HECUA -- Community Partners Resources- Otto Bremer Profile/Partnership in Practice

PARTNERING WITH THE OTTO BREMER FOUNDATION

— Partners Internship Program

— Capacity Buiding Grants

— Philanthropy & Human Rights Fellowship

HECUA has partnered with the Otto Bremer Foundation on several significant programs.

In 2001, HECUA began to coordinate the Partners Internship Program which provides paid summer internships through grants to nonprofit organizations in Minnesota, North Dakota and northwestern Wisconsin.

Recently the Otto Bremer Foundation again joined with HECUA to provide six paid graduate fellowships. These fellowships will help fellows gain professional experience through significant and meaningful work at the Foundation. They will engage in human rights and social change through philanthropic initiatives and apply their academic specialty to nonprofit vocational opportunities.

In total HECUA has received more than $700,000 from the Foundation since 2001 to continue its programs for civic engagement, student involvement and social justice.

The Otto Bremer Foundation has a long history of philanthropic work and serving its communities. Otto Bremer came to Minnesota as a German immigrant in 1886 and started a career in the St. Paul banking industry. Throughout his life he was actively engaged in a range of civic, financial, and corporate activities. Many of his investments were in independent rural banks. During the Depression of the 1930s, Bremer liquidated many of his personal assets to strengthen the countryside banks and help them ride out hard times.

Mr. Bremer’s life experiences shaped and directed the work of the Foundation from its inception in 1944. His knowledge and concern for the strengths and hardships of the rural and immigrant experience, coupled with his commitment to his countryside banks, led to the establishment of the Otto Bremer Foundation.

The Otto Bremer Foundation today has made a commitment to strengthen the nonprofit sector and to help ensure that the organizations serving communities are healthy, strong, and focused on their mission. The work of the Foundation continues to reflect the expressed interests and concerns of Otto Bremer. His vision and spirit continue to live through the Foundation’s investment and partnership with the people and nonprofit organizations in the region.