Culturally specific nonprofits in Minnesota play a key role in building strong and vibrant communities.

The Nonprofit Assistance Grant Program was a direct appropriation made to DEED for the Nonprofit Assistance Fund (now Propel Nonprofits) in the FY 2018-2019 biennial budget, and Governor Walz proposes to continue the investment.

Propel Nonprofits supports the infrastructure of small nonprofit organizations that serve historically underserved cultural communities through guidance, expertise and capital.

To be eligible for a grant from this direct appropriation, a nonprofit organization must be led by someone from an Indigenous community or a person of color, and at least 51 percent of the organization’s staff or board must be Indigenous or people of color.

Seventy-five percent of previous grantees used their investment to establish financial and administrative systems for managing internal operations that make them ready to apply for other grants and contracts with government and other funders. This includes using accounting software, developing financial procedures, and creating databases to track program work. Other grantees have focused on technology infrastructure purchases to bring efficiencies to their work, through the purchase of electronic records systems, cloud-based software solutions, or other technologies.