Resilient Cities and Communities

What it reported doing in 2025

Urban Forestry and Community Greening - we partnered with 3 neighborhoods, the Minneapolis Health Department, MPRB and Birch Tree to organize tree education workshops and tree planting events with parents and kids working side by side with trained foresters to plant trees at child care centers, schools, parks and nonprofit affordable housing locations. We offered the tree education sessions in both English and Spanish to engage Latine community members to learn about the benefits of trees, how to correctly plant trees and care for them, how to manage tree pests and about opportunities for careers in Forestry. We're supporting 4 neighborhoods to increase their tree coverage from 15% up to 40% by ensuring that all new trees are planted correctly and are watered weekly for the first 3 years to get well established to provide benefits for decades to come. https://rccmn.co/trees Through our Growing Communities outreach with Hennepin County we engaged community members to help plan a new pollinator garden that is being developed on a vacant lot in an industrial area in Eden Prairies that is adjacent to a regional bike trail. RCC is partnering with Landbridge Ecological and Hennepin County to transform a formerly overgrown lot near 7690 Corporate Way in Eden Prairie into a native pollinator habitat. The project aims to restore biodiversity, with planting scheduled to follow invasive species removal, and will be maintained to create a sustainable ecosystem. https://eplocalnews.org/2025/05/22/from-blight-to-bloom-overgrown-lot-to-be-transformed-into-pollinator-garden/ Through this project RCC, Hennepin Co. Northern Gardener and Project Sweetie Pie hosted a Community Garden Leader's Fall Harvest Celebration that brought together 70 urban garden leaders and nonprofit, city and county partners to reflect on this growing season and plan what we wanted to work on over the winter to get ready for next summer. RCC and the MN State Horticultural Society are planning to Co-launch a city wide community garden leaders network in the spring of 2026 to organize garden hubs in South, SE, North and NE Minneapolis to distribute more seeds, plants, compost and mulch to support 50 community gardens to grow and share more fresh prorduce https://rccmn.co/gardens-food-pollinators/

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 73%; rating input score 73
• Program expense ratio: 79.9%; rating input score 80
• Fundraising efficiency: $3.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 6 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 67
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Fail
  • Other executive compensation review process: Fail
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Fail

Sustainability

• Operating margin: 8.6%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.16; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 74.1%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: Limited
• Revenue growth: 60.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 67.6% per year; rating input score 100; 97th percentile among comparable filings