By Julie Drechsler
The annual meeting of the Saint Anthony Community Foundation was held on Jan. 26 with more than 50 people in attendance through Zoom.
Board Chairwoman Jane Leonard and Vice Chairman Seth Levin took the attendees through the strategic renewal process that the board and key community stakeholders completed mid-2021.
Changing demographics, fragmentated communications, coordination challenges and competing donor contribution and funding opportunities are some of the challenges facing our communities and their local community organizations.
This scenario has led Foundation leaders to consider how they can continue to support an evolving community while still supporting its local community groups and organizations which provide support for Saint Anthony Park.
The SAP Community Foundation will have three focus areas:
• Convene-bringing the community together,
• Catalyze-actively create connections and partnerships
and
• Steward-grow the endowment to further support the community through the annual grant round.
These three focus areas will further support the mission of SAP Community Foundation
The evening also consisted of a series of community conversations including a business panel, showcasing three recently established local businesses, Ciceron, Next Level Training Wellness and Fitness and Studio Karlor.
Four past grant recipients were also given an opportunity to showcase their projects that were funded through SAP Community Foundation. These included Creative Enterprise Zone, The International Institute, Transition Town-ASAP and the University of Minnesota Raptor Center, which introduced the audience to one of its resident owls, Ricky, and explained the importance of its partnership with Murry Middle School to create awareness of and student engagement in environmental studies.
For more information on the Saint Anthony Park Community Foundation please contact executive director Julie Drechsler at sapcommunityfoundation@gmail.com
Julie Drechsler is executive director of the Saint Anthony Park Community Foundation.
