OVERVIEW: The Bush Foundation supports community improvement, capacity building, human services, public benefit, arts and culture, education, environment, health, and media and communication in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
IP TAKE: The Bush Foundation has “embraced a power-sharing model” where “community partners” take the lead in designing grant programs, evaluate applicants and regrant dollars. This strategy has led to increased transparency, something evidenced on the foundation’s website, where grantseekers can find detailed breakdowns of grants and opportunities and a searchable database of previous grantees that didn’t exist before. Deadlines and guidelines vary by program, so new grantseekers will want to read over their program’s description carefully before applying.
Notably, the foundation has declared its commitment to Native nations in the Upper Midwest and takes an equity approach to its grantmaking, so your work will need to align with this lens in order to get on this funder’s radar. While this funder prioritizes grantseekers in the Upper Midwest, it gives across the United States. This is an accessible funder that provides several different avenues of contact.
PROFILE: Established in 1953, the Bush Foundation is a private foundation based in St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the foundation of Archibald and Edyth Bush, who passed on their $300 million estate to philanthropy. Archibald Bush served as a top executive at 3M. The foundation’s assets largely derive from 3M stock. The foundation aims to “inspire and support creative problem solving, within and across sectors, to make our region better for everyone.” It funds local efforts for community improvement, capacity building, human services, public benefit, arts and culture, education, environment, health, media and communication, and other community needs.
Grants for Racial Equity, Indigenous Justice, and Community Development
The Bush Foundation focuses its grantmaking around two main topics: community innovation and leadership. Overall, this foundation has an equity mission and looks to prioritize diversity and inclusion. Grants typically support projects that address community issues in a way that is inclusive, collaborative, and resourceful.
The foundation’s key grant programs seek to “develop, test and spread great ideas that will make the region better for everyone; and inspire, equip and connect people to more effectively lead change,” and they include:
- Bush Prize is the foundation’s signature program, operated by four partner organizations. It awards grants that “are up to 25% of an organization’s most recent fiscal year expenses, with a maximum of $500,000.”
- Good Relatives Collaborative operates Bush Prize: Native Nations
- Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation operates Bush Prize: Minnesota
- South Dakota Community Foundation operates Bush Prize: South Dakota
- Strengthen ND operates Bush Prize: North Dakota
- Community Innovation grants work to make a transformative impact on local communities. Grants often involve significant multi-year funding amounts with no upward limit.
- The highly competitive Bush Fellowship provides up to $150,000 of support for a variable number of community leaders annually. Recently, there have been between 24 and 30 fellows.
- Media Partnership Programs provides nonprofit media organizations with up to $450,000 over three years in operating support to “inspire and support creative community problem solving” in the region.
- Ecosystem Grants provide up to $450,000 over three years in operating support to established organizations that are “recognized in their communities as helpful resources.”
- Partnership Fund offers grants up to $150,000 to address unusual situations not covered by other programs, such as maximizing “efforts that help attract resources to the region” or responding “to important community needs.”
In addition to these core programs, the foundation also provides several further grant opportunities that are operated and administered through partner organizations, a strategy that tries “to meet the partner where they are without imposing [the Bush Foundation’s] perspective.” These grants and opportunities include:
- Beyond Idea Grants give between $5,000 to $100,000 to projects that “demonstrate meaningful investment and engagement in South Dakota communities.”
- Creative Community Solutions supports North Dakota leaders with up to $300,000 over 6 years to put toward projects serving and solving problems for the local community.
- Good Relatives Collaborative Grants provide Native-led or Native-serving organizations in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota with flexible, responsive grants of $20,000 to $60,000. Grantees must have operating budgets under $500,000.
- Minnesota Community IDEAS Program seeks organizations who seek to “design, test, and spread ideas that make our community better for everyone,” supporting grantees with $160,000 over three years.
The foundation has a $100 million Community Trust Fund that works to advance racial equity and address wealth disparity in Black and Native American communities across the region.
Bush also engages in impact investing and supports business and community development in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations in the area. The foundation considers its investments as a way to complement its grantmaking and “to preserve and create jobs and build wealth in [the] region.”
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range between about $1,000 and $1 million. However, grants tend to average about $10,000.
- Learn more about this funder’s local giving on the searchable Grants Database page of the funder’s website.
- Grantmaking focuses on Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the 23 Native nations “that share the same geography.” That said, the Bush Foundation has also funded grantseekers around the United States, so contact this funder first to learn more about how their funding approach addresses organizations beyond the Upper Midwest.
- This foundation accepts unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits. Application deadlines vary by program and can range from year-round acceptance to deadlines of only a few weeks. The selection process involves an initial review and a finalist review phase.
Direct general questions to the staff at staff@bushfoundation.org or (651) 227-0891.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
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