OneMPLS Fund
in 2022-2023

We launched the OneMPLS Fund in 2018 to create a pathway for people across our community to take action on urgent and emerging issues in Minneapolis. Since then, the OneMPLS Fund has distributed $6 million to more than 160 nonprofits.

In Minneapolis, decades of discriminatory financial systems and practices, years of rising prices, and the recent turmoil of the pandemic have all fed a crisis that is keeping safe, stable rental housing—let alone the dream of homeownership—out of reach for thousands of Minnesotans. That’s why we are currently deploying the OneMPLS Fund to help address our region’s ongoing housing crisis.

Our Latest Grants – Last summer, we distributed $725,000 in OneMPLS grants for fair and affordable housing. This funding was awarded to six organizations that are doing important work not only to preserve and create affordable housing, but also to address the root causes of housing inequality. See who we funded.

Learning Together – Last fall, we invited fundholders who care about housing to a learning collaborative with our partners at Hope Community and African Career, Education, and Resources, as well as a senior policy analyst from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Watch our 2-minute highlights video.

Mustering Additional Resources – As we met with nonprofit partners to discuss how the Minneapolis Foundation could best fuel change on this issue, we identified additional needs and opportunities that are ripe for investment. With help from a challenge grant issued by the Edward R. Bazinet Charitable Foundation, we began raising money for an additional round of grants that we will announce in early 2024.

Evaluating and Improving – In all our work, we are committed to continuous learning. That’s why we hired TerraLuna Collaborative to work with us on a developmental evaluation of the OneMPLS Fund. This approach to evaluation supports innovation by collecting real-time feedback to inform ongoing decision-making. We’ve found it to be incredibly useful as we strive to address complex community issues such as affordable housing through the OneMPLS Fund. After examining our efforts to date, we shared our work with peers at the Minnesota Council on Foundations’ Annual Conference. Here’s a one-page summary of what we learned.

Watch the brief video below to learn how one of our grant recipients, Hope Community, is supporting local residents on their journey to homeownership.

Inspired by this work? Learn more about how we’re addressing local needs through the OneMPLS Fund.