By: Emily Richardson
This Article Is Sponsored By
Run Minnesota is the oldest and largest running organization in the state with a proud history of supporting running since 1961.
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Your Support Makes Amazing Things Possible
As colder temperatures settle in and trees shake off their remaining leaves, our minds are turning to the season ahead.
During this season of generosity and gratitude, we’re reflecting on how grateful we are for you – our Run Minnesota community.
Whether you’ve been a member for 25 years, just ran your first race with us, are a long-time volunteer, lend your time and talents as a board member, or provide funding to fuel our mission – it’s because of you that we’re able to support runners of all ages and abilities across Minnesota.
One of the highlights of our year has been welcoming more than 1,000 people into our community through training and race scholarships and through free running events, like our Como Relays, Victory Races Kids’ Run, Wirth Trail Classic and the Black Friday 5k.
And with our 2025 races just around the corner – that number will continue to grow.
Thank you for all you do to make these free initiatives possible.
Running Connects and Strengthens Us
Your reasons for being a part of our community are as numerous as there are all of you. But one thing is certain – we’re connected by our deep belief in the transformational power of running.
Running pushes us to discover what we are capable of.
Running connects us to new friends and longtime neighbors.
Running helps us care for ourselves and care for one another.
Running builds healthier communities.
Running makes us stronger in body and mind.
Running reduces our stress and boosts our emotional wellbeing.
Running supports our local businesses and promotes economic vitality.
And so many more…
What would you add to this list?
At Run Minnesota, we believe that the countless benefits of running should be available to every person across the state. Looking ahead to 2025, we’re excited to continue the work of welcoming even more people to this sport we love.
A big part of this includes removing barriers to access for those experiencing financial stress, those in rural areas, and those who have historically been excluded from running spaces due to racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, body/fat shaming and other forms of discrimination.
Photo by Carly Danek
Photo by Carly Danek
Photo by Isaiah Rustad
Photo by Isaiah Rustad
Building a More Expansive, Accessible Running Community Together
We know the work ahead is much larger than just Run Minnesota or any single organization. It requires a broad ecosystem of individuals and groups coming together to build a more expansive running community around the state.
The Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF) Movement is a call to “re-examine every fundraising practice and philosophy [many of us] have been taught and explore doing fundraising in ways that reduce harm and further social justice.”
In 2017, Vu Le wrote How Donor Centrism Perpetuates Inequity and Why We Must Move Toward Community-Centric Fundraising. It was guided by conversations he shared with many leaders of color, especially women of color.*
CCF is anchored in 10 core principles (Please follow this link to dive deeper, and while you’re there, show the organization some love by donating or lifting up their work in other ways):
- Fundraising must be grounded in race, equity and social justice.
- Individual organization missions are not as important as the collective community.
- Nonprofits are generous with and mutually supportive of one another.
- All who engage in strengthening the community are equally valued, whether volunteer, staff, donor, or board member.
- Time is valued as equally as money.
- Treating donors as partners, and this means being transparent, and occasionally having difficult conversations.
- Fostering a sense of belonging, not othering.
- Promoting the understanding that everyone (donors, staff, funders, board members, volunteers) personally benefits from engaging in the work of social justice – it’s not just charity and compassion.
- Seeing the work of social justice as holistic and transformative, not transactional.
- Recognizing that healing and liberation requires a commitment to economic justice.
As we reflect on the way these principles will guide our path forward, we’re turning to you – our Run Minnesota community.
To help us move closer to our vision of a healthier and more active state, please consider the many ways you can continue to be involved in this important work.
Support Run Minnesota
Click here to Make a Financial Gift: We recently launched a Springboard for Running Campaign to raise $20,000 by the end of the year. Please consider making a donation. Gifts of all sizes make a difference.
Click Here to Become a Member: Our members fuel our mission. As a member you get access to a host of great benefits and help bring the power of running to more people across the state.
Click Here to Volunteer: Our work wouldn’t be possible without the large squad of volunteers who donate their time throughout the year to bring our races and programs to life. Check out our current volunteer opportunities and consider joining us for an upcoming event.
Click Here to Become a Board Member: We are currently seeking applicants with skills in fundraising, governance and/or leadership. As always we’re eager to continue expanding our board by welcoming applicants who represent a variety of identities and lived experiences across Minnesota.
Share Your Ideas: Is there another way you’d like to show your support? Please connect with us! We’d love to hear from you. Email hello@run-minnesota.org.
Support the Wider Minnesota Running Community
Minnesota has many nonprofits encouraging running and health and wellness across the state, and we’d like to highlight three that may not be on your radar to elevate their work.
Miles for Mentors (Willmar, MN)
Miles 4 Mentors is a non-profit organization based in Willmar, MN that is focused on providing local children with the resources they need to participate in and benefit from youth sports and activities. They host Fun Run Events, provide activity and equipment scholarships, provide youth mentors, and foster a love of running and an appreciation for the benefits of physical fitness among children in grades K-12.
Wiggle Your Toes (National, based in Bloomington, MN)
Wiggle Your Toes is a 501(c)(3) created in May 2008 to help victims and families of victims who have experienced limb loss. Their weekly mobility clinics at the University of Minnesota Fieldhouse begin in early January. Wiggle Your Toes believes that movement is medicine. With their mobility clinics they provide a safe environment for our community (individuals with disabilities) to stretch, walk, run and connect with others like them. Wiggle provides the venue, the guidance, support (volunteers) and equipment (prosthetic running blades, knees, and feet.) The clinics are free of charge and open to all levels of ability.
Wiggle Your Toes was successful in getting legislation passed in Minnesota that will provide coverage from insurance companies for running blades, fitness prosthetics and orthotics for individuals in our community. This will be in effect on January 1, 2025.
Play for Patrick (7 County Metro Area)
The Patrick Schoonover Heart Foundation was created to honor and remember Patrick Schoonover who passed away at the age of 14, due to Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA), caused by undetected heart defects. The foundation’s goal is to bring SCA awareness, education and prevention and to eliminate SCA in kids.
SCA is the leading cause of death among student athletes. The Patrick Schoonover Heart Foundation offers free heart screens for ALL kids 14-24 throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
We also invite you to show your support for other running/sports groups and organizations, including those that center and celebrate Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), disabled people, those in the LGBTQIA+ community, and those of all body types and sizes.
Here are a few amazing organizations we work with in Minnesota that we recommend you follow, support and donate to this season:
And here are some other organizations/individuals (of many) that we hope you’ll join us in following:
– Stonewall Sports Twin Cities
– Community Centric Fundraising
Thank you for being part of our community!
Photo by Carly Danek
Photo by Isaiah Rustad
Photo by Carly Danek
Photo by Carly Danek
*Communitycentricfundraising.org shares this regarding the expansive group of people who have helped shape and inform CCF:
“Movements are built on years of work by people and organizations that are often unacknowledged. CCF walks the path paved by the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Non-Profit Anti-Racism Coalition, Social Justice Fund Northwest, Western States Center, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence’s seminal work The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, as well as the work of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Grace Lee Boggs, James Baldwin, and many, many other leaders and organizations.”
