Philanthropy : Development News

A new co-working model is joining CoCo, Joule, and other innovators in the Twin Cities’ growing co-working movement. The newcomer is Lydia’s Place, nestled in a dense pocket of nonprofits in the Creative Enterprise Zone near the new Green Line in Saint Paul.

Founded by former adman and current Lutheran pastor Scott Simmons, Lydia’s Place is co-working oriented around the common good. Simmons says he hopes to seed both a professional and faith-based community of altruists at Lydia’s Place.

The new venture aims to satisfy two modern day needs with one stroke. First, it provides office space and equipment to a workforce that is increasingly independent, freelance-based, and according to Simmons, professionally isolated. “It’s fulfilling a need that’s not being filled,” says Simmons, who worked for nearly a decade as a freelance advertising copywriter.

Secondly, as attendance at traditional faith services continues to drop, religious leaders are looking for new models to sustain worship communities. “People’s lives don’t revolve as much as they once did around religion,” Simmons says.

With backing from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Saint Paul Synod, Lydia’s Place is a Lutheran mission. While most of the current “Lydians,” as they call themselves, come from Lutheran backgrounds, Simmons says faith affiliation is not a prerequisite for joining the co-working community.

“This is a place where anybody, whether they’re atheists or agnostics, are welcome,” Simmons says.

In theory, Lydia’s Place isn’t all that different from other co-working spaces in the Twin Cities. When you put a group of motivated self-starters together in a communal professional environment, collaboration and mutual benefit ensues.

While many new co-working spaces seem to be gauged toward entrepreneurial and tech startups though, Simmons says Lydia’s Place is couched in the idea that some people are more motivated by helping others than the prospect of a billion dollar IPO.

“We are gifted and are called, whether by God or by our basic humanity…to use those gifts not just to improve our own lot in life, but the entire world, and that includes people at the fringe,” Simmons says.

The benefits of this type of co-working are already manifesting. Rev. Margaret Kelly recently started Shobi’s Table, which seeks to serve and empower the homeless population in Saint Paul. Kelly plans to incorporate a food truck into the new ministry, staffed and maintained by those struggling on the margins.

She is now teamed up with another Lydian, Tom Melander, who has a background in career guidance services. The two hope to incorporate workforce development into Shobi’s Table’s mission.

Eric Darling is new to the co-working community. His startup, Donormite, seeks to connect charities with donors through the gifting of specific items, rather than money. Darling is now working out of Lydia’s Place part time, and is helping connect others at Lydia's place to donated office furniture and equipment through his new online donor platform.

Lydia’s Place opened in January and is still small, but growing. Simmons says there are currently at least nine core collaborators working from the space at least occasionally, and says he is fielding more calls from interested people every day. He’s already talking about expanding into a bigger space in the same neighborhood.

There’s currently no official fee to use the space, though there is a suggested donation for those who plan to be there regularly. “At this point our model does not have to be an economic model,” Simmons says. “It’s a relational model. We want to build community.”

Simmons plans to have the space completely supported by co-workers by August 1 this year.  With collaborators giving what they can, the venture is less than $100 a month short of that now.

Source: Scott Simmons
Writer: Kyle Mianulli

Al’s Bar, a half-century-old bar in St. Louis Park that was demolished in 2009 to make way for a housing development, inspired ProjectAl.

The charitable T-shirt business, which is run out of the basement of co-owner Charley Holden’s home, launched in November 2012.   

Holden and his business partner, Derek Hood, who had been regulars at the bar, saw how Al’s gave money to local sports teams, National Night Out, and many other community-oriented events and initiatives. “It had a strong sense of community,” he says.

On a more informal level, many of its regulars knew one another. “They liked the history the place had,” he says. It was frustrating for people “to see their favorite neighborhood establishment, which had been around longer than they had, go.” Its demolishing was a community event. “A lot of regulars loved going there,” Holden says.

When the Uptown Bar in Minneapolis closed, it was the same story, he adds.  

Holden and Hood wanted to create a project that would speak to those sentiments. “We want to give back to the community,” Holden says. “We thought that going through charities and local artists would be a great way to do it as well.” Proceeds of shirt sales go to the businesses represented on the shirts, to the artists who design them, and to a charity of the buyer's choice.

Holden rescued the old sign that once hung above Al’s, and employed it as a motif for the company. Whenever friends see it, the expressions on their faces are priceless, he says, adding, “Many remember it and still talk about it.”

“We want to draw attention to and celebrate local landmarks and businesses and recognize the importance those places have to our neighborhoods,” he says. “We want to keep them in our neighborhoods.”

Already, the business has gotten plenty of positive feedback. The company has even received random orders from people outside of Minnesota. “I’m assuming these are from people who have emotional ties to those places. It’s their way of representing them,” he says. “That’s what we get excited about.”

Source: Charley Holden
Writer: Anna Pratt

Soon, the local Dogwood Coffee Company will be able to see the results of its $10,000 fundraising campaign for a water well in the impoverished Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia.

Dogwood, which began raising money for the water well in November, met its goal on Dec. 31, with the help of customers and employees.

The coffee company, which has a coffee bar in Southwest Minneapolis, took on the project through Charity Water, a New York nonprofit organization that funds clean water projects in developing countries.

The well will deliver clean water to 500 people for 20 years, according to Greg Hoyt, a co-owner of the coffee company. “It’s a significant project,” he says, adding, “It takes a year to build and train people how to use the well.”

Although the company typically gives 1 percent of its annual gross revenue to charity, “This was the biggest push,” he says. “It was the first time we decided to get other people involved, so we could do even more than what Dogwood generates.”

That dollar figure is also well above its typical goal of $6,000, he explains.

“It had such a great response we want to do it again this year,” he says. “It was word-of-mouth that helped.”

Originally, Dogwood asked to support a project in the region where it sources its beans. This turned out to be a humbling experience in that the charity involved turned them down, saying funds go to areas with the greatest need. “It was a good gut-check for us,” he says. “However well-intended our giving might be, it wasn’t up to us to decide where the need is.”

Still, the coffee company was able to make an impact in a country where many of its beans come from.  
Dogwood chose to hone in on this issue in part because coffee is 98 percent water. “We obsess about so many aspects of the coffee roast and preparation,” he says. “We need to be that geeky about water. It’s a key element and it’s so elusive in the countries that we buy coffee from.”

This is also a social justice issue. “It’s incredibly tragic that for many, clean water is a luxury,” he says.

With GPS technology, Dogwood will soon be able to see footage of the well in action.

“We didn’t know what would happen. We figured we would do the best we could,” he says. “We were really thrilled people joined us in this.”

Source: Greg Hoyt, co-owner, Dogwood Coffee
Writer: Anna Pratt

In the coming weeks, local residents will help decide what metro-area historic landmarks should receive a portion of a $1 million preservation grant.

The contest is part of a program called Partners in Preservation from American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. On Sept. 20, the program will announce the 25 competing sites, according to contest information.

From there, people can start to weigh in on Facebook, where they’ll be able to vote once daily through Oct. 12.

Royce Yeater, who heads the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Midwest office, says that the contest moved to Facebook this year as a way to connect with younger audiences. Traditionally the Trust has had an older demographic, he says.

The whole idea is to “raise the visibility and engage the citizenry of the U.S. in taking care of the cultural heritage and built environment,” he says.

Over the past five years, the program has delivered $5.5 million to 56 national historic sites, according to contest information. In 2010, American Express agreed to provide $10 million for another five-year run of the program.

It's a natural partnership, as American Express has long championed heritage sites around the world, including the Statue of Liberty, which it helped to get refurbished in the 1980s, he says. The company has also maintained ties to the Trust and the World Monuments Fund for many years.

This year, the partners decided to bring the program to the Twin Cities because “The feeling is that it’s an area that has a significant appreciation of heritage and it has great cultural resources and architecture,” he says, adding, “It also needs this kind of moral support."

He says it helps to have national organizations reach out to local-level places.

Further, the contest has provided an economic stimulus everywhere it has gone, he says. In some cases, even when projects failed to win the grant money, the publicity helped preservation groups leverage additional financial support.

In Chicago, the Pui Tak Center, which received $110,000 to restore vintage tile work in 2007, was able to launch a major capital campaign. “The program helped get it beyond emergency repair to major restoration,” he says.  

Further, the program has a jobs benefit. “We have been making the case that historic preservation is labor-intensive,” he says. “It continues to generate good, highly-skilled jobs at the local level.”  

Source: Royce Yeater, director, National Trust for Historic Preservation's Midwest office
Writer: Anna Pratt

Last month the Twin Cities branch of LISC, which mobilizes corporate, government, and philanthropic support for local community development organizations, announced it was giving out $705,000 to a handful of local nonprofits to grow what it calls Financial Opportunity Centers. (LISC is a sponsor of The Line.)

The Twin Cities recipients include CommonBond Communities, Communidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio, Emerge Community Development, Lutheran Social Services, and Project for Pride in Living, according to information from Twin Cities LISC.

The financial opportunity centers take a bundled approach with financial coaching, employment, and training that goes beyond job placement, according to Andriana Abariotes, who is the Twin Cities LISC executive director.

Two of the nation's 33 Financial Opportunity Centers were piloted in the Twin Cities in 2007 through the East Side Lutheran Services and the Project for Pride in Living. 

"It's not about the basic need of a job but issues of budgeting and financial aspirations," such as owning a house or starting a business, she says.  

Someone who already has a job but wants to find a career path out of an entry-level job could come to one of the centers to get help. Staffers also work to ensure that people are taking advantage of various kinds of government assistance that they may qualify for, such as low-income tax credits and food stamps.   

On the other end, "It's an opportunity for trusted community organizations to work in a longer-term way" with people with whom they've already built relationships, she says, adding that the centers will track results. 

Nearly half of the grant money comes from the federal Social Innovation Fund that directs public and private funds to "expand effective community solutions related to economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support," according to a prepared statement from the organization.

Funds will begin to trickle in next month while the program officially launches in April, according to Abariotes.   


Source: Andriana Abariotes, Twin Cities LISC executive director
Writer: Anna Pratt

An effort to buy the stones that once made up Minneapolis' tallest--and, many say, finest--19th-century building continues to build steam.

Recovering and re-using the massive remnants of the legendary Metropolitan Building is suddenly a cause celebre among preservationists. The campaign promises partial redemption for the building's now-lamented destruction a half-century ago, at the nadir of an urban renewal era that devastated the city's most historic section.

Granite blocks from the majestic 1890 structure sit in a huge pile in rural Delano, where waiting to be crushed for road projects. "Most of them are the size of a large car," says Jack Byers, Minneapolis planning supervisor. He says stones with delicate carvings appear to have been placed in the middle of the jetty-like pile, possibly to protect them from the elements.

Byers is working with Preservation Minnesota, Preserve Minneapolis, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Hennepin History Museum to find preservation funds, then a function, for the pieces of architect E. Townsend Mix's masterpiece.

Dean Phillips, creator of the "Bring the Metropolitan Back to Minneapolis" Facebook page, is eager to meet both challenges. He thinks the blocks would make a great a downtown urban ruins park.

"I'm a passionate fan of architecture, and Minneapolis architecture specifically," says Phillips, whose family's Phillips Distilling Company and Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation are in historic buildings in the Old St. Anthony district of Minneapolis. "I'm a sucker for a great story and a good puzzle. This has both of those."

Sources: Jack Byers, City of Minneapolis; Dean Phillips, Phillips Distilling Company and Jay & Rose Phillips Family Foundation
Writer: Chris Steller