July 19, 2010


July 18, 2010
Upcoming Member Events: 7/30, Missing Children Minnesota's 3rd Annual Charity Golf Tournament, Farmington; 8/3, Twin Cities Gray Panthers 40th Anniversary Community Birthday Party, St. Paul; 8/26-9/6, stop by and visit Pro-Choice Resources at the Minnesota State Fair!

July 5, 2010
Steady Change Donors: invest in a fair and equitable Minnesota with a monthly gift to Community Shares! Details and how-to info here.

April 6, 2010
Community Shares of Minnesota is proud to be an exhibitor at this year's Living Green Expo, which will be held on May 1-2 at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand. The event is being produced by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership and presented by Windsource® from Xcel Energy. New this year is a focus to help attendees find easy ways to make manageable changes to live healthier and more sustainably. Fresh elements include increased expert involvement to answer questions and help build personal goals, a series of Eco-lounges that discuss issues and green topics, a marketplace with Eco-Artists and local farmers, more than double the local food options and a Gubernatorial Forum that lets attendees hear candidate views on clean water and clean energy. Featuring more than 250 local exhibitors, workshops, demonstrations, and activities for the family, the event helps people:

• Green the Home
• Grow a Green Thumb
• Explore Transportation Options
• Eat Healthy and Sustainably
• Save Energy and Money
• Learn About Green Building
• Protect and Enjoy the Great Outdoors
• Invest in a Green Future

Admission is free. Secure bike storage is available and Metro Transit offers free rides using the Go Greener Pass. Free Blue Sky Guides will be available to the first 200 visitors each day. Help spread the word! full details on the event are available on their website.

February 18, 2010
Today is the Combined Federal Campaign Awards Luncheon at the Fort Snelling Officers Club, celebrating federal employees and their workplace giving efforts.

January 15, 2010
Our office is closed on Monday, January 18 in observance of MLK Day - here's a link to find information about volunteer projects near you.

January 3, 2010
Sincere THANKS to our generous Friends who made end of year contributions to support the operations of Community Shares of Minnesota. The totals aren't in yet but online gifts kept arriving throughout the day on December 31st!

December 18, 2009
At their Annual Meeting on December 2, 2009, held at Southside Family Charter School, representatives of Community Shares of Minnesota’s 42 member groups elected six new members to its Board of Directors, with their two-year terms beginning in January 2010.

Incoming At-large Board members are: Kate Cimino, Coordinator of the Policy Fellows Leadership Development Program of the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota; Susan Horvath, CFO & Vice President of Operations/Human Resources at Hemosphere, Inc.; and Barb Rose, Owner & Partner, Side by Side Associates.

Incoming Board members representing member organizations are: Donna Dunn, Executive Director, Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault; Dan Newman, Executive Director, Sustainable Resources Center; Lynn Regnier, Finance & Communications Coordinator, Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc.

The following officers of the Board of Directors were also elected: Paul Mellblom, Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Chair; Gunnar Liden, Youth Farm and Market Project, Vice Chair; Susan Horvath, Hemosphere, Inc., Treasurer; and, Lynn Regnier, Elliot Park Neighborhood, Inc., Secretary. Board Chair Paul Mellblom stated, “I feel we have a moral obligation to make the world a better place. We've all been given gifts and many of us have the capacity to give back to the community through our time, treasure and talents. My involvement with Community Shares of Minnesota is a very satisfying way I live my personal philosophy.”

The following Board members were re-elected to serve another two-year term: Dave Anderson, All Parks Alliance for Change; and Steven Marchese, Authentic Strategies. Sally Brown of The Twin Cities Gray Panthers will continue as Awareness-Membership Committee chair and Jeff Washburne of the City of Lakes Community Land Trust will continue as the Campaign Committee chair; both committee chair positions also serve as Board members.

Community Shares of Minnesota thanks Carol Watson, Missing Children Minnesota, who ended her term as Board chair with this Annual Meeting, but will continue to serve on the board for one more year. We also recognize the contributions of retiring board members Sameerah Bilal of Early Childhood Resource and Training Center and Bharti Wahi, representative of the Minnesota Women’s Consortium.


December 16, 2009
THANKS to all of our generous workplace donors and the coordinators who support our campaigns. Workplace campaign envelopes are arriving at our office every day! Bottom line, if you share our passion for making permanent, positive changes, there is no better place to change the future.

December 3, 2009
Thank you to everyone who came out on December 3rd for our annual Benefit Shopping Night at Ten Thousand Villages in Saint Paul. Each year, they generously donate 20% of their sales one evening to to support Community Shares. We're happy to have this partnership and to be able to offer our friends a chance to support fair trade artisans AND Community Shares.

November 23, 2009
We hope you like our new and improved website! Please tell us what you think by sending us an email.

November 13, 2009
On November 17, 46 donors contributed almost $5,000 to Community Shares of Minnesota during “Give to the Max” Day on GiveMN.org. THANKS to everyone who participated in this unprecedented online fundraising event. Charity is good, but change is better!

September 9, 2009
Community Shares of Minnesota Names New Executive Director

St. Paul – Community Shares of Minnesota announced today that Matt Hunter has been hired as its new Executive Director, starting October 1, 2009.

“Being chosen to serve as Community Shares’ Executive Director is both an honor and a privilege,” said Hunter. “For the last 30 years, Community Shares of Minnesota has been rallying community support for social change in Minnesota. I am excited to join the members, board and staff to keep the social justice movement in Minnesota strong and growing.”

Hunter comes to Community Shares from Friends for a Non-Violent World (FNVW), where he served as their Executive Director.  Matt is an ordained minister with the United Methodist Church with a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Hunter has strong organizational and personal experience working for social justice. Prior to his work at FNVW he worked with nonprofits in Florida to provide emergency services to homeless children and families.  Matt will bring his passion, strong coalition building and organizational leadership skills to strengthen Community Shares of Minnesota.

“We are very excited that Matt will be joining Community Shares.  His skills and abilities are a great fit for us as we continue our work to raise financial support and increase awareness for the valuable social change work of our member organizations,”  said Carol Watson, chair of the Community Shares of Minnesota Board of Directors. “Matt is joining Community Shares following a transition where we reorganized to meet the challenges facing our community.  With his leadership, and with the support of our members, board and staff, we are poised for growth built upon our long history of funding and support of social change in Minnesota.”