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Staff Learnings

Everything we do is to advance our organizational purpose: to inspire and support creative problem solving — within and across sectors — to make our region better for everyone. We also aspire to be radically open as an organization, and part of that means sharing our own learnings.

In this section, you will find a mix of learning papers authored by our staff members, past and present, and other types of staff reflections over the years.

If you would like to stay in the know when we publish any staff learning papers or reflections, make sure you are added to our email list to stay in our active network.

Note from Jen: Acknowledging and learning from the boarding school era

It was an extraordinary experience to gather with others at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona to hear President Biden’s official apology for the government’s role in running Indian boarding schools.

From 1869 to 1971, the United States operated and supported more than 400 boarding schools in states across the U.S., including in the region Bush serves. The boarding school policy was one part of a larger strategy of the U.S. government to strip Native American people of resources and traditional cultures.

Published November 2024

Staff Note: Helping leaders thrive

I joined the Bush Foundation in 2023 as the grantmaking director focused on the Bush Fellowship program. It’s such a joy to work on something that has a long track record and has made such a meaningful difference in so many people’s lives. 

I’m especially honored to share in the announcement of the 2024 Bush Fellows and look forward to getting to know them over their two-year Fellowship. Their accomplished work is a reminder of the innovation, curiosity and courage that it takes to lead and bring about big changes in the region.

Published June 2024

Staff Note: Spreading big ideas through Community Innovation

One of the ways we work to be radically open in our grantmaking is through our Community Innovation program. These grants fund the most promising ideas — across any issue area and at any stage of development — that have the greatest potential for transformative impact in the region.

Published October 2023

Staff Note: Designing your Bush Fellowship plan

The Bush Fellowship is unique because it’s not about projects, it’s about people. It’s an investment in accomplished leaders with extraordinary track records who are ready to leap forward in their leadership. We’re offering three insights to help you think about designing your Fellowship plan.

Published September 2023

Radically Open: Performance Scorecard

Part of our commitment to being radically open is transparency. For this paper, we are focusing on a newer practice for us: publicly reporting our performance on key indicators. We launched our performance scorecard on our website in May 2023. This was a big step for us and, as far as we know, unique among private foundations.

Published July 2023

Staff Note: Leadership matters

Leadership matters. Leaders shape our communities, institutions, nation and the world. They define culture, take action and make decisions that have long-standing and wide-ranging impact on people and communities.

All of us have a role to play in creating a region where each person can thrive, but the people we choose as leaders, and choose to follow, make a huge difference in our shared direction.

Published June 2023

Staff Note: Leaders changing our region for good

We are continuously inspired by the new ideas and creative thinking of leaders working to solve problems in our region. “Leader” conjures up different images for different people. When we talk about leaders, we mean those who activate to make change happen — regardless of their title, age, or where they live. We mean those who are inspiring and supporting others to solve problems and create new opportunities, within and across communities.

Published June 2023

Staff Note: Addressing wealth gaps in our region

We believe that working to close systemic wealth gaps across racial and ethnic communities is one of the most important and highest impact things we can do. 

Back in March 2021, we committed $50 million — as part of our regular grantmaking — to help address wealth gaps that significantly affect racial and ethnic communities. And we thought it would take us 5 years to do it.

Published May 2023

What we learned in issuing social impact bonds

In fall 2020, the Bush Foundation issued $100M in social impact bonds and used the proceeds to create two community trust funds that directly invest in Black and Native American communities in our region. The grants will go to individuals in an effort to build stability and generational wealth.

Published January 2023

Note from Jen: Equity and Open Grantmaking

At the Bush Foundation, part of our commitment to equity is in having open processes. To us, that means making sure our funding opportunities are publicly shared and that anyone who believes they are a fit has a chance to apply.

Published 2022

Note from Jen: What reparative action means to us

Addressing the accumulated impact of generations of unjust race-based policies requires intentional counter-intervention. It requires restoration. It requires repair.

Published 2021

Note from Jen: Upping our commitment to community-based philanthropy

We have engaged community partners in our grantmaking for many years – from asking community leaders to select Bush Fellows to funding local institutions to operate state-level versions of our Community Innovation grant programs. We want to build on this experience and do more. We are excited to announce two specific changes in this direction.

Published 2021

Note from Jen: Where we're headed

We went into 2020 with a plan for strategy change. We emerged far more changed than we imagined.

Published 2021

Note from Jen: Learning, relearning and unlearning

The work of overcoming long-held beliefs and assumptions is humbling. For me, it has involved realizing over and over how my beliefs and assumptions are limited by my experience, different from what others believe and assume, and sometimes just plain wrong.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Black lives matter

We believe racism is holding our region back from being all it can be and preventing us from reaching our individual and collective potential. Our purpose is to make the region better for everyone, and this requires intentional anti-racism work.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Building from tragedy — commitment to making our community better for all

It is always upsetting to witness racism and violence. It is particularly upsetting when the racism and violence is close to home. When it is our community. Our police. Our neighbor — George Floyd.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Supporting staff to grow and go

We have invested in leadership development as a program priority for decades. It is only in recent years that we have brought that same intention to our own staff.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Turning optimism into action

One of our values is to spread optimism. To us, that means thinking bigger and thinking differently about what is possible for people and communities. It does not mean pretending like things aren’t bad or difficult. Turning optimism into action requires being realistic and adjusting efforts to fit changing circumstances.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Investing in community problem-solving

The Community Innovation grant program evolved from one of our three “Goals for a Decade,” announced back in 2008. Now the decade has passed. We now are considering the continued evolution of our organizational strategy. For Community Innovation grants, one thing we are thinking about is whether we can make the program both higher impact and easier to understand if we focus less on the particulars of the problem solving process and more on the potential of the idea being developed and tested.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Investing in you

Our tagline is also our strategy: Investing in great ideas and the people who power them. This focus on people has been part of our work from the very beginning. It is not a typical foundation approach. In fact, programs like our Bush Fellowship require special approval from the IRS. (With good reason; the IRS wants to be very careful about how foundation dollars flow to individuals.) While we’ve been known for our Bush Fellowship program for decades, in the past several years we have dramatically expanded the number of additional opportunities we offer to individuals.

Published 2020

Note from Jen: Strategy push

This year we’ve been asking ourselves big questions, focusing on how we can be more simple, more cohesive, and more open and responsive to the communities we serve. I think of it as a strategy push – pushing ourselves to do better. 

Published 2019

Lessons Learned from the InCommons Initiative

We launched the InCommons initiative in 2009 with a group of partners, with the objective of increasing the leadership and problem-solving capacity of communities. After four years of successes and challenges, we made some significant strategic changes in 2013. The lessons and insights shared in this learning paper are primarily drawn from the external review by the Public and Nonprofit Leadership Center at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Published 2014

Lessons Learned from the Bush Foundation/Minnesota Philanthropy Partners Shared Facilities Project

Four years ago, the Bush Foundation and then-Minnesota Philanthropy Partners (MN Partners) pursued a shared facilities project. The plan called for the organizations to co-locate in one building. By doing so, they hoped to leverage their combined purchasing power to lower costs on facilities and services, create opportunities for cross-foundation learning, and inspire other non-profits to explore the benefits of co-location.

Published 2014

Lessons Learned from 2014 Bush Fellowship Selection Process

In 2014, the Bush Foundation made a number of changes to enhance the Bush Fellowship program’s flexibility, selectivity and visibility. Wilder Research surveyed the 2014 Bush Fellowship semi-finalist and finalist candidates, and selection committee members to evaluate the impact of the changes to the selection process. This learning paper shares insights gleaned from this survey.

Published 2014

Using Data to Improve Teacher Preparation

In 2009, we launched our 10-year Teacher Effectiveness Initiative based on the theory that better teacher preparation programs would lead to more effective teachers and, in turn, improved student outcomes. This learning paper examines the measurement systems used to understand the effectiveness of different strategies.

Published 2015

Lessons Learned from the Community Creativity Cohort

In 2015, we created a one-time grant program to provide operating support to exemplary organizations while involving them in the design of a new ongoing program. We did this through the Community Creativity Cohort. Learning cohorts are powerful tools for program strategy development. This learning paper outlines the key steps in our process, as well as the strengths and challenges we experienced. We believe these learnings could be used across a wide array of issue areas to inform program design. We do not go deep into the Community Creativity strategy that emerged from this process.

Published 2017

Planning Ahead to Ensure User Adoption of New Technology

We launched a new CRM platform as well as an interconnected grantmaking system on January 1, 2016, after 18 months of planning, designing and testing with a dedicated technology consulting firm. We wanted to leverage new technology solutions that could help us be more effective at grantmaking, and therefore serve the region better. This learning paper summarizes what we took away from the process that might inform others looking to make sure staff are best equipped to embrace a new system.

Published 2017

bushCONNECT: Three Years Out

At the Bush Foundation, we believe leaders do their best work when they have the opportunity to meaningfully connect with one another and with new ways of thinking. Our event strategy zeroes in on supporting and producing events that inspire, equip and connect leaders in the region. A few years ago, we dreamed up a new event that we would build and host ourselves: We called it bushCONNECT.

Published 2017

Five Year Reflection: Communications as Program

Less than 10% of all private foundations have a website, according to the Foundation Center. That’s a bit shocking until you realize that most private foundations can afford to be, well, private. They don’t need to raise money, and they don’t need to sell anything. They don’t really have to communicate anything to anyone except the Internal Revenue Service. We believe this approach to communications leaves a lot of potential impact on the table. We believe effective communications is a potent strategy for doing the most good possible with our resources. Communications is an essential part of our work.

Published October 2017

Five Year Reflection: (Internal) Talent Management for (External) Impact

We know that the future of our region will be defined by the talents and ambitions of the people in it. The same is true for our organization. We invest in our staff members to advance our purpose of making the region better for everyone. We see this as a smart investment with long-term yields. For the past five years we have been working to embed our belief in the power of people in our own operations in four ways...

Published 2017

Five-Year Reflection: No Moat Philanthropy

There's a famous (in philanthropy) quote that defines foundations as "a large body of money completely surrounded by people who want some." Over the past five years at the Bush Foundation, we have worked actively against this fortress mentality. We believe our efforts have made us smarter and more effective. Here's what we have done, in the form of five principles of no-moat philanthropy.

Published 2017

Building an Inclusive Culture

Changing organizational culture takes intention and time. We’ve spent the last five years creating a more inclusive culture internally so that we can be more effective externally. In this paper, we highlight the questions and decisions we’ve made and what we’ve learned. Not because we’ve done it all right, or because we’re done. But with the benefit of some hindsight, here’s what we’ve learned, five years in.

Published 2018

Goals for a Decade: Revisited

What the Bush Foundation learned from 2008’s “Goals for a Decade” strategy.

Published 2016

Note from Jen: Equity in practice

We’ve been working for several years to operate more inclusively within our organization. We’ve been working to understand the equity implications of all we do, big and small, in our grantmaking and operations. One of the toughest stages in doing equity work within any organization is jumping from training room conversations to action.

Published 2019

Note from Jen: Managing up for leadership

Leadership is fundamentally about your effect on others. Which is why getting great at managing up (and out) is one of my very top suggestions for how to prepare yourself for future leadership roles.

Published 2019

Note from Jen: Goals for a decade revisited

In 2008, we launched an ambitious new strategy we called “Goals for a Decade.” We set three goals and developed Foundation-led initiatives to achieve them. Now, a decade has passed. While we’ve shared successes and challenges on each initiative along the way, we thought it was the right time to do an overall assessment of the strategy.

Published 2019

Note from Jen: Queer eye for leadership

Of all the things I love about my job, the most joyful is getting to talk to Bush Fellowship finalists when they come to our office for their final interviews. I love talking to people about their aspirations for making our region better for everyone. And I love talking to people about how the process of applying to be a Bush Fellow has helped them understand what they need to be the leader they want to be.

Published 2019

Note from Jen: Embracing the not-simple in all of us

The Bush Foundation is about solving problems to make this region better for everyone. Solving our biggest problems requires working across difference. It requires truly listening and understanding the lived experiences of others. It requires engaging with each other in ways that bring out our best selves.

Published 2018

Note from Jen: Leadership in context

One of the most fun parts of my job is meeting Bush Fellowship finalists when they come to our office to interview. Always an impressive and inspiring group, this year I was struck to see that more than a third of the finalists were immigrants or refugees to the U.S.

Published 2018

Note from Jen: Leadership development on $0 a day

Each of the new Bush Fellows will receive up to $100,000 to invest in their own leadership development. That is amazing and will support them to dream big about their growth as leaders. At the same time, when I think back about the experiences that made the biggest difference in my own leadership development, most of them were free.

Published 2018