure.

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 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.

It’s Our Neighborhood (ION) (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To provide a Youth Entrepreneur Program for girls ages 8-16 to learn how to write a business plan, build a profit and loss statement, how to code a website for their business, and sell their products at a business fair in the Rosedale Center.

Sisters-N-Technology (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To provide after-school programming in 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.

825 Arts (Saint Paul) | $5,000 – To provide the Double Dutch program for Black girls and gender-expansive youth in the Rondo and Frogtown neighborhoods. The program offers weekly sessions where girls and young women connect with community elders through shared rhymes, jump rope routines, and storytelling.