Stocktoberfest Insights with Leanne Huebner

Check out our Q&A with Leanne Huebner, founder of Minds Matter. Minds Matter connects driven and determined students from low-income families with the people, preparation, and possibilities to succeed in college, create their futures, and change the world. Today, Leanne Huebner serves as the National Board Co-Chair of Minds Matter National, an organization she helped start that helps over 1,000 students annually from low-income families prepare for life and college success. Since 1991, the organization has grown across the country serving 17 U.S cities with over 2,500 dedicated volunteers involved.

DonateStock: You are tackling education in underserved communities – no small feat! What are the biggest challenges you face?

Leanne: The pandemic hit the communities we serve - low-income communities of color - particularly hard. For us, we always want to help more and more deserving students, so any extra funds we raise allows us to serve them in new ways. For instance, in early 2019, we realized many of our mentees lacked sufficient WiFi access and technology to attend school virtually; where our funding enabled us to fix that, we did! That's where having DonateStock as an option is super valuable to us as it provides another way donors can give. In addition, while we have always accepted stock donations, DonateStock streamlined a previously time-intensive, manual process for us.

DonateStock: How is Minds Matter addressing these challenges?

Leanne: A recent Columbia University study showed that our work created a 17-to-1 return on donor investment. That's because we rely primarily on enthusiastic volunteers to deliver most of our three-year program. Typically Minds Matter volunteers are young college graduates, some with education and counseling backgrounds. As a highly student-centric organization, Minds Matter offers critical much-needed resources -- including mentoring, tutoring, extra writing and math curriculum, test preparation, summer pre-college academic programs, internships, and much more. While 100% of students gain admittance to 4-year colleges, over 75% attend selective colleges as deemed by Barron's. Overall, a college degree has proven to be an effective tool in earning significantly higher lifetime earnings enabling socioeconomic mobility.

DonateStock: What key insights have emerged from the pandemic, and is there a silver lining?

Leanne: The pandemic and the subsequent George Floyd protests only reminded us just how much work our society still needs to do to level the playing field for all. 100% of our students are low income; 98% of our students identify as BIPOC and 62% will be first generation college students. 100% of our students recognize a college degree is core to their dreams. Our pandemic silver lining is it encouraged us to adopt new approaches to delivering our unique programming. For example, almost immediately, our in-person sessions went virtual, and it allowed for cross-country face-to-face connections for students we previously did not offer.

DonateStock: How has your approach to fundraising changed?

Leanne: With in-person fundraising events shut down, Minds Matter got creative with fundraising! Events went virtual or hybrid; we now rely much more on appeals, direct asks, and larger donations. However, I must say the interest in our work has also increased dramatically. And we are truly thankful for our newest major gift donors who recognize the value of our life-changing work!

DonateStock: Where do you see new possibilities for innovation?

Leanne: Serving students longer and ensuring their socioeconomic mobility over the long term is much easier now in our tech-filled connected world than when we first started 30 years ago. However, we are still experiencing double-digit growth and retain our entrepreneurial spirit that attracted us to this work. Our most significant opportunities for innovation include new branding initiatives, new platforms, and more connections between alumni and current mentees. We have invested in these areas already but could always use more funds to further.

DonateStock: What else would you like the audience to know?

Leanne: At the core, Minds Matter is an equity-creating organization. If you are looking for a nonprofit that levels the playing field for those deserving yet under-resourced students, students of color, and those from low-income backgrounds, please look no further than Minds Matter. We would love to tell you more about our work, and feel free to learn more or donate at www.mindsmatter.org.