Community Shares of Minnesota Names New Executive Director

Sept. 17, 2009 - PRLog -- St. Paul – Community Shares of Minnesota announced today that Matt Hunter has been hired as its new Executive Director, starting October 1, 2009.    

“Being chosen to serve as Community Shares’ Executive Director is both an honor and a privilege,” said Hunter. “For the last 30 years, Community Shares of Minnesota has been rallying community support for social change in Minnesota. I am excited to join the members, board and staff to keep the social justice movement in Minnesota strong and growing.”  

Hunter comes to Community Shares from Friends for a Non-Violent World (FNVW), a Community Shares member organization, where he served as their Executive Director.  Matt is an ordained minister with the United Methodist Church with a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma.  

Hunter has strong organizational and personal experience working for social justice. Prior to his work at FNVW he worked with nonprofits in Florida to provide emergency services to homeless children and families.  Matt will bring his passion, strong coalition building and organizational leadership skills to strengthen Community Shares of Minnesota.  

“We are very excited that Matt will be joining Community Shares.  His skills and abilities are a great fit for us as we continue our work to raise financial support and increase awareness for the valuable social change work of our member organizations,”  said Carol Watson, chair of the Community Shares of Minnesota Board of Directors. “Matt is joining Community Shares following a transition where we reorganized to meet the challenges facing our community.  With his leadership, and with the support of our members, board and staff, we are poised for growth built upon our long history of funding and support of social change in Minnesota.”    

Community Shares of Minnesota is a federated fund comprised of 44 grassroots organizations addressing social justice issues with the mission of bringing people and resources together to create strong, healthy communities and a more equitable Minnesota. Community Shares raises money through workplace giving so that its member groups can meet critical needs by tackling community problems at their core with a focus on creating healthy communities and engaging those most affected.

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Like other giving campaigns, Community Shares is a federation. When you give to us, you fund our member groups. In our case, we focus exclusively on community-led organizations working at the roots of the issues—and making a measurable difference.