Fieldstone Alliance and Nonprofit Finance Fund Announce Ronald A. McKinley as New Head of $9 Million Effort to Strengthen Kellogg Nonprofit Grantees

ST. PAUL, MN. AND NEW YORK CITY///November 16, 2006/Fieldstone Alliance of St. Paul, MN., in partnership with the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) of New York City, today announced the appointment of Ronald A. McKinley as the project director for the Kellogg Action Lab project.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation recently awarded a $9.3 million grant to Fieldstone Alliance to work in partnership with NFF to strengthen the effectiveness and financial sustainability of Kellogg's U.S.-based grantees, and to help bolster the nonprofit sector nationwide.

Fieldstone Alliance President Carol Lukas said: "Ron McKinley is the perfect person to lead this project. As an entrepreneurial and highly seasoned professional with deep knowledge and experience in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, Ron will make an excellent addition to the Fieldstone Alliance team leading this effort."

Throughout his career, McKinley has been committed to social and economic justice. His past positions include: director of Wilder Center for Communities at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation; vice president of The St. Paul Companies, Inc Foundation; executive director of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership; senior program officer at the Minneapolis Foundation; director of Issue Advocacy and Community Outreach at the Urban Coalition of Minneapolis; director of the Native American Educational Leadership Preparation Project at the Red Schoolhouse; and coordinator of American Indian programs at Macalester College.

McKinley expressed his great pleasure in joining the project: "I have worked in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector for over 30 years, and have never seen an effort on this scale to fundamentally shift how we make resources available to nonprofit organizations. The knowledge we gain from our work with the Kellogg grantees can be shared across the entire sector, and has the potential to make a nationwide impact on nonprofits' strength. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to what may very well be history in the making."

McKinley brings a fresh perspective to the role: "I was one of the first American Indians to serve as a foundation program officer, back in the early 1980s. Over the past twenty five years, our field has become very diverse. One of the things that excites me about this initiative is the opportunity to re-introduce traditional teaching methods such as storytelling. While these methods may be fairly new within the contemporary nonprofit system, they are actually traditional methods in communities of color. With more and more nonprofits developing in communities of color, these traditional approaches may be the best way to improve capacity and strengthen the sector."

Fieldstone Alliance also announced the appointment of Mai Neng Moua, who brings more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit community to her new position as Program Associate. Mai Neng Moua is experienced in managing a variety of programs and projects, including work with the Minnesota Humanities Commission, the Hmong American Institute for Learning, and Institute for New Americans. An award-winning author whose work has appeared in Bamboo Among the Oaks (Borealis Books) and Endstage (Vanderbilt University Press), she is founder and editor of the Hmong literary arts journal, Paj Ntaub Voice.

Fieldstone Alliance works to strengthen the performance of the nonprofit sector. With a 24-year history of providing capacity building services and knowledge resources that strengthen the nonprofit sector and the communities it serves, Fieldstone Alliance offers a comprehensive array of resources for nonprofit leaders, grantmakers, and consultants. Fieldstone Alliance typically assists close to 100 organizations and networks a year and trains 1,000 or more nonprofit leaders, consultants, and funders. Fieldstone Alliance publishes books on nonprofit management, philanthropy, and community development, which are distributed around the world. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Fieldstone Alliance has a staff of 13, supplemented by a network of affiliated consultants and authors. Fieldstone Alliance began operations as an independent organization in June 2005 after spinning off from the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation in St Paul, Minnesota.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations. Its programming activities center around the common vision of a world in which each person has a sense of worth; accepts responsibility for self, family, community, and societal well-being; and has the capacity to be productive, and to help create nurturing families, responsive institutions, and healthy communities. To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development.

Nonprofit Finance Fund (http://www.nonprofitfinancefund.org) is dedicated to increasing the impact of nonprofits in their communities by helping them get the capital and knowledge they need to make program decisions that are backed by sound financial planning and management. Founded in 1980, NFF builds the capacity of nonprofits through financial resources in the form of loans, capital grants, and asset-building programs, reinforced by a variety of advisory services. NFF has helped more than 10,000 nonprofits implement sustainable growth and improve their capacity to serve their communities. Since 1980, NFF has lent $150 million and leveraged close to $1 billion of capital investment on behalf of nonprofits. Headquartered in New York City, NFF has a staff of over 60, with additional offices serving Greater Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware; New England; Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia; Southeastern Michigan; and Northern California.