2024 Impact Report

Introduction

Greetings all -

We are thrilled to share our 2024 annual impact report with you and your team members! The entire Collectivity team has contributed to its contents and we’re hopeful that you’ll find something directly relevant to the work of your organization.

In fact, much of what we’ve included in this report is a direct result and a reflection of the work that you and other community-based organizations do to improve the lives of the many individuals you serve each day.

We take great pride in knowing that our work is helping each of you to make a bigger impact in the lives of so many, and we remind ourselves daily how honored and grateful we are to be your partners in making our communities a better place.

While we celebrated with many of you on the occasion of our 10th anniversary last May, we’re clear that we can not rest on our laurels. Especially in light of the new administration’s promise to disrupt many things our sector depends on. We are ready to support you and your team to meet the challenges ahead. Thanks for all you do!

Scott D. Cole and Shehla Mushtaq

Managing Partners

Our Theory of Change

We believe that meaningful change comes from collective action. Effective organizations that work together will influence and create changes at a systems level, which will drive changes at a population level. Our goal is to help create conditions for systems change to occur.

We not only create direct impact through increasing organizational capacities, we also foster collective impact through facilitating partnerships and information sharing across organizations.

Our Services

  • Addressing significant disparities at scale requires effective collaboration. As experts in collective action, we help coalitions navigate the complexities of delivering systems-level change while balancing diverse stakeholder interests. Drawing from our collaborative experience, we offer a strategic and operational approach scaled to meet the unique needs of your coalition. We'll establish a shared measurement structure to track successes, guide course corrections, and demonstrate the collective impact of your initiatives.

  • Our skilled facilitators will work closely with your organization to design a customized strategic planning process that fosters shared understanding of your unique strengths and opportunities. We'll collaborate with you and your team to define success for the next phase of your nonprofit's journey. Our approach to organizational development ensures broad involvement from staff, board, and the community, instilling a sense of ownership in implementing the plan. We'll equip you with a clear and actionable execution approach to move your strategic initiatives forward.

  • In a resource-constrained environment, optimizing operations and leveraging technology can empower your organization to achieve more with less stress. Our experienced consultants will assess your current operations and offer practical recommendations to save time and enhance mission delivery through streamlined processes and technology integration. We'll conduct a thorough return on investment analysis for these improvements, enabling you to make informed decisions. Our team, along with a network of cooperative partners, will implement the highest priority recommendations you select, ensuring efficient execution.

  • In the face of strategic complexity, your organization's success hinges on effective governance and leadership. Our experienced team, with years of hands-on experience, will support your board in becoming active leaders in co-creating your organization's strategic direction. We'll empower your board members with education, training, and tools to enhance their performance and alignment with your organization's mission. With a focus on service to your mission, your board will play a valuable role in driving your organization's success.

  • Measuring and reporting impact is vital for demonstrating the effectiveness of your organization's efforts. Our expert consultants will help you develop robust impact measurement frameworks and systems. We'll assess the social and environmental outcomes of your programs and projects, providing insights to enhance decision-making and optimize resource allocation. Our comprehensive reporting will showcase your organization's achievements and reinforce your commitment to transparency and accountability.

Impactful Internships

“Collectivity’s supportive environment is built on trust, collaboration, and a shared passion for service. This fosters a space where ideas thrive and responsibilities are shared. I’m grateful for this culture, which has given me the opportunity to take on meaningful projects that deliver quality and impactful results for our clients and partners. The team’s dedication to working with passion and serving our communities deeply inspires me, and I’m honored to learn and grow alongside such a driven and compassionate group.”

Rara Dzikrina Istifadah, St. Olaf

A special thank you to Mona Sun and Jolene Lam for participating in internships at Collectivity in 2024!

Three Core Values

Collectivity upholds three core values: gratitude, collaboration, and equity. As a cooperative, we prioritize collaboration, believing that system-level change is achievable only through aligned efforts. Equity is a cornerstone of our approach, recognizing that true excellence in serving arises from creating equal opportunities for all. We actively listen to and follow the lead of marginalized communities. Gratitude is expressed for our clients who inspire and drive change, fueling our passion for impactful work. These values form the foundation of how Collectivity operates, fostering relationships that create healthy, positive, thriving spaces that promote innovation, imagination, and a thriving environment for high-impact results.

Equity

MN Promise Act

At Collectivity, equity is more than a value—it’s a commitment that shapes how we partner with organizations to create lasting social impact. One such collaboration is with the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), a leader in strengthening neighborhood economies. Together, we are supporting NDC’s administration of the state-funded MN PROMISE Act program, an initiative that embodies equity in action. The program will distribute $79 million in grants and $22 million in loans to bolster small Minnesota businesses with annual revenues under $750,000, particularly those in communities affected by structural racism, civil unrest, limited access to capital, population decline, aging demographics, and a lack of economic diversification.

By partnering with NDC, Collectivity remains dedicated to fostering solutions that prioritize equity, strengthen communities, and drive meaningful change across Minnesota’s neighborhoods.

Collaboration

Youth as Champions

Collaboration drives everything we do at Collectivity. With the guidance and wisdom of Dr. Rose Wan-Mui Chu of Plum Blossom Strategy, our partnership with Elevate Teaching and the Youth as Champions (YAC) pilot program is a shining example. YAC brought together diverse youth from across Minnesota to create content by youth, for youth, aimed at elevating the teaching profession.

Through this collaboration, participants contributed over 125 creative ideas, shaping key messages for the Elevate Teaching Movement. Their insights have become the foundation for strategies that champion the teaching profession by advocating for student involvement, diversity, and stronger support for educators.

Working together, Collectivity, Plum Blossom Strategy, and Elevate Teaching centered youth voices, empowering the next generation to drive meaningful change in education.

Gratitude

10-Year Celebration

As we celebrated 10 years of collaboration and impact in May of ‘24, we are profoundly thankful for the incredible organizations, partners, and clients who have been part of this journey. Their dedication to positive social change inspires us every day, and we are honored to work alongside passionate teams and individuals to build stronger communities. 2024 marked a milestone anniversary, offering a moment to reflect on a decade of growth, innovation, and success. Our success is rooted in the trust, creativity, and shared vision of our network. From hosting Salons and First Fridays to fostering partnerships that amplify your work, gratitude shapes how we create connections and spaces for meaningful impact. As we look ahead, we are excited about the opportunities and challenges to come, knowing that our community of change-makers will continue to inspire and drive us forward.

Thank you for being part of this journey!

Collectivity Approach to Considering Impact

Effective organizations working in tandem can bring about systemic changes that resonate at the population level. At Collectivity our aim is to foster the conditions conducive to such transformative shifts. We utilize our own Framework—combining Direct Impact, Indirect Impact, and Collective Impact—to assess our collective activities. The following sections will provide an in-depth exploration of Collectivity’s 2024 impact, offering insights into each dimension through the lens of our direct, indirect, and collective impact.

Impact Contribution

What is Impact Contribution? Collectivity’s most important goal when engaged on a client project is to fulfill on the outcomes that were outlined at the beginning of the project. Many times, to fulfil on the deliverables within the budget a client has established, the Collectivity team expends more hours than are billed in order to deliver the exceptional results. This unbilled time is what we call Impact Contribution. We typically show this amount as a credit on our invoices, so our clients can count it, if they wish, as in-kind contributions for purposes of reporting to funders.

Our experience has been that this “goodwill” is paid forward in great referrals that we’re honored to receive when clients recommend us to their peers.

Indirect Impact

Client Highlights

Our goal is to help our partners and clients succeed in achieving their visions. Collectivity’s indirect impact is reflected through our clients direct impact on their communities. We are thankful to get the opportunity to work with so many inspiring organizations, whose work raises the standard of living in Minnesota every day. Honoring the amazing work our clients have accomplished this year, here are a some highlights of just a few of the incredible things they’ve achieved!

  1. Redesign Inc celebrated the grand reopening of the historic Coliseum building on Lake Street in Minneapolis, marking the culmination of years of effort, while also unveiling Wadaag Commons, the final phase of the Seward Commons project. Additionally, Taylor Smrikárova was named to Finance & Commerce’s POWER List for her significant impact on Minnesota’s commercial real estate development.  

  2. The Neighborhood Development Center (NDC) completed and distributed the first round of grants under the MN PROMISE Act which is supporting small Minnesota businesses with a total of $79 million in grants and $22 million in loans.  

  3. Northcountry Cooperative Foundation secured a $20.3 million Preservation and Reinvestment Initiative for Community Enhancement (PRICE) grant, focused on preserving manufactured housing communities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas.  

  4. The Improve Group won the prestigious President’s Management Agenda (PMA) Learning Agenda Challenge, recognizing their work on a toolkit for measuring public participation and community engagement strategies.  

  5. The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation announced the launch of the new annual statewide grant program in January 2025, the Minnesota Community IDEAS Grant. This is set to award $1.6 million annually to nonprofits serving Minnesota and Tribal Nations.  

  6. East Side Employment xChange launched the xChange Partner Portal, providing an online tool for partners to access resources for job counselors and support job seekers.

Indirect Impact

Client Spotlight Story: Park Nicollet Foundation

In October 2024, Collectivity shared a video interview with Hayley Mueller, a leader at Park Nicollet Foundation, reflecting on the impactful partnership between Collectivity and the foundation during their strategic planning process. In the video, Hayley discusses how Collectivity helped guide the foundation through a comprehensive discovery and visioning process, bringing clarity and collaboration to their work and enabling them to align their strategies with community needs. This full interview provides deeper insights into the journey, shedding light on how the foundation’s strategic plan is shaping their future and driving impact in the community.

How has the Strategic Planning Process Played a Role in Supporting Your Impact in the Community?

I came into this role around 15 months ago to a great organization that had not had an effective strategic plan in over a decade. We were the wild west of HealthPartners. There is some fun in that; we got to do a lot of different things. However, there were no guardrails, clarity, or focus. I knew I needed to find a third-party perspective and a partner that has a mission at its core and is about collaboration, who could help me see the forest through the trees. We are very complex—healthcare in general is complex—and to see one piece of a bigger picture, I needed a partner who could help me sift through that. 

I was super impressed with the process of discovery at the beginning. I needed that as a new leader, my team needed that having been through a transition, and perhaps most importantly, my board needed that. I needed a process that was going to engage them deeply in the work and invite them to ask really hard questions. We asked things that maybe weren’t asked before, or even taboo to ask before. This partnership with Collectivity helped us do that in so many ways—such as what people think of us, or that they don’t think of us at all. The impact we can have when we are better together is huge. I thought of Collectivity captaining our ship, and we are all under the deck making us sail—I always felt we had clarity, a true north, in the process. We would not have had that without Collectivity’s partnership.

Hayley Mueller, Executive Director of Park Nicollet Foundation

Continue reading the full interview or watch the original video below! Learn more about Collectivity’s approach to strategic planning and what comes after completing a strategic plan.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Hayley Mueller for generously sharing her time and insights in this interview. We also want to express our gratitude to Zara Zanussi and Scott Cole for their thoughtful facilitation of the conversation, ensuring the depth and value of the discussion.

Collective Impact

At Collectivity, we champion the theory of collective impact. It starts with Collectivity inputs—dedicated collaboration, equity-driven practices, and client-focused services. These inputs yield outputs, the tangible services we provide to our clients. In the short term, these service efforts translate into improved client outcomes - positive changes within specific contexts. Short-term wins build momentum, leading to intermediate outcomes that signify progress toward broader goals. Collectivity’s overarching goal is to empower our clients to succeed in their missions holistically, thereby amplifying impact collectively in the communities they serve.

It's a ripple effect that starts with our support and resonates far beyond.

The History of Collectivity

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ENGAGE

Thank you for joining Collectivity in celebrating 2024! Here are a few ways to engage with us in 2025!

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We Gratefully Acknowledge…

30,000 Feet ￮ Advancing Equity Coalition ￮ Amazeworks ￮ American Indian Family Center ￮ Best Buy ￮ Blandin Foundation ￮ Comcast ￮ Community Sharing Fund ￮ Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio ￮ ConnectedMN ￮ Construct Career Pathways ￮ Construct Tomorrow ￮ Cooperative Network Services ￮ East Central Minnesota Educational Cable Cooperative ￮ East Side Employment xChange ￮ East Side Neighborhood Development Company ￮ Energy CENTS Coalition ￮ Goodwill Easter Seals ￮ Greater MSP Partnership ￮ GreatMN Schools ￮ Healing Justice Foundation ￮ Health Partners ￮ HIRED ￮ Hmong American Partnership ￮ Improve Group ￮ Jewish Family Services ￮ Karen Allawalla ￮ Karen Organization of Minnesota ￮ Kate Barr ￮ Lake Street Alignment & Longfellow Rising ￮ Lakes Country Service Cooperative ￮ Latino Economic Development Center ￮ Lead for Minnesota ￮ LeadMN ￮ Lewis M. Rambo ￮ Literacy Minnesota ￮ LukeWorks ￮ Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota ￮ Merrick Community Services ￮ Metro State University ￮ Metropolitan Economic Development Association ￮ Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures ￮ Minneapolis Public School System ￮ Minnesota Association of Professional Employees ￮ Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership ￮ Minnesota Council of Nonprofits ￮ Minnesota Department of Education ￮ Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development ￮ Minnesota Future Farmers of America ￮ Minnesota Office of Broadband Development ￮ Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board ￮ Minnesota State Colleges and Universities ￮ Moonshot Consulting ￮ Neighborhood Development Center ￮ Neka Creative ￮ New Vision Foundation ￮ Northcountry Cooperative Foundation ￮ Park Nicollet Foundation ￮ Patrick and Aimee Butler Family Foundation ￮ Plum Blossom Strategy ￮ Ramsey County Career Force ￮ Ramsey County Public Health ￮ Real Time Talent ￮ Redesign Inc ￮ Rooted to Last ￮ Saint Paul and Minnesota Foundation ￮ Saint Paul Public Schools ￮ Science Museum of Minnesota ￮ Shared Capital Cooperative ￮ Small Sums ￮ Social Enterprise MSP ￮ Southwest Initiative Foundation ￮ Springboard for the Arts ￮ St. Olaf Scott Kloeck-Jenson Social Impact Scholars Program ￮ Suburban Ramsey Family Collaborative ￮ Summit OIC ￮ Teach.org ￮ The Food Group ￮ The Joyful Life: A Wellness Boutique ￮ University of Minnesota Carlson School of Business ￮ UpLift Movement ￮ Urban Roots ￮ US Creative Works ￮ Venn Media ￮ World Youth Connect ￮ Zarafa Consulting

THANK YOU