The team at grantadvisor.org is excited to announce GreatFoundations Minnesota – a celebration of foundations doing great work in Minnesota.  At the beginning of 2020, we’ll be releasing a list of GreatFoundations in Minnesota using data from grantadvisor.org. Since 2017, we’ve been tracking the trends and feedback from Minnesota grantseekers, and have identified some of the best practices and barriers relating to grantmaking and grantseeking.

The goal of GreatFoundations is to celebrate best practices and build stronger relationships between our colleagues at nonprofits and foundations in Minnesota to celebrate the vibrancy of our sector and see where improvements can be made together.

Methodology

The survey to collect reviews at grantadvisor.org calculates an aggregate score based on three factors: accessibility, overall relationship, and accomplishment of philanthropy goals. Recognition of a GreatFoundation will be given to a foundation that:

  • is located in Minnesota
  • has received five or more reviews since the site launched in 2017
  • has an aggregate score of 85% or above  at grantadvisor.org

Over the past two years foundations with the highest scores tend to provide avenues for accessibility (such as a website, returning phone calls) and understand the grantseeker’s experience of their own application and reporting process.

How you can be involved

Grantseekers: Register as a reviewer and share updated information on Minnesota foundations. You already write for good, now write for greatness! If you are logged in when you write a review before December 20th, you will be entered into a drawing to win a free registration to a Minnesota Council of Nonprofits event in 2020.

Grantmakers: Solicit reviews now until the end of the year. We’ll being data analysis on January 1st and share our report the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’ Minnesota Foundations 2020 event. For ideas about how to solicit reviews, see our Grantmaker Toolkit.

If you aren’t from Minnesota, keep an eye out for ways to recognize GreatFoundations in your state at the end of 2020!