Be a more effective leader

American Indian Family Empowerment Program (AIFEP)

Tiwahe Foundation

AIFEP creates pathways for American Indians to reach their goals, on their own terms, through microgrants. Recipients grow their knowledge, resources, opportunities and networks to achieve their goals, and in kinship, they share their stories to encourage their communities to pursue their dreams.

African American Leadership Forum (AALF)

AALF builds and supports networks of leaders within the African American community. They connect leaders across sectors and issue areas impacting the African American community, such as economics, health and education.

Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship (ABL)

First Peoples Fund

This fellowship is a yearlong program that helps independent Native artists pursue art as a way to build a business to support themselves and their families. The program provides them with network-building, professional development guidance and funding towards business needs. The fellowship offers $10,000 in grant funding towards a proposed project. Applications are open to artists at all stages of their career.

Avanzando Líderazgo Program (ALP)

LatinoLEAD

LatinoLEAD is a cross-sector networking organization for Latinx professionals. ALP is just one way they help connect and support Latinx leaders throughout Minnesota. They also focus on leadership development, education reform and supporting Latinx communities in Greater Minnesota.

Becoming Organizers, Becoming Advocates (BOBA)

Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)

This is a youth leadership program co-created with young people. BOBA offers a safe space for Asian Minnesotan youth to come together to discover how their identity and leadership make them a powerful force for change. Through BOBA, young leaders explore topics and issues that impact them and their communities, learn advocacy and organizing skills, and create solutions that they can take action on to create change.

Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI)

Nexus Community Partners

This is a 7-month leadership program that works to build more engaged and powerful communities in our region by equipping community members who identify as Black, Indigenous and people of color to serve on city, county, metro and state boards and commissions.

Capitol Pathways

Operated by: Citizens League

This opportunity provides students with legislative and career readiness training alongside an immersive hands-on internship experience during the legislative session. It is a paid spring internship program for students who are Black, Indigenous and people of color currently enrolled in a 2- or 4-year college or university in Minnesota.

Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)

CAAL builds and supports networks of leaders within Minnesota’s Asian American communities. They offer a wide range of programs, support, policy work and ways to connect. They are open to anyone interested in figuring out how to grow their knowledge and connections, and use their resources to work on issues that matter to the future of Asian Minnesotans.

CAAL Leaders MOVEE (Making Our Voices Effective for Equity)

Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)

This is a leadership program created to support, develop and sustain Asian Minnesotan social justice movement leaders. MOVEE offers a summer intensive retreat(s), followed by practice, and continuing alumni activities.

Cultural Capital Fellowship

First Peoples Fund

The fellowship is a yearlong program that offers financial support and guidance to culture bearers and artists who are deeply rooted in their communities and committed to passing on ancestral knowledge within their Native communities. This opportunity offers $10,000 in grant funding to artists and culture bearers to support their cultural work and is open to artists at any stage of their career.

Education Equity Parent Fellowship

Voices for Racial Justice

A program of Voices for Racial Justice, this fellowship equips Black, Indigenous and parents of color with the skills, knowledge and community needed to navigate education systems and advocate for children. Participants advance their leadership skills as equity liaisons, teachers, advisory board members and more. Voices for Racial Justice equips people with tools and support to be effective leaders, organizers and culture workers.

Growth Fund

Springboard for the Arts

This program supports Minnesota artists and creative business owners with $2,500 to help sustain or scale their business. Creative business owners must have completed at least one Artist Career Consultation in order to be eligible for the Growth Fund.

Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI)

First Peoples Fund and others

This is a year-long intensive leadership experience in collaboration with First Peoples Fund, Alternate Roots, the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, SIPP Culture and the PA’I Foundation. The ILI program brings together artists, culture bearers and other arts practitioners to collaborate and learn from one another, as they develop their ability to respond to changes that impact society, politics, environment and the economy.

Josie R. Johnson Leadership Academy (JRJLA)

African American Leadership Forum

This is a six-month leadership development cohort experience designed to meet the cultural, personal and professional development needs of 20 African American leaders. JRJLA leverages the success and influence of established African American leaders, referred to as Torchbearers, dedicated to mentoring, advocating and championing other leaders.

LatinoLEAD

LatinoLEAD is a network of leaders working together to empower the Latinx community in Minnesota. They invest in individual development to strengthen the community’s collective power—advancing their influence, growing their impact and building coalitions for positive change.

Minnesota Young American Leadership Program (MYALP); National Young American Leadership Program (YALP)

Itasca Project and others

MYALP/YALP is an intensive, three-and-a-half day program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, that convenes rising leaders from across for-profit, government and nonprofit sectors who are committed to working across sectors to help their communities and our region prosper inclusively. The national YALP originated at Harvard Business School. In 2019, the Itasca Project partnered with the U of MN’s Center for Integrative Leadership and Harvard Business School to hold the first MYALP cohort.

Native Performing Arts Fellowship (NPA)

First Peoples Fund

The fellowship provides grants of up to $10,000 for Native individuals who practice/work within the performing arts landscape (theater, dance, music, etc.). Developing or completing a project can be a component of the fellowship but does not need to be the primary goal or outcome. This opportunity includes professional development such as a tailored Native Arts Professional Development curriculum, guidance from industry professionals and access to an annual convening to network with other artists.

North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship

Nexus Community Partners

This is a 7-month fellowship focused on Black American cooperative economics and the history of Black cooperative economic thought and practice to build Black wealth and strengthen local economies. The fellowship centers the wisdom and experience of those who share the ancestry of enslaved Africans in the United States and place value on the legacy of Black collective care.

Spark Leadership Fund

Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL)

This opportunity offers micro funds to individual leaders who identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color to invest in an idea that they have for solving a community challenge. The idea is to support projects and encourage proactive prototyping of solutions to create more just and equitable communities. Individuals can apply for funds of $1,000 – $2,500.