Board Membership - Pfund Foundation
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Board Membership
Generosity is the center of everything we do.
Supporting the next generation of
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queer students in the upper midwest
Nearly thirty-five years ago during the PFund Foundation Scholarships
height of the AIDS epidemic, four gay have grown from $1,500 in
friends in Minneapolis pooled $2,000 of annual awards in 1987 to more than
their own money to start a scholarship $60,000 in 2020. Scholarships are given
fund for local LGBTQ+ youth. They to LGBTQ students of all ages in degree,
approached local mainstream certificate, or apprenticeship programs.
community foundations to hold the To date, PFund scholarships have
funds but were either turned away or supported over 400 queer students in
told that they were not allowed to the region with more than $1 million of
promote the scholarship fund as being funds. Thanks to the generous support
LGBTQ-specific. of our donors, we are able to continue
the legacy of generosity and mutal aid
Instead, the four founders established within the queer and allied communities.
Philanthrofund Foundation, today known
as the PFund Foundation. As the only The ongoing pandemic has disrupted
community-foundation serving the up- many students lives. Our community of
per Midwest region of Minnesota, North the estimated fify-to-one hundred
Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and thousand enrolled LGBTQ+ students in
Wisconsin, PFund builds community and the upper Midwest needs our support
provides resources for LGBTQ+ now more than ever to help queer
indviduals by providing grants and students of all income levels to enroll
scholarships, developing leaders, and in college, complete their degrees, and
inspiring giving. launch their careers. Generosity is the
center of everyhting we do. Please join
our team by becoming a member the
PFund Foundation Board of Directors.
Prioritized Communities
LGBTQ+ People of Color
PFund Foundation approaches its grantmaking and scholarship
programs through an intersectional lens that recognizes queer
people who also belong to minority racial and ethnic groups
experience additional oppression and discrimination in our
communities.
In 2020, 58% of scholarships awarded by PFund went to students
who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
The foundation also launched a emergency grantmaking
program for queer business owners of color in Minneapolis to
support these entrepreneurial members of our community.
Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming People
Transgender and gender-nonconformning people are being
made the targets of discriminatory legislation and demonization
at the state and national levels. The pandemic has also
disproportionately impacted transgender and gender-
nonconforming college students; research conducted by the
Williams Institute at UCLA of found that transgender students
were six times more likely to have been seriously ill or
hospitalized with COVID-19 when compared to their cisgender
peers.
In 2020, nearly 60% of scholarships awarded by PFund
Foundation went to students who identify as transgender or
gender-nonconforming.
Queer People in the Dakotas
LGBTQ+ people living in North or South Dakota face a unique
set of challenges, including the ongoing impacts of high
COVID-19 rates during the pandemic, political environments
actively hostile to queer and trans individuals, and fewer non-
profit resources for queer communities.
The combined population of the Dakotas is approximately 10%
of the total population of the Upper Midwest, and likewise
college students in the Dakotas comprise 10% of the post-
seconary student population in the five-state area. In 2020,
PFundation awarded 10% of its scholarships to students from
North or South Dakota.
2020 Scholar Profile: Noah Patrick Loehr
able to hang out in dorm lounges, and
making friends with classmates you see
three time a week in person. “With COVID,
it’s been difficult. I had a lot of difficulty
making friends, but the friends I have made
in Boston are almost all from the queer
community, which has been really nice.”
Noah also spent his first year navigating the
complexities of studying sociology and
criminal justice in a post George-Floyd
world as a queer person of color. Noah is
pursuing those majors with the goal of
ultimately enrolling in law school, but at
times found his area of study difficult. “It’s
tense,” he said. “My first Intro to Criminal
Growing up as one of ten children in Cedar Justice course was taught by a former police
Rapids, Iowa, Noah Patrick Loehr doesn’t officer, and that caused tension in the
remember the possibility of college being classroom.” Noah also experienced
regularly discussed. Adopted shortly after frustration with some of his fellow criminal
birth and half-Filipino, Noah grew up with justice students who were reluctant to
parents who didn’t attend college and consider the ways systems of
neither did his older siblings. Still, he knew oppression shape the justice system.
from a young age that he was interested in Despite these challenges, his first year had
attending. highlights as well: finding a social-justice-
orientated community among the broader
Noah became involved in the performing student population and being a devoted fan
arts, speech, and choir and was out to his of the R&B group Chloe x Halle.
parents and classmates starting at the age of
14. While being openly gay in high school in Noah has gotten his COVID-19 vaccination
a red-state came with adjustments and and will be returning to Northeastern this
challenges, Noah’s family is supportive and fall, this time as a sophomore who will be
accepting of his queerness. By late 2019, able to attend classes in-person. “I’m very
Noah was a high school senior thinking excited to be going back and branching out.
about college and how to pay for it. He was I didn’t have the opportunity to meet a lot
attracted to the large and diverse queer of people last year, so doing activities again
community in Boston and applied and was and getting back into performing arts is
accepted to Northeastern. His online search what I’m looking forward to, and I’d love to
for financial aid for LGBTQ+ college study abroad.”
students led him to PFund Foundation’s
wesite, where he applied for a scholarship. And he wanted to especially thank PFund
and its supporters for funding his
And then the pandemic hit. scholarship. “Thank you to everyone who
is funding the scholarships that are helping
While he was able to move to Boston and myself and other LGBTQ+ students from
live in the dorms at Northeastern (supported the Midwest attend and complete college. It
by a $5,000 PFund scholarship), he attended makes a huge difference.”
all but one of his classes online and followed
a rigid regime of regular COVID testing and
strict limits on socialization set by the
college--a far cry from the idealized
college experience few rules, parties, being
PFund Foundation’s Approach
Scholarships and Community Grantmaking
PFund Foundation scholarships supports adult learners pursuing their
goals of professional development and/or securing a post-secondary
degree. Programs our scholarships support include professional and
leadership development conferences, GED programs, trade schools,
technical colleges and universities.
PFund Foundation coordinates and facilitates a community-driven review
process to select scholarship recipients. The review panel is
composed of LGBTQ+ leaders from our region (including PFund alumni)
who review applications against a rigorous rubric, select finalists and
recommend awards to foundation’s board of directors for approval.
The foundation also engages in grassroots community-giving through
emergency grants programs, including the LGBTQ+ Business Capacity
Fund for business owners of color in our community, COVID-19
emergency grants, and the newly created Response and Readiness Fund.
Support and training for young queer professionals
The Covid-19 pandemic and recession has hit young jobseekers
particuarly hard, with the unemployment rate for young workers age
16-24 jumping from 8% to 24% from spring 2019 to spring 2020. Many
young GLBTQ individuals need to work to support themselves, yet may
find themselves shut out of the networks, education, and training
necessary to be competitive in today’s job market.
The Emerging Leaders Institute provides professional practice, training
instensives, mentorship, and support to help young queer people
establish careers and navigate being out in the workplace as emerging
professionals. While PFund spent 2020 and 2021 re-imagining a
socially-distant version of the program, the foundation is planning on
re-introducing an in-person component with the first ELI Summer
Intensive in 2022.
Research and development of best practices
To establish a rigorous, evidence-based approach to funding
effectiveness, PFund is currently in the early stages of developing a
survey into the state of higher education for queer residents of the upper
Midwest. PFund’s initial research indicates that there are between 50,000
- 120,000 queer college students enrolled in college, trade school, or
apprenticeships in the five-state area.
The survey will be distributed widely across the five-state area and wil
help determine the size of PFund’s core and prioritized service
populations (GLTBQ college students in the region, queer people of
color, rural queer people, and transgender people); the barriers to
educational attainment; impacts of COVID-19; and needed resources for
key populations.
Board of Directors Position Description The PFund Foundation board of directors governs the property, affairs, and business of the foundation and sets the long-term priorities for programs, including the development of: • Scholarships in the form of the LGBTQIA individual educational grants; • Grantmaking in the form of grants to LGBTQIAnon-profits and small businesses; and • Inspiring giving in the form of wealth building for LGBTQIA individuals, families and communities through our endowment. We focus our programs and giving in on our Prioritized Communities (LGBTQ+ People of Color, Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Communities, and LGBTQ+ North Dakotans and South Dakotans). Additionally, the board oversees the executive director, who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the foundation, fiscal and donor stewardship, fundraising, and staff management. The PFund Foundation board of directors has up to 16 voting members. Terms are for three (3) years and no director shall serve more than two (2) full, consecutive terms. We ask that you sit on one of our committees to support an aspect of the board’s functioning. Overall, the members of the board contribute to the educational, management, legal, philanthropic, programmatic and financial skills needed to ensure long-term organizational stability and ensure year-to-year efficacy and dedication to the mission and vision of being a vital resource, catalyst and community builder for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, Two-Spirit and allied community members in the upper Midwest. CRITERIA PFund Foundation’s board of directors help shape the mission and vision of the organization and as such, seek committed and skilled members of the community to support our growth and development. We are seeking candidates, who have: Affinity It is most important that you support our mission. We hope that the work we do inspires you and motivates you to go above and beyond during your term as board member. Capacity Being a board member of any organization requires time and attention—a fact we do not take for granted. We set the expectation to be an engaged and thoughtful member of the board. Additionally, we want your service to fulfill and sustain you, rather than drain you. Below you will find our time and financial considerations to set expectations that are clear from the get go. Reflection As a five-state community foundation serving LGBTQ+ communities, we strive to have a board that reflects the vibrancy of our communities. We seek to have diversity of race, gender, orientation, class, age, and lived experience in our board membership.
PROCESS If you are interested in applying to be a member of the PFund Foundation board of directors, please submit an email of inquiry to our executive director, Aaron Zimmerman. Aaron will connect you with our nominations committee. Upon inquiry, we send a link to our board application. The committee will review your application and reach out for an interview if they want to proceed in the process. TIME AND RESOURCE CONSIDERATIONS Meetings Board Meetings (monthly) Board Retreat (annually, rotating) Committee Meetings (monthly or as determined by the Board) Fundraising and Events (as needed/required) Resources Donations PFund relies on the generosity of the community to support its work. We recognize the time, talent, and resources that each board member brings to the organization understanding that all carry value. In the spirit of bringing each of these resources to the organization, we ask board members to participate in making a financial donation to the organization that is per- sonally meaningful to them. The organization aspires to have 100% participation by board members in the contribution of resources. FOR MOR INFORMATION Please contact: Aaron Zimmerman Executive Director 612-870-1806 aaron@pfundfoundation.org
About PFund History As the only GLBTQ community foundation supporting the upper Midwest, PFund inspires giving to support bold leaders and initiatives combating discrimination, isolation, and violence in our communities. Since 1987, the foundation has funded scholarships, grantmaking, and innovative projects and programs to advance healthy, connected, and thriving queer communities. Mission PFund Foundation serves as a vital resource and community builder for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and allied communities by providing grants and scholarships, developing leaders, and inspiring giving. Vision PFund Foundation is a catalyst in building communities in the upper Midwest where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are celebrated and live free from discrimination, violence, invisibility, and isolation. Web: www.pfundfoundation.org Facebook: pfundfoundation Instagram: @pfundfoundation Twitter: @pfundfoundation
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