Advocacy for State Grantmaking Reforms

Virtual – Live/Online
Fee: Free

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We hear you and we have a plan and a pathway for reform! For decades nonprofits have been dealing with burdensome, inequitable, and often extractive government grantmaking practices and have proposed a variety of reforms. Starting with the 2025 legislative session, we (the nonprofit sector in Minnesota) are presenting four of those proposals to the Legislature. The reforms deal with increasing allowable “administrative costs,” increase audit threshold, plain language summaries of RFPs, and advance payments instead of reimbursements.

If you’ve ever complained about one of those issues, this session is for you!  You’ll hear more about the specific reforms being proposed and how you and your organization can help support the effort. We are excited about this advocacy work and think you will be too.

RSVP for the event on Zoom

Event Details  

This virtual event will take place on the Zoom platform. Your access link will be emailed to you the day before the event.

This session will be recorded. The recording will be made available to registrants for 14 days after the live event.

Captioning is provided automatically through Zoom. For information on requesting CART, ASL, or another accommodation, please visit our Registration Policies page.

Speaker Information

Marie Ellis serves the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits as public policy director. In this role, Marie advances the mission and work of MCN and Minnesota’s nonprofit sector through developing MCN’s policy priorities, advocating on those issues at the state, local, and national levels, and assisting members in effectively advocating on behalf of their organizations and stakeholders. Marie is committed to continuing MCN’s work to create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all individuals and participates in overall organizational leadership and management at MCN as part of the leadership team.
Marie has been working in public policy since her first job, lobbying in Washington, DC with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Since then she has worked at the Minnesota Senate as Leadership Assistant, Catholic Charities as Public Policy Manager, and the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce as Director of Public Policy and Legal Counsel. Originally from Saint Cloud, Marie has a B.A. in Religion from Concordia College in Moorhead, a law degree from the University of Saint Thomas School of Law, and earned her NEWTs from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (she wishes).

Trisha Reinwald, vice president of member advancement, Metropolitan Alliance of Connected Communities, works with a network of community-based human service nonprofits as an advocate, connector, strategist, and collaborator. She leads strategy and member engagement as the network develops ways to leverage collective wisdom to develop new structures and solutions in order to solve complex problems and build a more equitable society. MACC operates a shared back office and together, its membership has a lot of shared knowledge about opportunities to improve state contracting.

Trisha’s career focus has long been in associations and capacity-building nonprofits in the Twin Cities community- she’s served in roles ranging from Program Assistant to Executive Director and everything in between. She holds an MA in Nonprofit Management from Hamline University and a BA in Political Science from St. Olaf College. Trisha served two terms on the national board of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN) and was a founder of the Twin Cities chapter of YNPN.