Nexus Community Partners

The mission of Nexus Community Partners is to build more engaged and powerful communities of color by supporting community-building initiatives that expand community wealth and foster social and human capital. We advance our mission by focusing on three key activities: strengthening organizations and leaders, developing innovative initiatives, and aligning and amplifying resources for grassroots organizations working with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). In 2022, the demand for all aspects of our work has skyrocketed, while our long-standing commitment to healing and relationship-based grantmaking has garnered a new level of interest. We reached 1,500+ individuals and organizations including 55% in the East Metro, 43% in the West Metro, and 2% from Greater Minnesota and beyond. We supported a group of 20 emerging cooperatives (majority BIPOC-led) through fellowships and technical assistance. The Nexus Community Engagement Institute received inquiries about our resources from around the globe and an influx of calls for fee-based services from local government and private entities searching for deeper learning on racial equity. Our Worker Ownership Initiative was invited to submit a proposal to the City of St. Paul to ensure American Recovery Plan dollars are invested effectively in BIPOC-led cooperative efforts. Beyond our programming, Nexus has also taken some time to begin processing the implications of the rapid changes in landscape we have experienced over the past two years. We finished an organizational-wide process to develop a new narrative for Nexus, generated new tools and materials on community engagement, and breathed new life into a community leadership program transferred to us from a local foundation. Highlights include: Community Wealth Building Work North Star Black Cooperative Fellowship (North Star). North Star is a six-month fellowship to support Black-led Cooperatives in Minnesota through education on Black American Cooperative Economics. In May 2022, 16 North Star Fellows explored the power of community ownership models with a focus on housing and land related ventures. Workshops focused on key aspects of cooperatives including governance, conflict resolution, management, and finance. North Star Fellows represent the following groups: BLK Leadership Kollective, Build the Parallel, High Priestess, Marronage, Sweet Leaf Healing Collective, The Torch Cooperative Investment Trust Worker Ownership Initiative (WOI). WOI supports the development of worker-owned cooperatives through four core strategies: 1) business "conversions" (transitioning existing businesses to cooperatives), 2) support for early-stage start-ups, 3) technical assistance to large-scale real estate cooperatives, and 4) education and outreach with financial institutions and funders. With one business conversion completed, three deep in transition, expanded communications, and meaningful relationships built across sectors, WOI is positioned for a new level of growth at a time when the need for democratic and equitable models is stronger than ever. Highlights of recent technical assistance include: Early assistance * Worked with Singing Hills, a group of BIPOC farmers considering transitioning to a cooperative. They had not settled on an entity type and WOI helped them explore multiple types of shared ownership. * Received inquiries for assistance from several startups interested in the cooperative format and offered TA services to Future Builders Co-op (a startup supported by an alliance of organizations including Unidos MN, SEIU, and CTUL), F12 People's Kitchen, and Rabble Rouser Cafe. Feasibility and Transition Contracts * Began feasibility study for Precipitate, a woman-owned architecture firm focused on climate justice with 5 employees. * Began transition services with Improve Group, a media company with approximately 23 employees. The company is aiming to complete the process of becoming a worker cooperative by the end of 2022. * Began transition planning with Community Safety Specialists, a collaboration between Next Global Security, Northside Residents Redevelopment Council, and SEIU Local 26. They have launched a state-accredited certified apprenticeship program to train Safety Specialists that provide crisis response services. When completed, the business will operate as a majority BIPOC cooperative providing a just and effective strategy for ensuring community safety. The transition to a co-op will happen after November 2022, with plans of having the current apprentice cohort (10 staff) becoming the founding members. Completed We completed the transition of The People's Canvass into a MN 308B cooperative in October 2021. They are an innovative leader of "deep canvassing", providing relation-based, person-to-person outreach services for campaigns and organizations. They anticipate having up to 20 members by March 2022. Real Estate Investment Cooperatives (REICs). Beyond supporting individual businesses, we see strategic value in supporting the development of REICs that preserve commercial districts that are home to locally owned businesses. * Pre-launch progress on Midway Investment Co-op, drafting articles and bylaws, selecting the interim Board, and mapping out post-launch workplan. * Consulting for Ignite Business-women Investment Group (IBIG), 25 African immigrant women business-owners: articles and bylaws, predevelopment, and financial planning. * Consulting with Northend REIC on co-op design (e.g., governance and startup process). Education and Outreach: EO Equals Campaign: The "EO Equals" campaign is designed to help small business owners understand the broad business benefits of employee ownership ("EO") and serve as a national resource for cooperative conversions. As one of four founding members, WOI staff supported research and planning (led by Hattaway Communications) leading to the successful launch of the EO Equals campaign in fall of 2021. Worker Owner Wednesdays (WOW): WOI staff initiated its own social media campaign with weekly posts featuring stories and analyses of cooperatives and the broad benefits they provide to workers, communities, and the main street economy overall. With 35 posts under our belt in, "WOW" is gaining recognition across several platforms. Public webinars: WOI staff participated in fifteen different webinars to a wide range of audiences including business owners, business associations, elected officials, public sector staff, and community members. We presented primarily on business succession planning and EO. Some of our presenting partners included: Hennepin County Elevate, Minneapolis Ward 1 Community Forum, Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association, Minneapolis Business Technical Assistance Program, and the City of Roseville. Public Sector Engagement. Since Nexus established WOI in 2016, we have worked steadily to shift the narrative from cooperatives as a nice idea to cooperatives as a core strategy for re-building main street economies. That hard work has paid off. Based on years of relationship building - and the stark realities of income inequality laid bare the pandemic - Nexus is at the forefront of new and powerful opportunities to promote cooperatives on a larger scale than ever before. Key partnerships include: Locally Owned Cooperative Assistance and Loan (LOCAL) Fund. Both the Mayor and the City Council of St. Paul have indicated support for our proposal for a cooperative assistance plan: the Locally Owned Cooperative Assistance and Loan (LOCAL) Fund. Our proposal includes a revolving loan fund, pre-development fund, and technical assistance. Minnesota State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). For the first time, the state is considering financial support for cooperatives. As members of the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers, Nexus helped develop proposals for Minnesota's SSBCI funds, including a $15 million Community Wealth Building Program that will provide technical assistance and loans for employee ownership.

Community Engagement and Leadership Development Grounded in Nexus' commitment to community engagement as the through line supporting all of our work, we have deepened and expanded our approach to leadership with new and enhanced programming and documentation of our learning. Nexus Community Engagement Institute (NCEI) advances and strengthens communities through equity-based community engagement, both locally and nationally. As the new home of Neighborhood leadership program ("NLP," transferred from the Wilder Foundation), NCEI has expanded its offerings and deepen the knowledge and practice of community engagement for individuals, organizations, and institutions in Minnesota and across the country. In this past year we have worked with 277 individuals and 37 organizations from across the country, including non-profit leadership associations, patient advocacy groups, grassroots organizations, government agencies, and, through a partnership with the MacArthur Foundation, a group of 19 public and private group in the criminal legal system. Over the past year, we also completed an inventory of workshops, curricula, and other educational tools to organize and consolidate our Community Engagement and Leadership Development offerings across programs. We are creating a menu of options for potential workshop hosts who are reaching out to us from across the country. We have also developed some new curricula over this past year, including workshops integrating our own materials with Intercultural Development Inventory assessments for individuals working in the legal system, facilitation cards to stimulate deep reflection on community leadership, and various ancillary materials aimed at engaging participants in our longer workshop series-all provided online at this time. In the coming year, we seek to expand these tools for use in a variety of settings, including expanded fee for service workshops with nonprofits and the growing number of municipalities who are seeking out our expertise in the wake of the uprising against police brutality in Minneapolis. Significant initiatives in development In addition to our work in the community, Nexus has been busy behind the scenes implementing the planning phase for two new initiatives that will launch in 2023. Sabbaticals program. We received a three-year, $3.15 MM grant to pilot a sabbatical program for BIPOC leaders in Minnesota's racial justice movement that includes paid time off, support for sponsoring organizations, additional travel/wellness service stipends for participants, and organizing to support the broader eco-system for healing for BIPOC folks in Minnesota. We have also set aside funding to document and evaluate our approach with an eye toward inspiring more foundations to fund wellness as an integral part of movement building. Nexus' Black Community Trust Fund. In December 2021, Nexus was selected by the Bush Foundation to establish a Community Trust Fund that will direct $50 million to Black communities in Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota. These funds will be provided to Nexus with minimal restrictions and we will be responsible for not just distributing grants, but with managing the $50 million in assets and structuring all aspects of the trust fund with the only stipulations being that grants support wealth building activities and that they go directly to Black individuals living in the three states served by the Bush Foundation. Throughout 2022, we convened Black community members from the region to design this process of redistribution, while we built our internal capacity to support both the spirit and implementation of the trust fund. Growing Nexus operations and culture With significant growth ahead of us, Nexus seeks to stay grounded in our community and our values. Our fluid, relationship-based approach to programs and management has been our hallmark and we often refer to as our culture of care. Today, Nexus must grow on the operations side, which requires a different approach and skill sets than program. However, as a BIPOC-led organization, we have experienced how these systems and structures have undermined caring and upheld white supremacy. The experiences of 2020 have also reinforced the importance of adaptability and responsiveness, things that Nexus has long practiced intuitively. To address this, we aim to scale our culture of care, not just our administrative capacity. As we share this goal publicly, we are finding others who align with our values with whom we can be in a learning relationship. For example, we have contracted with Diverge, a financial services firm that operates as a worker-owned cooperative with a stated goal of building financial leadership from BIPOC and GLBTQIA+ communities. As a cooperative, they are devoted to participatory budget and management processes and are led by experienced finance executives who understand both non-profit and cooperative finance. These are exactly the kinds of values, skills, and collaborative approaches that Nexus' culture requires. We have also established a new department of Learning and Development based, in part, on conversations with other social justice organizations in our network who seek to be in "right relationship" with donors, bringing a reparations framework to these relationships. The department will encompass fundraising and evaluation with a focus on capturing emerging learning often missed by traditional outcome-based assessments and incorporating Nexus' learning into all of our fundraising and communications strategies.