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Sustaining Environmental Systems

Photo: Mississippi Park Connection

Our Goal

We strive to enable all Minnesotans to have equitable and sustainable access to healthy land and water.

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Our Beliefs

We believe that if a broad base of Minnesotans has positive exposure to and experiences with land and water, they will be enabled to acquire, share, and/or implement a range of environmental approaches resulting in:

  • Effective environmental solutions and stewardship that originate in and are led by and for communities most affected by the environmental impact. 

 

  • Opportunities for all communities to experience ways of being, learning, and respectfully and mutually leveraging knowledge that provides alternatives to dominant extractive human/land and water relationships that lead to better outcomes for the land, water, and all Minnesotans.

 

  • Reduced and repaired environmental harms to black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), and other historically marginalized communities resulting in restoration of relationships, communities, and environments.

Photo: Metro Blooms

Climate and Racial Justice

As we are learning to prioritize racial and climate justice in our work, we seek partners who are doing the same, acknowledging that climate change:

• Interacts with and worsens existing inequalities in society that are shaped by racism, exclusion, and oppression.

• Requires integrated approaches centering the well-being of human and natural communities most adversely impacted.

• Will be best addressed through knowledge, ideas, and leadership from BIPOC communities and others adversely impacted by climate and other environmental harms.

Photo: Metro Blooms

Our Partners

In addition to prioritizing climate and racial justice in their work, we seek partners who work to sustain healthy land and water.

We acknowledge that a range of environmental approaches could be used to accomplish this outcome and work with partners who promote:

• Information, education, and practices that lead to new, deeper, and/or resurfaced understanding, and/or a renewed relationship with land and water.

• Opportunities for BIPOC and other historically marginalized communities to practice and/or renew culturally based stewardship practices that lead to improved land, water, and community health.

• Sustainable economic options grounded in environmental approaches that meet basic needs, stimulate growth, and create opportunity.

• Policy solutions that center community voice to reduce environmental harms to BIPOC and other historically marginalized communities.

• Two or more of the approaches above, understanding that comprehensive approaches will achieve deeper and more sustainable outcomes. For example, while an organization that works exclusively to help BIPOC youth understand how their behaviors affect the environment through participating in community-wide cleanups may be considered, an organization that engages those same youth in leadership and advocacy to reduce environmental harms to communities while also supporting the communities where the youth live in transitioning to solar power would receive higher consideration.

Photo: Friends of the Mississippi River

The Mortenson Family Foundation may make multi-year grants as an additional way to support partner organizations with two- or three-year grant commitments that are capped at 33% of the following year’s projected grantmaking budget. The Foundation will use its discretion in considering an organization for a multi-year grant.

The Foundation accepts Letters of Inquiry from prospective partners annually.

Geography: Minnesota

Photo: Mississippi Park Connection

Our Committee

Rodrigo Cala

Rodrigo Cala

Rodrigo Cala grew up on a family farm near Mexico City which grew broccoli and cauliflower. He moved from Mexico to Minnesota in 1996. After graduating from the Minnesota Food Association three-year training program for immigrant farmers near Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, Rodrigo and his brother purchased their own farm. Rodrigo also works at the Latino Economic Development Center, where he is responsible for developing and delivering an agricultural training program for beginning Latino farmers.

Bio

Sachi Graber

Sachi Graber

Sachi Graber is the Climate Policy lead for The Nature Conservancy in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Her work focuses on scaling climate mitigation and adaptation strategies via policy, corporate support, and community engagement. Sachi’s commitment to climate policy stems from deep passion and experience in renewable energy and community development. Prior to working with TNC, Sachi was a Senior Associate with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Africa Energy program.

Bio

Alice Mortenson

Alice Mortenson

Alice Mortenson currently serves as chair and president of the Mortenson Family Foundation, established in 1999 by Alice and her late husband, M.A. “Mort” Mortenson, Jr. She has been active for 25+ years at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, where she has served as a Trustee. Alice and Mort founded the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering at the University of Colorado and were founding members of United Way's Century Legacy Society. Alice has also served on the Board of Directors UW Foundation, and in 2005, established The Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History. Alice serves as a Trustee of Macalester College. She also serves on the Foundation’s Investment, Environmental, and International Committees.

Bio

Chris Mortenson

Chris Mortenson

Christopher is a committed science teacher and educator. He helped found Upper Mississippi Academy, an urban public charter school focused on engaging lifelong learners in active, authentic experiences, including hands-on environmental experiences. Chris has traveled and taught throughout the world and currently lives and teaches in Milan, Italy. He has served on various environmental and education organization boards. Chris is the chair of the Foundation’s Environmental Committee and serves on its International and Investment Committees.

Bio

Mark Mortenson

Mark Mortenson

In 2002, the M. A. Mortenson Company's board of directors appointed Mark Mortenson to the position of corporate secretary. In 2005, Mark led the Company in restructuring its investment program and in 2007, became president of Lansing Group, LLC, which manages the investment programs for the parent company and its subsidiaries. Lansing Group also manages investment programs for the Mortenson Family Foundation and private entities and has become a full-service family office. Mark is chair of the Foundation’s International Committee and serves on its Environmental Committee.

Bio

Mathias Mortenson

Mathias Mortenson

Mathias is the founder and principal of an architectural firm in Minneapolis that focuses on community and the city. His career spans stints with Frank Gehry and Gensler as well as firms in Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco. After returning to Minnesota he spent five years with Mortenson Construction working as an architect’s liaison on the contractor side. He started his firm in 2016. Mathias serves on the Foundation’s Environmental and Investment Committees.

Bio

Brett Ramey

Brett Ramey

Brett Ramey (Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska) is a land-based educator and program designer working at the intersections of ecological, cultural and community health. This has included designing courses on Indigenous foodways and climate change at a Tribal University, conducting community-based health research, facilitating healing retreats for cancer survivors, and advising on numerous national and tribal climate justice and conservation initiatives.  Prior to moving to Dakota homelands in Minneapolis in January 2020, Brett served as Director for the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington, a national undergraduate student program that infuses conservation practice with Indigenous knowledges and perspectives of land and environmental justice. Brett currently serves on the Steering Committee for the Castanea Fellowship, a national program for established food movement leaders, and is leading a collaborative funding process through the Regenerative Agriculture Foundation intended to direct resources to and amplify BIPOC-led initiatives. Brett is a Climate Resilience Planner for the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

Bio

Darlene St. Clair

Darlene St. Clair

Iyekiyapiwin Darlene St. Clair, a citizen of the Lower Sioux Community, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Multicultural Resource Center at St. Cloud State University. Darlene is Chair of Dream of Wild Health, whose mission is to restore health and well-being in the Native community by recovering knowledge of and access to healthy Indigenous foods, medicines, and lifeways. Darlene is also an advisor of Dakota Wicohan, a Native non-profit organization whose mission is to revitalize the Minnesota Dakota language and lifeways.

Bio

Janiece Watts

Janiece Watts

Janiece Watts is the Director for Culture and Partnerships at Fresh Energy. Before joining Fresh Energy, Janiece worked as a community engagement manager for Eureka Recycling where she developed strategies on zero waste and environmental justice. She is an established racial and environmental justice organizer working in the Twin Cities for over ten years. Janiece is a board member of Headwaters Foundation for Justice, MN350, and serves on the new St. Paul Climate Justice Advisory Board.

Bio

“There’s no limit to what we can accomplish when we work together.”

Photo: Minnesota Land Trust

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