Neighbors: NFG leader is guided by a desire to “do the right thing”

Sarah Clyne talks deploying resources to North Minneapolis, the threat of gentrification, and her burning desire to advance racial equity.

By Kenzie O’Keefe Editor | Photos by David Pierini Staff Reporter

The seeds of social justice were planted early for Sarah Clyne. She was raised in rural Minnesota by parents who gave back as a way of life—as foster parents and as people willing to use their bodies to buffer violence. Her upbringing instilled in a her a deep motivation to “do the work” despite its tolls.

Six months ago, she became the executive director for Northside Funders Group (NFG), a “funder collaborative” that aims to support Northside prosperity via millions of dollars in philanthropic contributions each year. Clyne follows former NFG leader, Tawanna Black, who now leads the Center for Economic Inclusion, of which NFG is an integrated partner.

Prior to joining NFG, Clyne led the Domestic Abuse Project as its executive director.

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

How do you explain the Northside Funders Group to people who've never heard of it before? We are a network of local foundations interested in digging deeper into the issues, organizations, and community work that's happening in North Minneapolis. We have a geographic focus, which is unique in the funder collaborative world. A lot of national collaboratives are issue based and timebound. The function of Northside Funders Group is collective impact. How can we make a difference collectively, and streamline some of those processes to make it easier for organizations to access resources?

How many members do you have? Who are they? We have about 10 members that are actively engaged in the work, at this point: Phillips Family Foundation, McKnight, the Minneapolis Foundation, Thrivent Foundation, United Way, Twin Cities LISC, Hennepin County, and the Mortenson Family Foundation.

What made you want to lead this organization? How did you end up here? The strand that connects all of my work experiences throughout my life has been a commitment to social justice and community change. When I saw the opening for Northside Funders Group, that lens of having a strong focus on social justice and I think in the social and political climate, really honing in on racial equity, was really appealing to me.

What was your connection at the Northside before you took on this role? In my previous role, as executive director at Domestic Abuse Project, we had several satellite offices, one of them being in North Minneapolis in NorthPoint. Its proximity to the Fourth Precinct meant that it is the highest volume client walk-in location across the city.

You’ve flipped from leading a nonprofit that serves the community to funding the organizations that do. What do you think the North Minneapolis community needs from the philanthropic communities that serve it? I firmly believe that if you look through the lens of an asset base, community has the answers and the ability to respond from within. Philanthropy can play a key role in leveraging financial resources to unleash into the community. I think we have a role to play in really listening to the community, taking that information, and figuring out then how we can best deploy those resources and activate them, and do that quickly. Dynamics can change at a drop of a hat. It can be something as simple as a natural disaster, which we've seen in North Minneapolis.

NFG is in the midst of strategy shift. What does that look like? Gentrification has become a really significant issue. There's peak interest by developers to come in and do something with spaces that are underutilized. Under that broad umbrella of gentrification, we've raised up housing as something we probably need to lean into, wealth creation, the credit union, and business incubation. Education. Community and public safety. All of those things play into capacity to stay in the community. That is guiding the discussions that we've had up to this point and is the direction that I see us going in.

How much money has NFG delivered into North Minneapolis this year? In 2019, it's been small. NFG deployed just under $200,000 directly. But then, if you look at the aligned investments of the individual funders across the table, you're probably looking at several million dollars of investments.

Where did that $200K go? We funded Minneapolis Public Schools, through the parent engagement project. We give dollars to Summit OIC for their pilot STEM Academy, and then we gave dollars to New Rules for Chris [Webley’s] Infamous 50 project. That was a new venture for us, because New Rules is a B Corporation. So I think the other shift for us as a funder collaborative is getting really creative about what we fund. So kind of breaking out of that traditional 501(c)(3) structure, and looking at, okay, how can we get really creative about ensuring that we're again fueling and deploying resources into the community in ways that are needed, and sometimes it's not just solely from the confines of a nonprofit. So that's been a really interesting conversation across the collaborative.

How do you ensure community voice is present as the collective is thinking strategically, thinking about funding priorities? As the primary staff for NFG, it's my role to really be out in community and connecting with individuals: residents, business owners, and leaders within community organizations. Really getting on-the-ground, real time information has been important for being the bridge to philanthropy.

Who are the people and events in your life, growing up, that set your feet on this path of social justice and of working in the community? I grew up in rural Minnesota, so just my own experience as a woman of color, growing up in a largely white community is a thing in and of itself that shaped and me. My parents were foster parents for a really long time. That was just the nature of how we lived. My parents would get these letters from kids that were just like, “you were the only household where I got a bed, or I got crayons, or school supplies.” One of them came back and visited several times to just thank them for being stability in his life. My parents did it all from a place of: this is what you do as a person. You give back and you do the right thing. The most powerful example of that is from when my parents lived in Minneapolis in the 60s and 70s. My dad was going down Lake Street and came across a situation at a gas station with a young black man that was being harassed by a group of white men. He intervened, and he actually got stabbed in the neck with a tool that this kid had, because he was fighting back. He literally saved that kid's life. My parents don't have the racial and social justice language around it, but they have the actions. We accept everybody, no matter what their background is—that has always been a part of the dialogue in our household.

How do you think that upbringing plays into your approach to work now? I think it's led to a strong moral and ethical backbone to how I make decisions. Sometimes that means pushing back on systems. I spent a short time in the public school system as a teacher and got fatigued really quickly because there was no space to be creative. I didn't have the power to make significant changes. I became a statistic, and I left the educational space in less than five years. Part of the challenge that we have with teachers now, particularly with teachers of color, is not only recruiting them to the profession, but retaining them. It's really easy to go into that space with that lens of social justice and racial equity, and doing the right thing, and wanting to connect with kids in meaningful ways. But then the reality of what you're faced with, and the environment that you're working in, isn't conducive to allowing that authenticity of bringing in your community lens, cultural lens, to make shifts in the classroom.

How do you take care of yourself, in a world of both so much need and so much structural oppression that you are literally battling against every single day? Lots of things. I think some of it is being able to unplug from work, like creating healthy boundaries for myself. Self-care practices. I get massages regularly. I need to go to the gym because that's a great place for me to take out my anger and frustration. I've also found it really helpful in healing to have a strong network of other people in this work.

Who do you look up to in community? I tend to look at the folks that are keeping their head on the ground, or are really focused on their work. They’re not necessarily the folks that get a lot of recognition in community or have name recognition. It's really the folks that are just really grounded in building relationships in community and doing the work. They're really walking hand-in-hand with others to move the work. Those are the people that I gravitate towards, and the people that I look to for guidance, and also just aspire to be like.