John & Denise Graves Foundation

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John & Denise Graves Foundation

Through an inventive, fluid and collaborative approach, Graves Foundation partners with emerging lea

06/19/2026

We were proud to celebrate this year’s Minneapolis Educator Leadership Awards (MELA) and the 10 remarkable educators who received 2026 grants!

A program of the John & Denise Graves Foundation in partnership with Achieve Twin Cities (Achieve Twin Cities), MELA recognizes and elevates Title I Minneapolis Public Schools educators, paraprofessionals, and support staff who go above and beyond for their students and school communities.

Through an entirely educator-led process, MELA has awarded over $1 million over 11 years in creative school project grants to 80+ educators who often don’t get the credit they deserve.
Congratulations to this year’s recipients!

06/06/2026

Join us for a celebration of the artists, stories, and community partnerships that transformed East Lake Street through public art.

Mural Day Celebration Creating Change Gallery at Graves Foundation
Saturday, June 13 10:30am to 2:00pm

Our Mural Day celebration marks the opening of a new photography exhibition featuring the work of photographer Uche Iroegbu, documenting select murals from the 2025 Mural Bonanza as part of the larger Lake Street Lift initiative.

In just six months, 33 murals were created along the East Lake Street corridor through a powerful collaboration of artists, businesses, property owners, organizers, and community members. This new exhibition honors the scale, beauty, and spirit of that once-in-a-lifetime creative effort.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to meet participating artists and collaborators throughout the event, including:

Uche Iroegbu()
Hibaaq Ibrahim ()
Ace Rice ()
Xena Goldman ()
Camila Leiva ( )
Lizardman
Ryan Stopera ()

05/29/2026

We believe how we work is just as important as what we do. We operate within 6 core pillars that connect our philosophy to our impact:

📍 Focusing on Place

🤝 Relational

🎯 Risk-Taking

⚙️Systems Aware

🫂Centering Community

🔗 Building Bridges

From the beginning, it was important to us to get granular about who we support. We decided to focus on Minneapolis youth.

By building relationships with specific communities, we can understand and impact on a deeper level. You can’t center community without being relational.

We are on the ground, in the weeds and in the mud. We have insight into Minneapolis that others don’t and connections to that 30-foot view.

We amplify grassroots leaders, bring grantees into spaces with other funders, and build bridges across the state and within our network.

We take risks on new organizations. We fund new ideas and new leaders without an existing track record but whom we feel confident in. We like the term “first funders.” Solutions are always changing, and we keep up with the pace of community needs.

We work adjacent to the system with an awareness of how it operates.

All of our grant-making is to help improve those systems and support those who fall through the cracks.

Trust is the most important currency of our work. If we are trusted, everything else works well. These values enable us to best serve the community we love. 🌱

05/22/2026

Grantee Spotlight: Black Men Teach ()

Black Men Teach believes that all children can achieve if they are seen, heard and encouraged by teachers that believe in them.

On a mission to recruit, prepare, place, and retain Black men to teach in elementary schools, BMT seeks to close the persistent academic gap between Black children, especially Black boys, and their peers by ensuring representation in the classroom during the critical elementary years.

Only 0.5% of the teaching workforce in Minnesota are Black men; we have a critical window to professionalize this pathway and ensure youth are mentored by leaders who reflect their lived experiences.

Support from the Graves Foundation has directly accelerated our mission during a pivotal year of growth, supporting approximately 60 High School Fellows, 45 College Fellows, and 23 teachers across 10 elementary schools.

05/08/2026

Grantee Spotlight: The PERIS Foundation ( )

PERIS housing was born out of the Graves Foundation’s desire to see youth thrive as they age out of foster care, aligning with our priority areas of housing and youth development. We are nearing PERIS’s 5th anniversary, and the Graves Foundation is very proud of PERIS Hill’s impact.

PERIS Hill is a mixed-income, community-integrated housing development. 15 supportive housing units within a 45-unit building, designed specifically for young people aging out of foster care.

What makes it distinct:
🔑 Robust, funded, onsite support
🔑 Early, preventative access to housing
🔑 An intentionally integrated community
🔑 Youth as co-designers
🔑 Continuous learning and adaptation

Read more about PERIS’s model here: https://www.perisfoundation.org/peris-foundation-blog/what-makes-peris-hill-peris-hill

05/01/2026

Announcing our 2026 Minneapolis Educator Leadership Award winners! For 11 years, MELA has been working with teachers to support thier peers. Our teacher-led grant process has awarded over $1,000,000 in project grants to fellow teachers and leaders in education. The Graves Foundation is grateful to and the Minneapolis teachers for their partnership.

04/20/2026

The Graves Foundation partners with non-profits, policy makers, and community leaders to create systemic change from the inside and out. and in the coming weeks, we’re highlighting the incredible grantees making that possible.

B.E.S.T. (Black, Educated, Successful, Thriving) () is a relatively new grantee on a mission to empower young Black men to excel academically and personally, leading to college graduation and successful entry into professional careers.

Founded in 2024 by .cooperjames, their work is rooted in the experiences of Black men with a vision to cultivate a generation of leaders, innovators, and change-makers who don’t just survive but thrive.

B.E.S.T. aligns with the Graves Foundation’s priority areas of education and youth development.

“Our programming is year-round, holistic, and culturally in-tune — with the support of the Graves Foundation, B.E.S.T. can expand its reach and deepen its impact, creating pathways to success for young Black men.”

And that vision is already alive. B.E.S.T. scholars are active in organizations across their high schools, college campuses, and communities throughout the Twin Cities

04/19/2026

The Graves Foundation partners with non-profits, policy makers, and community leaders to create systemic change from the inside and out. and in the coming weeks, we’re highlighting the incredible grantees making that possible.

B.E.S.T. (Black, Educated, Successful, Thriving) is a relatively new grantee on a mission to empower young Black men to excel academically and personally, leading to college graduation and successful entry into professional careers. Founded in 2024 by .cooperjames , their work is rooted in the experiences of Black men with a vision to cultivate a generation of leaders, innovators, and change-makers who don’t just survive but thrive.
B.E.S.T. aligns with the Graves Foundation’s priority areas of education and youth development.

“Our programming is year-round, holistic, and culturally in-tune — with the support of the Graves Foundation, B.E.S.T. can expand its reach and deepen its impact, creating pathways to success for young Black men.”

And that vision is already alive. B.E.S.T. scholars are active in organizations across their high schools, college campuses, and communities throughout the Twin Cities

04/10/2026

On March, 20th, 2026 the Creating Change Gallery hosted the opening of In Plain Sight, a photo exhibition from Precious Murray (.preciousartist), photojournalism fellow at Atlas of Blackness () MN program.

In Plain Sight is focused on the intersection of Dale Street and University Avenue in St. Paul, documenting the lives of unhoused and under-resourced Black Minnesotans who call the intersection home.

Murray, who is currently pursing a degree in Human Services with a focus on Social Work, through poetry and photographs masterfully challenges the viewer to see those in our community who are all too often erased.

‘In Plain Sight’ was curated by Lucina Kayee () and Patience Zalanga of Atlas of Blackness. The showcase was supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

04/07/2026

In Spring 2024, Bill Graves started the Ready, Leaders to Know podcast to give a platform to civic leaders within our community to share their personal journeys to leadership. Now in it’s 4th season, the podcast continues to feature conversations with leaders, organizers, and community builders who are driving meaningful change, sharing the pivotal moments and challenges that defined how they lead.

At a time marked by political tension, economic uncertainty, and rapid social change, leadership is evolving, and our guests this season offer powerful examples of what it means to lead through moments of crisis and transformation.

Address

2929 Chicago Avenue S
Minneapolis, MN
55407

Telephone

+16123899820

Website

http://www.jdgravesfoundation.org/

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