Early Thursday morning, the staff of the Minnesota Budget Project is going to pack up, cram into a van and head north to Duluth. Awaiting us there is the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’ Annual Conference and the opportunity to mingle with hundreds of folks that work in the nonprofit sector. Since the Minnesota Budget Project is an initiative of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, it’s not a surprise that we’ll be showing up at the conference.
But this year, we are really excited about significantly stepping up our outreach efforts and getting meaningful feedback from the community we serve. We’ve set up four challenges for ourselves related – all of these are efforts you are probably already familiar with. If you’ve been waiting to take action on any of these issues, this is the right moment to do it.
How can you help? If you are attending MCN’s Annual Conference, you can stop by the St. Louis River Room and visit the Minnesota Budget Project’s table to chat with us and participate in one – or all – of the following challenges (there will be incentives!).
If you can’t join us at the conference, you can still help us meet these goals by clicking on the links above to participate in one – or all – of the challenges. We’ll put a sticker on our goal board in your honor!
Here are our four challenges that start right now and continue through the conference:
Give the community the chance to inform our work. Last week, we blogged about launching a very important survey that will help us to understand how people currently use our information - and how we can improve the way we serve the public in the future. The Annual Conference is excellent opportunity to reach out to new audiences who may not be familiar with our work. Our goal: 100 new survey responses. (take the survey)
Have organizations endorse revenue raising principles and stand united for a balanced approach. The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits was a co-founder of the Invest in Minnesota campaign, which is a coalition of faith, labor and nonprofits united to raise revenue fairly. The coalition’s principles state that revenue must be a significant part of the solution to solving the state’s budget deficit and the overall package of revenue-raising must make the tax system more fair. Our goal: 25 new organizations endorse these principles. (endorse the principles)
Get people involved in a united campaign for a balanced approach. With the state facing significant ongoing budget deficits, raising revenues will need to be part of a balanced solution to solving the state’s troubles. Sign up for Invest in Minnesota action alerts to get regular updates, information about events, tools for participation and learn about opportunities to get involved. Our goal: 50 new people join this action network. (join the action network)
Demonstrate support for fair and responsible federal taxes. Congress will be voting on a tax package in November. We need Congress to support tax policies that are fair and responsible and that help support the nation’s fragile economic recovery. We have a sign-on letter to our Minnesota Congressional delegation that urges them to let the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire for high-income households, extend the improvements to both the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, and restore the federal estate tax. Our goal: 25 new organizations join the sign-on letter. (join the sign-on letter)
The competition between the Minnesota Budget Project staff to see who can meet (and exceed) these goals is fierce. So take a few moments to help us improve, expand and strengthen our ability to carry our mission.
Hope to see you in Duluth!
-Christina Wessel
