We’ve noticed that one of the questions we get quite often at PFund is some version of, “OK, so what exactly do you do? I mean, I know you give out money and you ask people for money, but how much time does that really take?”
It’s a good question. If you’ve never worked at a community foundation, it can feel a bit like smoke and mirrors: all of those people, all of that staff time, and what exactly fills up their time? We thought we would describe a few of the highlights from this week.
Monday: In addition to the regular things like finance check-ins and planning for our year end ask (watch for it in your mail!), we also met with a group of six LGBT people under the age of 35 to begin thinking together about young LGBT donors, a queer youth giving circle and the power of young people in making change.
Tuesday: Well, as the song goes, if it’s Tuesday we must be in St. Cloud. PFund joined grantee partner OutFront Minnesota and the Minnesotans United for all Families campaign in attending a Community Action Training for people interested in defeating the marriage amendment in 2012. This was an opportunity for PFund to learn more about OutFront and MN United’s grassroots organizing and leadership development work and to meet some of our community members in St. Cloud.
Wednesday: Did you know that more than 100 LGBT people of color will be gathering in Minneapolis and St. Paul this December to share stories, learn strategies for community change and begin long term thinking about building capacity among LGBT people of color in the US? And did you know that PFund, along with the Astraea Foundation in New York, is hosting this gathering? It’s called BOLD (www.boldgathering.org) and it’s already happening. There are teleconferences for participants and other learning opportunities leading up to the December gathering. For staff at PFund, it means ongoing telephone calls and planning. We are hosting the opening events and helping to make sure that all of our guests are comfortable and ready to work together. This is part of what it means for a community foundation to support community infrastructure, making sure that our local LGBT people of color organizations have what they need to continue their work. On Wednesday, there were phone calls, phone conferences and staff debriefs. Thursday: You probably already know about the two reports PFund put out on LGBT seniors: Equality as We Age and Ready to Serve? You might also know that PFund was honored with the Excellence in Aging Award from SAGE. But you might not have known that PFund’s work on aging continues. On Thursday we will be meeting with an advisory group that has focused on creating a new request for proposals that will direct grant dollars towards advocacy work on behalf of LGBT seniors.
Friday: At the end of the work day, we cap off the week with a taping at Bi Cities, the online cable access show. On BiCities Kate and Susan will talk about the jobshare, PFund's work and their vision for our impact. We’ll make sure you know when it’s being aired.
Here’s what we didn’t cover in our highlights: the piles of grant proposals on the table in Kayva’s office, planning grant reviewer orientation this Saturday, who we had coffee with and learned from, how much money came in to PFund this week as well as the ways we are planning to send it back out and more. All of that, well, you’ll see it summarized in the annual report. Watch for that in another month or so.
