How Community Voices Guide Our Grant and Scholarship Decisions

At Boreal Waters Community Foundation, our grant and scholarship decisions don’t happen behind closed doors.

They’re shaped by people from the community: neighbors, professionals, artists, advocates, nonprofit leaders, and people with lived experience who come together to help decide where resources can make the greatest impact.

These volunteers serve on our Community Review Committees, playing a critical role in ensuring our grantmaking and scholarship decisions are thoughtful, fair, and rooted in real community knowledge.

Who serves on our review committees?

We intentionally seek committee members who:

• Know their communities deeply
• Bring subject-matter expertise (such as arts, environment, education, or human services)
• Have lived experience connected to the issues or opportunities being addressed

As our Director of Community Impact and Partnerships, Amber Burns, explains it, "We want people from the community who either know the community well or who have expertise in the type of fund—art, environment, education—or who bring lived experience to help decide where resources go."

This approach helps ensure that decisions reflect both professional insight and on-the-ground realities.

What do committees actually do?

Committee members review applications through an online platform, score them using shared criteria, and come together for facilitated discussions before making funding recommendations. These recommendations are then brought forward to our Board, where they directly inform final funding decisions.

Importantly, this process is designed to be transparent, consistent, and grounded in trust.

I’m impressed with how thorough the process is. I also respect how the committee’s scoring results in recommendations that directly result in the Board’s funding decisions. The funding recommendations the committee makes are taken seriously. Andrew Slade, Development Director at Minnesota Environmental Partnership and Review Committee Member for Adam Arts Fund

A Review Committee Member's Perspective

To understand what serving on a review committee is really like, we asked grant committee volunteer Jon Otis to reflect on his experience. Jon works at the Duluth Fire Department, he is the Deputy Chief of Life Safety and he has served as a review committee member on both the Morgan Fund and the Community Opportunity Fund.

For Jon, joining a committee was a way to engage more deeply with the work happening across the region and the people leading it.

“The challenges facing our region are complex. By investing in people and projects, Boreal Waters supports a deep commitment to change and offers an opportunity for all communities to thrive.”

Serving on the committees has given him a broader view of community-led work and introduced him to organizations he may not have encountered otherwise.

“Through the grants process, I’ve met many people and been introduced to organizations I had never heard of. It showed me the true depth of mission to improve our world by starting at home, on our blocks and within our neighborhoods.”

The experience has also shaped how Jon approaches his own professional role.

I’ve taken lessons learned by grantees and applied similar thinking to my own work. It’s shifted our approach to be more community-centric—moving beyond response and enforcement to service and support. Jon Otis, Deputy Chief of Life Safety at Duluth Fire Department and Review Committee Member for the Morgan Fund and the Community Opportunity Fund

Reflecting on the role community members play in the process, Jon added, “Boreal Waters places the power for change in the hands of the people doing the work. Small projects can have massive impact.”

Interested in serving? Join a Spring 2026 Review Committee! 

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We’re currently seeking volunteers to serve on Spring 2026 Grant and Scholarship Evaluation Committees. This is a meaningful way to help guide local investments across northeast Minnesota, northwest Wisconsin, and the seven sovereign tribal nations in our region.

All evaluations are conducted online, and meetings are virtual or hybrid to make participation accessible. Committee members are required to attend a virtual training.

Spring Scholarship Committees

• Training: Monday, March 2 | 9–10 am CT (virtual)
• Applications available for review: March 2
• One 60-minute committee meeting between March 18 – April 7

Spring Grant Committees

• Training: Monday, March 2 | 8–9 am CT (virtual)
• Applications available for review: March 2
• One 90-minute committee meeting between March 24 – 26

If you'd like to be considered for a review committee please complete the 2026 Spring Grant & Scholarship Committee Interest Form. Our team will follow up with you in February 2026 to confirm your participation.

Your perspective matters, and together, we can continue building a future shaped by community wisdom, trust, and shared responsibility.

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