Learnings from the 2025 Salon Series
Collectivity has been hosting quarterly salon series conversations with nonprofit leaders since 2023 as a mechanism to foster reflection, strategy, and action.
The Salon Series has been expanded to invite more nonprofit leaders as well as guest speakers. In 2024, Collectivity became aware of the Protect, Resist, Build, Bridgeframework from the Collective Impact Forum’s A Reflection Guide for Funderstoolkit. This became a powerful tool for our team to stay grounded during a continuously fraught political and economic environment, as well as become the thematic backbone of our 2025 Salon Series.
Each salon begins with a brief introduction before moving into intentional conversation grounded in the Protect, Resist, Build, Bridge framework, with special topics shaped by community interests. Participants are encouraged to think critically, engage thoughtfully, and explore ideas for positive change. Through cross-sector dialogue, the salon series strengthens the relationships and systems that support social impact in our community.
Featured below are summaries and highlights from each 2025 salon
Summer
Nonoko Sato: CEO, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits (MCN)
Topic: Meeting this Moment: Highlighting the Protect, Resist, Build, Bridge Framework
Lessons Learned: Nonprofits derive their real power not from tax status, funding structures, or institutions, but from communities themselves, which will continue to care for one another regardless of political or legal threats. In moments of crisis, the work is to listen to historically marginalized communities, invest in long-term capacity and advocacy, and resist panic by strengthening systems for the future rather than reacting only to the emergency of the present
Powerful Quotes:
“Community care doesn’t disappear if nonprofit status disappears. Foundations and neighbors will find ways to support one another. The community will always remain to take care of one another, whether or not we call it the nonprofit sector.”
Fall
Daisuke Kawachi: Program Officer: Holistic Grantmaking, Greater Twin Cities United Way
Topic: Working Inside Strain: Collaboration, Capacity, and Power in Minnesota’s Collective-Impact Work
Lessons Learned: Collaboration is already happening across Minnesota’s social-impact sector, but it is largely invisible, underfunded, and carried by organizations operating at or beyond capacity. Without changes to funding structures and shared infrastructure, systems-level impact will continue to rely on strained relationships and uncompensated labor rather than sustained collective effort.
Powerful Quotes:
“When [two or more organizations] start a collaboration, that's the creation of connective tissue that becomes the foundation of the relationship that will not go away or end and can be grown upon with care, time, and intention.”
Winter
Sara Lueben: Director of Collective Giving at the Minneapolis Foundation
Topic: How Collective Giving can drive Systems-Level Change in Philanthropy and Minnesota’s Social-Impact Sector.
Lessons Learned: Collective giving redistributes power by centering shared decision-making, lived experience, and transparency, proving that systems change happens when communities trust themselves to lead. When people organize as “villagers,” tell their stories, and pool resources at any scale, philanthropy becomes a participatory engine that strengthens social impact far beyond what individual giving can achieve.
Powerful Quotes:
“If it takes a village, we all need to take turns being villagers”
Looking Ahead: 2026 Salon Series
At Collectivity, belonging guides our conversations and decision-making.
In 2026, we are centering Belonging, defined as inclusion, connection, recognition, and agency, inspired by the Othering & Belonging Institute’s, Resource Guide for Belonging-Builders. This framework will be the foundation of our 2026 Salon Series.
In a time of heightened polarization, this framework shifts the focus to shared humanity and collective agency. Our Salon Series puts this into practice by creating a consistent space where nonprofit leaders and community members feel valued and connected. It also offers a shared language that can strengthen collaboration and leadership across organizations.
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