At a moment of expansion for MinnPost, I’m thrilled to share that we’re adding nine community leaders as new members to our nonprofit’s board of directors.

Babette Apland has over 30 years of experience leading strategy, and launching and growing new services and products to improve health and wellbeing for individuals and society. Babette was the founder of American Public Media’s Call to Mind, a national media initiative focused on mental health. Early in her career, Babette partnered with ophthalmologists to create the Phillips Eye Institute in Minneapolis. As senior vice president of health management at HealthPartners, Babette spearheaded the development of nationally recognized health and well-being programs. As COO of the Melrose Center for Eating Disorders and vice president of Behavioral Health, she led major growth and innovation in mental health services.

Judy Yates Borger is an award-winning journalist, whose work has appeared in MinnPost and other Minnesota and national publications since 1976. Her three fictitious mysteries, set in the Twin Cities, are published by Nodin Press. She has served as chair of the Twin Cities chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and Open Book. She and her dog, Peanut, live in Minneapolis.

Wendy Holmes is the president of Wendy Holmes Consulting, with over 30 years of experience in real estate, arts management, fundraising, and community engagement. She has led projects in over 300 U.S. cities, focusing on creative infrastructure and space-related challenges. Passionate about equitable community development, Wendy, a lifelong Minnesotan with Illinois roots, is known as a “community whisperer” who excels at solving complex community development puzzles and amplifying creative voices. Outside of work, she enjoys biking, walking her dog, Donut, singing, and connecting with creative individuals.

Jennifer Martin is the president/executive director of the Martin and Brown Foundation and an active community volunteer. She has previously served on the boards of Planned Parenthood North Central States, Westover School, Growth and Justice, Mental Health Association of Minnesota, and the ACLU of Minnesota. She currently serves on the board of the Walker Art Center. She has a B.A. from Northwestern and an MBA in accounting from the University of Denver. Jennifer is returning to MinnPost’s board of directors having previously served as the organization’s treasurer. She’s a strong believer in MinnPost’s mission. In her own words: “Independent journalism with stories written by thoughtful, smart journalists are needed now more than ever.”

Ruth Mickelsen, J.D., MPH, is a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and affiliate faculty of the Center for Bioethics. Ruth practiced health law in the public sector, in private practice and as in-house counsel for over 25 years. She is a former Bush fellow and has been named an Alumni of Notable Achievement by the University of Minnesota. Ruth has served on the Health Partners Board of Directors, is a past trustee of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law and a past board member of the Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School.

Alberto Monserrate is a leading expert in multicultural communications and marketing and the CEO and co-founder of NewPublica, where he focuses on media relations, crisis management, community engagement, and public affairs campaigns. Previously, he co-founded Latino Communications Network, publishing La Prensa de Minnesota and Vida y Sabor, and managing Spanish radio stations La Invasora 1400 and 1470 AM. Alberto has served as chair of the Minneapolis School Board and was the board chair for Great Minnesota Schools, with extensive experience across education, strategy, and nonprofit leadership.

Benjamin Toff is an associate professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota where he is also director of the Minnesota Journalism Center. His research focuses on the public’s changing relationship with news as well as its political implications, and he is co-author of “Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism” (2023, Columbia University Press). He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.A. in social studies from Harvard University, and in between he worked for six years at The New York Times.

Sharon Kennedy Vickers is a tech leader committed to infusing love into the co-creation of digital solutions that support shared abundance and collective liberation. She is the CEO of Software for Good, a company at the forefront of the Tech for Good movement. Previously, Sharon served as chief information officer for the City of Saint Paul, where she led efforts to ensure digital services were equitable and accessible to every resident. She leads with intuition and inspires her team to cultivate their unique gifts and unleash their genius in purposeful service, shaping a world where technology is built with love — the highest good for all. A co-founder of Techquity and organizer of the civic hackathon Code Switch, Sharon is dedicated to tech equity and inclusion. A fourth-generation farmer from Georgia, she also co-owns HK Farm, which practices sustainable farming and land stewardship.

Anna Wasescha has been the president of West Central Initiative since 2017. Prior to returning to Minnesota, she served as president of Middlesex Community College in Middletown, Connecticut. In addition to decades of work dedicated to higher education in both private and public colleges and universities, she also spent a dozen years organizing a community gardening project in St. Paul called Farm in the City.

While we welcome these new board members and their leadership for MinnPost’s next chapter of growth, we’re also thanking several members who are rotating off the board, but who leave a legacy that has ensured MinnPost is a model for nonprofit news organizations across the country. Many thanks to Fran Davis, Jack Dempsey, Nancy Feldman, Max Musicant and Rebecca Shavlik for their many years of service!

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, MinnPost has a board of directors — all volunteers — to oversee the governance and advancement of our mission. The board plays no role in editorial direction or decision-making.

Tanner Curl

Tanner Curl is MinnPost’s executive director. He oversees the organization’s management, strategy and revenue development.

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MinnPost’s long-time Mental Health & Addiction columnist Andy Steiner has been named a HEAL Fellow by the Solutions Journalism Network. The fellowship is designed for “U.S. journalists reporting on, for and with young people who are facing mental health challenges and healing through innovative community responses.” Steiner is one of just 10 individuals selected for the the national program. Her HEAL Fellowship will focus on new state-funded mental health support programs that are making a difference for underserved children in Minnesota’s public schools.

The Solutions Journalism Network states that fellows will:

“(H)elp spread rigorous reporting on what’s working to address mental health issues and inequities;

(E)xpand young audiences’ access to solutions reporting on issues affecting them;

(A)ssess the impact of their solutions reporting in the community;

(L)earn and teach others how to report on and amplify youth mental health solutions.”

Steiner has been MinnPost’s mental health & addiction columnist since 2014. Her work puts a human face on mental health and addiction struggles while focusing on the people and entities in Minnesota working to find solutions to these issues. She previously worked as an editor at Utne Reader and the Minnesota Women’s Press. Her writing has been published in local and national publications including Ms., Glamour, Self, AARP The Magazine and the Toronto Sun. She is also the author of four books — about breastfeeding, everyday resilience, and girls and women in sports.

MinnPost’s mental health & addiction coverage is made possible in part thanks to the generous support of Allan & Lou Burdick, the Redleaf Foundation, Jim & Joy Erickson, Joel & Laurie Kramer, and our over 5,000 members who donate at any level. If you’d like to support this work, you can make a donation of any amount right now.

Laura Lindsay

Laura is MinnPost’s Advancement Director. She’s been at MinnPost since 2016.

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MinnPost has been selected as one of 12 newsrooms across the nation to host a fellow starting on July 7, 2025, as part of the CatchLight Local Fellowship program in partnership with Report for America. Through photos and videos, the visual journalist will help illuminate MinnPost stories on our site, social media and newsletters. The program is two years with the potential to renew for a third year.

The fellowship application is open now until Monday, Feb. 3. Interested visual journalists are encouraged to read the FAQs and must apply online. There is an info session specifically for the CatchLight/Report for America program on Jan. 15 at 2:30 p.m. CT. You can register for the info session here.

The salary for this position is $53,000 for under 3 years of experience or $63,000 for 3+ years of experience. This is union position that comes with full benefits, including subsidized health insurance, generous paid time off and a 401(k) or student loan payment match. This is a hybrid position based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The fellow must live in or relocate to the Twin Cities. To read the full position description and a full list of benefits, click here.

We’re excited to partner with CatchLight and Report for America to bring on our first full-time visual journalist through this program. The fellow will report on how state and local policies affect everyday Minnesotans, seeking out visual cues and the people experiencing the impact of these policies. The visual journalist will often collaborate with other reporters but will also pursue solo projects.

Elizabeth Dunbar

Elizabeth Dunbar is the editor of MinnPost. She can be reached at edunbar@minnpost.com or on Twitter @edunbarMN.

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I know it’s a busy day, so I’ll keep this brief: MinnPost is behind on our year-end goal and the deadline is midnight.

We still need to raise $35,000 today to reach our goal. Will you make a donation right now to help us get there?

Over 5,000 readers have stepped up in 2024 to support local news. Will you join them and become a member today to power our nonprofit newsroom in 2025 and beyond?

P.S. I know that $35,000 sounds like a big number, but we can accomplish big things when our community of readers comes together. A donation of any size will help us get there.

The post Your support of MinnPost is needed by midnight on New Year’s Eve appeared first on MinnPost.

P.S. I worry you might think I’m exaggerating when I say every dollar and cent make a difference. Believe me, they do! MinnPost is honored to be a story of growth when so much of the narrative around local news focuses on decline. But we can only do this work with you on our team. Are you with us?

The post The deadline is approaching to support MinnPost appeared first on MinnPost.

We’re counting down the days until we close the books on 2024, and we need your help to make sure our newsroom has the resources to pursue critical Minnesota stories in the year ahead. We’re closing in on our year-end fundraising goal, and you can help us cross the finish line.

Plus, when you donate right now, your gift will be matched twice thanks to the generous support of Leslie & Karen Suzukamo and Tom Knabel & Kent Allin. That means your gift will go three times as far in support of independent Minnesota journalism.

Your support doesn’t just sustain our newsroom — it sustains the informed, engaged Minnesota community that we all care about.

Thanks for being a part of this movement.

P.S. Don’t wait to donate or you might forget. Help us meet our matching gift goal of $20,000 with a tax-deductible donation right now.

The post Donate to MinnPost and double your match! appeared first on MinnPost.

With just a few days left in December, we still have a big goal to reach — we’re $49,000 short of our $130,000 goal.

That may sound like a lot, but I know we can still get there. And when you start a monthly gift right now, your first month’s donation will be matched 12 times! OR if you make a one-time gift, it’ll be matched twice!

The next $10,000 in donations will be matched thanks to the generosity of Tom Knabel & Kent Allin and Leslie & Karen Suzukamo.

What does that mean, exactly? When you give $50, it will be matched twice, for a total of $150 to MinnPost’s independent journalism.

Or if you start a monthly gift, your first installment will be matched 12 times!! Your $5/month gift will be matched $60.

So why wait? Any amount helps us reach our year-end goal and will make a huge impact.

When you give, you’re supporting the Minnesota news that our reporters are looking forward to covering in 2025.

Give now to make a huge impact and support nonprofit news in 2025 and beyond.

The post You can make a huge impact today appeared first on MinnPost.

There’s a lot to look forward to in 2025. On the news front, MinnPost will be producing in-depth coverage of the Legislature and the companies and organizations looking to influence laws and budgets. In Washington, we’ll get to see just how far President-elect Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress are willing to go to reverse some of the policies enacted by President Biden and Democrats.

And here in the Twin Cities, we’re gearing up to cover another round of consequential city elections: Both Minneapolis and St. Paul will have mayoral and city council elections.

While we already know we’ll cover all of these things, it might look a little different than it has in the past. We’re planning to try new strategies and ideas to reach more Minnesotans.

In an ever-changing media landscape, MinnPost is ready to adapt and adjust to meet changing needs while staying true to our mission to be your trusted guide on the essential issues affecting Minnesota and its people. As 2024 draws to a close, I hope you’ll consider a gift to MinnPost.

Will you support our independent nonprofit newsroom with a donation right now?

P.S. The Membership team told me we’re behind on our fundraising goal of $130,000. Make a donation right now to help us get back on track.

The post We’re ready to dive deep (and cover LOCAL elections) with your help appeared first on MinnPost.

Our members are an essential part of the work we do which is why we need you to step up this holiday season to help sustain our newsroom.

We’re falling short of our year-end goal and you can help us get back on track. Will you support nonprofit news with a gift right now?

Here at MinnPost, we believe that a free press is essential to democracy. And by free we mean paywall-free too. We provide MinnPost’s nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism without a paywall because we know access to news is vital for an informed society.

Our consequential, thorough reporting helps readers like you keep up with the issues that matter most in our state. Before the end of the year, we’re asking you to donate so we can be well prepared to continue this important journalism into 2025 and beyond. We rely on readers like you — will you make a tax-deductible donation today to support our work?

The post We need you to help sustain our journalism appeared first on MinnPost.

When MinnPost was founded in 2007, we had a lot of doubters. No print edition? No paywall? You ask readers for donations to make it all possible? At the time, we were among a small handful of local, startup nonprofit news outlets in the country.

Now, a little over 17 years later, the nonprofit journalism movement that we helped start has exploded to 450-and-growing orgs across the country (and Minnesota!). As part of this hopeful work to rebuild local news, we’ve demonstrated that our 501(c)(3) is much more than an IRS designation. We prioritize our community — not the desires of corporate shareholders or billionaire ownership — and provide all of our reporting at no charge, without a paywall, directly through our site and through free republication partners across Minnesota. 

But we’re also not resting on our laurels or standing still. In fact, I’m thrilled to announce that in 2025, we’re embarking on a new chapter of expansion.

Spurred on by a matching challenge gift of $1 million from our founders, Joel and Laurie Kramer, we’re two-thirds of the way toward raising a major capital infusion of at least $2.2 million to increase the size and talent profile of our newsroom and build capacity to engage and reach new audiences in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota. 

What does that look like? By this time next year, our newsroom will be 50% bigger. But it’s not just about the size of our team. Several of these new roles will be senior staff writers that will allow MinnPost to become a destination for enterprising, entrepreneurial journalists who exemplify what we do best: taking audiences beyond the “what and when” of daily coverage to serve as trusted guides into the “how and why” of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing the Twin Cities metro and all of Minnesota. (Of course, we’ll continue our reputation for identifying and developing promising early-career talent, as well!)

We’re also expanding our audience team to focus on building meaningful relationships with Minnesotans across the state, surfacing unique information needs, particularly for underserved communities, and finding ways for the wide and diverse range of voices and experiences that make up Minnesota to be reflected in our journalism. This work will also offer an incredible opportunity to deepen our collaborations with local outlets — many of which already utilize our free republication policy — across Minnesota. 

As we make these additions in the year ahead, you’ll see new bylines and new ways you can connect with the incredible journalists who make up our team. We’ll highlight new initiatives as we launch them and innovate how you can interact with our reporting and other MinnPost audience members. If you’ll pardon my language, MinnPost is a community for people who give a damn about Minnesota’s future. We’re excited to make our journalism an even more central part of how you can understand and look to shape that future.

With all of these exciting investments in our nonprofit newsroom and mission-driven programming, there are myriad ways you can be a part of this chapter of expansion and paywall-free journalism. In fact, we’ll need you with us to pull off this ambitious growth!

Member support is the lifeblood of MinnPost. Donations of all sizes, whether one-time or recurring, will be the bedrock for this growth. We’re in the midst of our year-end drive, so your support right now in any amount is critical. Thanks in advance for your tax-deductible donation before Dec. 31!

If you’re in a position to make a major philanthropic investment at the $5,000+ level, either directly or through a fund, you can help us finish the homestretch of the matching gift on the table and join our leadership circle as a way to connect with our nonprofit newsroom. (Please feel free to contact Laura Lindsay, our advancement director, to discuss further!)

Organizations that sponsor or advertise with MinnPost get a two-fer: You get your message in front of hundreds-of-thousands of highly-engaged, highly-active Minnesotans who give a damn and you make our paywall-free journalism possible. (Brian Perry is always happy to discuss the many options available for all budget sizes.)

And there are ways to be a part of MinnPost and what we’re building that aren’t financial. Sign up for one of our many free newsletters. Follow (and share!) our work on social media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Bluesky). Come to a MinnPost event (including our marquee people and ideas festival set again for Fall 2025!).

However you join us in this exciting next chapter of growth, we’re honored to have you with our nonprofit newsroom. It’s a perilous time for local media and our civic culture generally, but we’ve shown throughout MinnPost’s history that together we can do incredible things. I’m confident that, standing arm in arm, we’ll continue that legacy in this next chapter of growth and innovation.

Let’s go!

Tanner Curl

Tanner Curl is MinnPost’s executive director. He oversees the organization’s management, strategy and revenue development.

The post MinnPost is embarking on a major expansion in 2025 appeared first on MinnPost.