GMCC
Cultivate Collaborative Communities
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
For more than 115 years, GMCC (Greater Minneapolis Community Connections) has been working in our community to fight for equity and access. The organization began in 1905 as a Christian-based initiative, became the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches, and continues today as Greater Minneapolis Community Connections, having recently transitioned to a more inclusive, interfaith organization. Today, GMCC works towards greater equity and inclusion through advocacy, education, service-learning, and mentoring. Our programs help ensure our neighbors have access to healthy food through Minnesota FoodShare, that young people have access to quality mentors through Kinship Greater Twin Cities, and that community members understand the realities of poverty, privilege, and structural injustice and have the tools to take action towards change through Urban Immersions.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Food Access
GMCC founded our Minnesota FoodShare brand in 1981 to provide urgent hunger-relief throughout Minnesota. Our annual March Campaign engages thousands of people to raisefood and funds for our 285 food shelf partners across the state.
In 2020, GMCC led a research and design process in partnership with food shelf staff andvolunteers, farmers, and producers to explore and improve Minnesota’s food supply chains. Weconducted 72 in-depth interviews with regional food system stakeholders. This led to the design ofMinnesota Venture Farms (MVF), a BIPOC-led response to inequities in our food system thatfurther disparities in health, housing, education, and wealth. MVF is an enterprise underdevelopment that is led by a collective of BIPOC farmers, agricultural leaders, and foodentrepreneurs. MVF will build a new, equitable food ecosystem that includes BIPOC landownership, new distribution channels, and co-designed microenterprises.
Youth Development
In 2020, our team completed an intensive research process that included evaluation of our65-year running mentoring program. This six-month process included engaging mentors, mentees,and parents as paid co-designers in an exploration process; conducting one-on-one interviews;reviewing historical and administering new surveys; meeting with partners working in the sameissue areas; and reviewing published, external research.
This research and evaluation informed the development of Genius Labs @ GMCC and the GeniusLabs’ Digital Café, which provides distance learning support to underinvested BIPOC youth,including access to paid tutors or “Guides” and volunteer mentors. We provide out-of-school curriculum that builds 21st century skills taught through a laboratory learning model; healing-centered mental health support; and pathways to career development.
Youth Innovation Labs is designed to offer young people from underinvested communities around Minnesota an opportunity to grow their knowledge and skills in equity-centered design processes, collective action, and creative problem solving and evaluation. Through these Labs, young people have exposure and access to often inaccessible career paths and professional networks that are critical to career exploration and development.
Well Being
In 2021, GMCC launched a vaccine outreach and awareness campaign in partnership with Somali community leaders. Additionally, in 2021, we will update and launch a virtual iteration of Face The Facts, our copyrighted, award-winning social justice training tool.
Where we work
Awards
Meets All standards 2021
Charities Review Council, Minnesota
Meets 100% of Mentoring Best Practices 2018
Mentor Minnesota
External reviews

Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsTotal number of volunteer hours contributed to the organization
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Well Being
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of youth who have a positive adult role model
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth
Related Program
Youth Development
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Average length of mentor match
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
At-risk youth, Children and youth
Related Program
Youth Development
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of participants attending course/session/workshop
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Adolescents
Related Program
Well Being
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Total dollars raised during March Campaign for hunger relief
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Related Program
Food Access
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Decreasing
Context Notes
The March Campaign is Minnesota's largest grassroots, community-centric, annual food and fund drive supporting some 285 food shelves (pantries) statewide. This stat includes only cash contributions.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
We maintain our longstanding mission of "uniting people of faith, serving people in need" while envisioning a community in which everyone has equal access to resources necessary to live healthy, fulfilling lives. To better support this vision, GMCC is transitioning from an organization focused primarily on charity-based work to more comprehensively and thoughtfully tackling social inequities through systems change.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Through increased communication, we enhance existing partnerships and build interfaith partnerships so that we can increase awareness and engagement around common areas of interest. We mobilize people to improve their communities by influencing attitudes and changing conditions through service to others.
Focus efforts on areas of strength and expertise and update systems to ensure a sustainable annual operating budget.
Re-invent the Board of Directors to have a fully engaged Board that taps into the relationships, skills and abilities of the individual members to improve our ability to meet programmatic and organizational goals.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Engage member congregations and other faith communities in achieving our goals.
Develop more effective avenues of communication with our faith partners.
Develop clear and compelling messaging around the impact of GMCC and a strategy to better disseminate that message through traditional and emerging channels.
Strengthen our existing Minnesota FoodShare relationships to become more effective on issues of food access and then build on these relationships to include effective advocacy in other goal areas.
Assess the current state and utilization of our physical assets, including buildings, vehicles, computers and other technological equipment, and develop a plan for their highest and best use.
Assess and adjust our current staff capacity with an emphasis on fundraising and administration across the entire organization.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We transitioned from Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches to Greater Minneapolis Community Connections, in part because our role as an official congregational membership organization ended years ago but also because it reflects our transition to a more inclusive, interfaith organization. We hired a permanent Executive Director; focused in on strengthening and growing our three most impactful programs; and finalized an official separation from DIW (Division of Indian Work) to support the transition of what was once a program of GMCC into a completely independent, native-run organization.
Moving forward, we are focused on strengthening and expanding our services through Kinship (ensuring young people have quality mentors), Urban Immersions (offering training on the realities of poverty, privilege, and structural injustice and providing the tools to take action towards change), and Minnesota FoodShare (addressing food insecurity and supporting food shelves around Minnesota). In late 2019, we launched a community needs assessment and strategic planning process to ensure we are leveraging our core competencies in advocacy, education, service-learning, and mentoring as well as our strong history to make the most significant impact in furthering equity and inclusion.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don’t have the right technology to collect and aggregate feedback efficiently, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
GMCC
Board of directorsas of 03/17/2022
Mr. Bruce Ensrud
Thrivent Financial
Term: 2019 - 2021
Bruce A Ensrud
Thrivent Financial
William B. MacLean
Mount Olivet Lutheran Church
E. Selemon Asfaw
Optum Health
Henriette Ngo Bissoy
L'Etoile Du Nord French Immersion School
Jack Duffy
Gallagher Insurance
Jeff Peterson
Turning Technologies
Nerita Hughes
No. Hennepin Community College
Heather Riddle
American Public Media
Fardosa Hassan
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
Don Flower
Community Leader
Ron Harris
City of Minneapolis
Stephan Quie
Campaign Staff
Erin Rupp
Pollinate MN
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
We do not display disability information for organizations with fewer than 15 staff.
Equity strategies
Last updated: 01/19/2021GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.