You made our day!

It was 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, the fifth and final day of the National Gay and Lesbain Task Force’s 23^rd Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, and almost exactly a month into our new role as Executive Director at PFund. The first four days of the conference were an incredible mix of attending and facilitating workshops, getting to know grantees better, reconnecting with local and national peers, and meeting many new PFund friends - donors, former Board members, past grantees, Folio readers and volunteers. We were both running on too much caffeine and too little sleep. It was amazing.

So when we tell you that the last three hours of Sunday afternoon were some of the most exciting time either of us has spent at a conference, you’ll understand the impact of that statement. From 2:00-5:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 6, more than 60 PFund grantee partners and LGBT leaders from our region gathered together in a large room at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Minneapolis to talk about their work, about what they learned at the conference, and to begin thinking about how their work connects with each other across the region. 

We believe that, as a community foundation, PFund’s role is not to create the vision or strategy for LGBT communities in the Upper Midwest. Instead, our role is to provide the resources that support communities and organizations to create that vision and strategy.  Resources mean dollars but they also mean creating the opportunity to learn from each other. PFund (with help from the Otto Bremer Foundation) paid for registration costs and/or travel expenses for 40 of our Midwestern LGBT and allied leaders to attend Creating Change; to meet other people doing similar work and to learn from their experiences. This is part of what your gifts to PFund supports.

Thank you to Alfonso for having the idea of gathering grantees together to support building relationships and sharing information. Thank you to all of you for believing in the work that PFund does. As the new Executive Director, we are thrilled and excited to continue learning with you about the needs and interests of LGBT communities in the upper Midwest.  This blog is one of the places where we will share what we learn – and where we hope you will share your thoughts and learnings with us. We’re looking forward to creating shared vision and building justice and equality for LGBT communities together with you!


-Kate and Susan