good afternoon and welcome in keeping with the theme of today's conference i'd like to share a quote from rabbi and author i hate a bird always run after the opportunities to create peace between people find ways to bridge differences because as long as one person continues to feel separation we will always all feel it i'm jeanne crain i'm president and c e o for the twin cities and i am so pleased to be here and welcome all of you to this fabulous gathering where everyone in the audience is truly dedicated to bridge differences and work together for the greater good the work carried out by this nonprofit sector in minnesota is absolutely critical and i personally want to thank each and every one of you for the work that you do every day i hope everyone in this room is familiar with the brevard bank owner the auto bremmer foundation and you know i hope that that familiarity comes through the fact that you see the foundation in their grant making to nonprofits in your communities that happens by virtue of profits being distributed to our or the auto bremmer foundation there is no thank you there is truly nothing that makes me proud or then to share the bremmer bank story which is really all about the giving of what our clients do to create profits of the organization that we distribute to our own or the auto bremmer foundation i'm just one hundred days into my new role at bremmer but i know a number of you enjoy relationships with our colleagues and that has gone on for many many years and i am honored to know that many in the audience are bremmer bank clients and i thank you for your business we truly appreciate the opportunity to partner with you and find ways to create financial solutions that allow you to do the good work that you do in our communities every day bremmer has spent time develop pain nonprofit resource specialists really who understand the challenges and the unique needs that non profits have so we've paid special attention to building products and service expertise in order to meet those needs so our team truly enjoys an opportunity to be a resource for you to be an advocate for you and really sometimes on occasion just provide helping set a hands and on that note i'm proud to let you know that you know lending a hand for our employees becomes a pretty natural event  last year alone we had more than one hundred thousand of our employees donate their personal time in their communities i have been so impressed to see this just natural commitment this interest this energy and compassion that our staff share is to get involved and lend a hand where needed and it truly was part of my decision making in joining the bremmer team i'm also proud of the relationship that  the minnesota council of nonprofits bremmer has been recognized as the preferred banking partner for m c n and that partnership can benefit everyone in this room as it gives you access to c m member discounts for special non profit banking products and services all these partnerships all these relationships really help you help us to deliver our vision at bremmer which is building healthy communities through partnerships with our clients so many thanks for all of you for partnering with bremmer we look forward to continuing our work with you for continuing to build bridges and making differences in our communities and finding ways to always work together for the greater good and now i am pleased to introduce this year's nonprofit award hosts tricia kamin scaf men executive director for east metro women's council and david nicholson program director for headquartered headwaters foundation of justice trisha and david well good afternoon and welcome my name is david nicholson and i am from headwaters foundation for justice and i hope you enjoyed this conference is here i've been having a wonderful time for me it's always powerful as the whole community comes together both the common and the unity we come together and that's what makes minnesota great i think this is actually minnesota great get together not the state fair kaufman and i are honored and pleased to announce this year's winner of the nonprofit mission and excellence award that's right david and i are thrilled to be here today to honor some amazing organizations one year ago our organizations were honored on this very stage headwaters foundation for justice was recognized for the response of philanthropy with the mission award and i am still so proud that my own organization is metro women's council received an excellence this afternoon we are excited to present the stories of six minnesota not profit organizations that are dedicated and committed to their missions minnesota council nonprofits and maps for nonprofits are honored are honored are honored to award these non profits today and recognizing their important contributions and i think it's important for us take a minute and think about these contributions in context to achieve great results we all know that it takes great leaders like you out there we also know that those great leaders fit within side amazing community support and are also fueled by the staff and volunteers so as we honor these organizations and we recognize their contributions we really honor and recognize them long well there are hundreds of amazing organizations impressive ones that fill this room today we're taking an opportunity to stop and reflect on six six organizations that illustrate exceptional world class nonprofit that exists in minnesota but i hope you're inspired as i am we have two groups of awards to present today the nonprofit excellence awards are based on m c a ends principles and practices for nonprofit excellence looking at everything from an organization's governance planning financial management fundraising practices to strategic alliances transparency and accountability the organizations receiving a nonprofit excellence award are strongly aligned with each principle and practice in their own organizations work their application for the same board took the full participation of their board and applications were reviewed by in detail by a blue ribbon panel who named these two organizations as excellent as the twenty eleven excellence award winner and one of this year's judges i can attest to the high bar that has been set by these amazing organizations so i have the honor of introducing the first award so within our midst there's a gem and it reminded me really of george orwell in animal farm as he wrote anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds him or herself silence was surprisingly effective this today we honor an independent publisher who has the courage to employ fire the voices of those who dare to speak their troops in addition to the courage the publisher connects its passion and purpose by using the principles of nonprofit effectiveness and excellence in gauging its board using planning and discipline approaches in collaboration it creates an atmosphere for great authors great books to be developed nurtured and brought into our wonderful community the recipient of the two thousand and twelve looking for very precisely that would be putting ourselves ahead of our writing i was reading a lot of great of poets before i was very conscious of who published them and i started to kind of pay attention to who made these folks how did they come in to it's six publishers control about eighty percent of everything that is published value some of the risk taking is going on in a small nonprofit i mean you know i think that somebody who makes patterns are very conscious of what the book the experience of reading other art forms from other cultures that arises from naming and naming itself is a product of hilarity invention fortuitous accident elsewhere and else to the imagination and i do believe that imagination is a ke building block in building bridges which is one of today's thank you so much thank you for fiona and thank you greywolf press your work is inspiring and it truly reflects the excellence of the award as a native of small town minnesota i know the importance of feeling at home and being welcomed into the home this next award goes to a small organization with a mighty big impact this organization ensures that the new americans coming to their community feel welcome in  the new minnesotans have an opportunity to see the beauty of relationships by being welcomed into the community by being able to share their cultural gifts enriching the whole community based organization demonstrates the alignment to the principles and practices of the nonprofit excellence award the judges appreciate their outstanding energy of the organization to engage in practices that are about welcoming and again we engage in that right here around the table they hosted friends raisers they invited community partners to learn more about each other's communities and most importantly they took the opportunity to build the relationships have board members from the new and emerging communities and bring them together as one on behalf of all minnesota's minnesotans i want to thank you for reminding us that it's the host not the  visitor who makes room at the table so i'm proud to announce the two thousand and twelve nonprofit excellent award for a small but mighty organization is project fi has many organizations but once in a while you run in the organization that gets things done for people the relationship between when i state a project find is so interwoven we are involved sort of at the at the higher levels with you know myself on the board with other people who are involved in presenting workshops and seminars and training sessions and so on in conjunction with project fine we have our students who work with the college connections program and who help the and help mentor these young people and who help help them see that there is a way and that they can in fact have a future since i work for over many years we have built a partnership and collaboration and that's that when you need thing about the organisation that we don't just stay around organisation but really trying to reach out program i consider project find the best because it's the most well run it's the most inclusive in what it does and its mission and it's true and it's fun we have a lot of fun  it's these organizations that were chosen by the blue room ribbon panel the blue ribbon panel of nonprofit leaders so please join me in thanking the excellent award awards panel for we're also here to honor the four of the nonprofit mission awards these awards honor the commitment of organizations to meeting their missions through innovation advocacy anti racism initiatives and responsive philanthropy almost one hundred organizations were nominated for these four awards making it very hard for the dedicated committee to choose this year's final us thank you to those committee members for the many hours they spent and for the hard choices they had to make but the organization is being honored today were chosen alternately by all of you the members of the minnesota council of non profits and c and members voted and selected the four outstanding organizations that were recognizing today and i can't think of a better way to be honored than by your own peers let's also take a moment to thank everyone here who took part in this process by nominating an organization and by voting the first mission award this present to a foundation that has responded to the growing prevalence of sex trafficking girls in minnesota with an amazing a successful campaign minnesota girls are not for sale spearheaded by spearheaded by leaders from the community who have experience and expertise in sex trafficking the foundation has redefined how society sees understands in response to this issue and i think that's an important thing for us all this to think about because this is the it's the holy grail of social changes when we as a society change the way we think see and understand an issues they have shifted this issue to ensure that women and girls are seen as the victim of crimes and that has led to some amazing results women now and girls now have housing treatment appropriate response by law enforcement and most importantly the rest of us are being educated and engaged and informed to end the trafficking of girls two friends i was held captive for twenty four hours i had cigarette butts put out on me i was stabbed in the side with a knife and i was raped repeatedly throughout that whole twenty four hours well the average age of  y girls getting into prostitution is between two other fourteen years old and when they run away within forty eight hours they are approached either by a pimp or by a an individual who wants to sell for sex we were told by our grantee partners advocates law enforcement and others that there was a growing problem in our state of girls and their children being prostituted and so we took action we learned more in the first thing we did was convened those who held the most expertise and knowledge on this issue and we worked with them and together we created the minnesota girls are not for sale and are camping and outcomes so this initiative has film community when we're dealing with children are being prostituted it is wrong to look at them as to link went for criminals and what we ought to be doing gives to start looking at them as victims of crime and once we do with that we have a different lens in which we interact with these children and you mention that right now in minnesota there are only two beds for children who have been prostituted that's something that we're what everybody well first i want to thank him c n n map for this great award we're just thrilled and i accept this award on behalf of our bold staff and incredible board of directors that we have i accept this award in honor of all of our partners who have built this campaign together and i accept this award with the hope in the knowledge that we will in the sex trafficking of our children here in minnesota you know i wanted to bring all of our partners up on stage with me but i was told there wasn't enough room on the stage and they're probably right but i thought it was really important that everybody can see just exactly what is taken to build this campaign and have the coin kind of collective impact that we're having here and here in minnesota so i'd like those of you been involved to stand in keep standing those of you who are on our board and staff are committees and this award belongs to all of us and think you know we invite you to join with us in this process thank you so much the recipient of this year's anti racism initiative award has directly served more than seventeen thousand young people of widely varied socioeconomic backgrounds in the spring of two thousand and eleven this theatre commissioned an original musical that told the stories of three young people dramatically impacted by bullying directed at them based upon their physical appearance at the city and sexuality the show launched a community conversation about bowling through many media outlets including the st paul pioneer press radio and t v t p t s a minute minnesota original southwest journal lavender women's press and minnesota parent the except the award on behalf of the youth performance company is their founder and artistic director jacqueline knight yeah a we are up this is the suspend tast it i'm behalf of youth performance company i wish to thank the minnesota council of nonprofits and map for this distinguished award we are deeply honored and humbled from civil rights to bullying youth performance company has a long history and commitment to bringing forward social justice issues that we know will promote discussion and reflection cultural competency appreciation of diversity in our communities and most of all we hope will inspire a change a change in our future every day at around four p m loaded with backpacks and book bags the future bursts through the they want to make sure that we know that they are here at present and accounted for the future is filled with questions and many questions about our pass like why did african americans not have the right to vote how when why were schools racially segregated or how could any country stand by and let so many people die in the holocaust it is our responsibility all of us here are our responsibility to help the future find the answers to those difficult questions and those answers will hopefully lead them to a greater understanding of the present and the tools to change things for their own future in our production of mean tough questions were asked is it ok to make jokes because of a student's culture a young muslim woman is bullied and targeted for her beliefs centers inspired by her teacher to stand up for herself and courageously be proud of who she is mandela sad no one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion people must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can be taught to love for love comes more naturally to the human heart that its opposite may we all have the courage and the love to inspire our future to shine their light some bright thank you to twenty one in hennepin county suburbs but it also integrates those youth and young people into their homes and into the communities they did they have chosen a different model than the traditional brick and mortar placing and housing of youth the program is focused on dignity and focused on empowerment partners with young people to connect with adult volunteers who host them in their home these men and women provide the young people with a deep connection stability and relationships it takes to transition from young adult to adult in our society congratulations this year to the nonprofit mission award recipient in the category of innovation evidence for homeless you i was very frustrated i felt like i want to thank you go on any given night in the state of minnesota there's about twenty five hundred youths that are out on the streets or don't have a place to sleep we have enough a little different in that it's a collaboration coming together i'm aware there's not a lot of personal agendas or organizational agendas but it really is focused on its own program is a truly community based  response to youth homelessness we recruit screen and train adult volunteers from the community who then open their homes the youth get to pick the hosts that they're interested in meeting and then pick where they want to live and so they've got a vested stake in this relationship in a lot of cases when you take that and put them into a system where they don't really have a choice there's a lot there that doesn't go right sometimes i love the guy they  me we've got young people have amazing potential they just need to change jobs they just need a home and a stable life and caring adults i am happy i have a place where i can call home this will change the martha lynn is difficult to follow she really says it all doesn't change it's always an otter to talk about avenues and the homeless young people we support every young person who walks through our doors has faced unbelievable challenges and in most cases they have looked they have literally survived the street with just a little bit of stability and support we get to watch them become thriving young adults why do we believe in the host home model because it is so much more about housing more than about housing this is not charity this is about building relationships it's about building community it's about living together sharing building bridges rocky it's about solidarity we really want to thank the minnesota council of nonprofits and map for nonprofits for this award program and for this award for running shedding light on the great work that the minnesota nonprofit community we especially want to thank the youth and the hosts who participate in this program because they really do the work the hard work i want to thank the many volunteers and the partners who make the host home programs work so beautifully this includes our action council members and our many partner agencies i want to thank my amazing program managers their commitment to the to supporting the host send a youth is amazing and finally my board of directors our board of directors for believing in this model and supporting significant expansion we actually have three host home programs the program the minneapolis host home program which were just starting and the suburban host home program in suburban how to plan county if your community is interested in this model and in learning more about possibly starting a program any of us up here would be more than happy to talk with you about it and we are always recruiting hosts so if you're the teeny little bit interested or inspired please come see us thank you so much our final word today is being presented to an organization that's taken a leading role in moving the state toward the elimination of homophobia and toward fully quality for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people this award is for advocacy the act of giving voice and arguing in favor of a cause and idea or group whose interests would often not be adequately represented otherwise along with local leaders and seventy three organizations and individuals this nonprofits mission is to ensure that same sex couples and their families have equal rights and considerations under minnesota law and support the passage of statewide  strengthen existing bullying and harassment laws in minnesota the recipient of the two thousand and twelve nonprofit mission award for advocacy is out front minnesota they exist to really make sure that our state is a place where no one faces violence discrimination and isolation or any adversity based on who they are and who they love and to do that work we need thousands of people to join us we need thousands of people to see themselves in this movement for equality and to speak out and to join others and to organize like organizers the infrastructure that out front has hundreds of volunteers and people that are willing to work for out front will all of a sudden com to lobby our local elected officials and city councils and school boards we sometimes work on a county and then of course we go to the state capital as well we really owe a lot of our freedom and protection of security to vote for safe schools coalition is making sure that our high schools remain safe places for all students regardless of age race color or sexual orientation coalition work for us is critical to advancing equality and one example of a really healthy coalition is the minnesotans united  hundred organizations involved right now on the effort to defeat the anti marriage amendment we're are standing on the shoulders of what outfront have done and in the last twenty five years we're going to be making sure that every single person in the state of minnesota understand the choice that's going to be on the ballot over the constitutional amendment that's on the ballot that would limit the freedom of same sex couples to marry that and then meet has has really inspired more and more people to join in the effort have tens of thousands of volunteers who are setting aside their life in some ways to really be able to defeat this amendment i'm happy to now be here work with minnesotans united i can imagine minnesota without for we really want to work ourselves out of a job we really do want to see the day when an hour from minnesota organization doesn't have to exist because people really see that they can be out in the open about who they are who their family is who they love and that lesbian gay bisexual transgender people do not face any adversity because of who they ok on behalf of out fronts dedicated and amazing incredible board and staff i'm so honored to accept this award today  we'd really like to extend our thanks to the minnesota council nonprofits and map for non profits and all of the members and member organizations who voted for us i'd also like to acknowledge all of the nonprofit organizations in this room who work every single day to make a positive difference in the lives of minnesotans and make our state of a great place to live nonprofit heroes thanks this year out front is celebrating our twenty fifth anniversary our programs and services income encompass public policy grassroots organizing anti violence legal advocacy and education and training along with our coalition partners we are working to end discrimination in our school laws and local policies we help schools corporations nonprofits places of worship police forces anyone who will listen become welcoming and equitable places for people and their families and we're also working to end bowling in our schools and make them safer for all students in may two thousand and eleven the legislature passed a constitutional amendment limiting the freedom to marry for same sex couples at about midnight on the day it passed out from minnesota and project five fifteen launched minnesotans united for all families which is now become the biggest grassroots campaign the state has ever seen and i always say it's the biggest i  say it's the biggest campaign for a lot of our state is really ever seen so on tuesday minnesotans will go to the polls to vote on whether or not we should limit the freedom to marry for same sex couples and whether or not we should restrict voter rights not everyone agrees on this issue on these issues but here's where we stand these two amendments don't help create a more just economy they don't strengthen our democracy they don't address racial economic or educational inequities they just shut more and more people out of our collective future if passed they will profile damage who we are as a state and hurt a lot of people and families these amendments were not there they were not meant to improve anyone's lives they were really meant to divide our communities and divide our state but we believe minnesotans truly value freedom and fairness together we can end discrimination in our state and create a place for everyone including lesbian gay bisexual and transgender people and their families are guaranteed the same rights opportunities and freedoms we have the power to make our state a place where you are free to be who you are love of and live without fear of violence harassment or discrimination and we can defeat these amendments we just have a few more days to talk to our friends family members coworkers people in our congregations everyone and talk with them about voting now let's defeat these amendments and let the world know minnesotans truly support equality and justice for all thanks so much the awards committee missile council of nonprofit members who did the voting thank you a well deserved congratulations to all of our work winners and as we close the ceremony i want to challenge you personally and organizationally to have the audacity the passion and the compassion of this year's winners and for you to see yourself on the stage next year to do that it's easy nominate yourself by applying for the two thousand and three mission awards excellence nominate another we recognize the good work that happens we're the first ones to see it we're the ones who really know it so go ahead and nominate those colleagues of ours and to do that go to minnesota minute minnesota nonprofit start orgy and i look forward to seeing you on the stage next year like every year what wonderful videos we have this year if you want to see them again or share them with your colleagues and c n n map will be posting them at the award website minnesota nonprofit awards dot org thank you to merchants pictures for producing these wonderful videos and for helping us tell the stories of these outstanding nonprofit a little mixed message so we want you to go we have another round of breakout sessions today but stick around at three thirty we have a reception right over there overlooking the ballroom and if you missed any  sessions or if you're conflicted because you wanted to go to both sessions don't forget the materials and handouts are on allied for for action dot org thank you again