In a surprising move, leaders of the Itasca Project, a civic alliance that spanned more than two decades, have decided to shut down the initiative.
One year ago, Steve Grove, publisher of the Minnesota Star Tribune, was chosen to become the Itasca Project’s chair. “Itasca has become a national model for collaboration across business, nonprofit, philanthropy, education and public sectors,” Grove said in an Oct. 22, 2024, news release. “I’m pleased to help the new team grow the impact of this work at such an important time for Minnesota.”
On Friday, Grove’s name was atop the list of Itasca Project executive leadership council members who decided to end the Itasca Project’s life span. The executive leadership council and Jake Blumberg, who had served as the Itasca Project’s managing director, were listed at the end of a 10-paragraph memo that was emailed Friday to Itasca Project working team members and funders.
The memo stated the Itasca Project “will be graduating its work to other organizations in our region moving forward.” It stated that the executive leadership council and managing director “came to a unanimous decision that the time is right to retire the Itasca Project as a standalone initiative.”
The memo indicated this conclusion was reached following “a period of careful deliberation.” Blumberg, in a LinkedIn post Thursday, described what that process entailed. He indicated on LinkedIn that he was starting a consulting business after his managing director role with the Itasca Project ended a month ago.
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“I was focused on working with Itasca leadership to answer the most important questions any organization can ask: How do we define success, and are we the right leaders to pursue it? What is the right way forward to best serve the community? As we moved through months of strategic planning work along with community connections and feedback, we considered and explored multiple paths forward to answer those questions,” Blumberg wrote.
“After seven months, Itasca leadership ultimately arrived at this conclusion: Although the past 20 years of Itasca’s work was incredibly important for our community, the work of cross-sector civic engagement is best carried forward by numerous other organizations that have grown over the past two decades — especially those led by folks with different lived experiences and identities than those who have predominantly led those efforts historically,” Blumberg wrote.
The executive leadership council’s Friday memo named some of the organizations that likely will take on the Itasca’s Project’s work on social and economic issues. “Today, the Minneapolis/St. Paul region has many organizations, such as Greater MSP, the GroundBreak Coalition, and countless other groups where business and other community leaders come together to address critical issues for our community,” the memo said.
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“The task force model that Itasca pioneered to address issues has been fully adopted by Greater MSP and others. The MYALP [Minnesota Young American Leaders Program] and YALP programs [national Young American Leaders Program], which the Itasca Project helped create and co-lead with the Center for Integrative Leadership at the University of Minnesota and Harvard Business School, will continue without interruption,” the memo said. It indicated that Greater MSP is committed to “advancing and even growing” the leadership programs in 2026 and beyond.
“Business and other community leaders gather at many tables to help work toward a vision for the region where everyone can thrive,” the memo said. “It is inspiring to see this work continue in countless ways and is proof of how strong the spirit of Itasca has become.”
Itasca Project’s accomplishments
Educational attainment, housing affordability and regional competitiveness were among the issues tackled by the Itasca Project. It usually formed a couple of task forces per year to examine social and economic challenges, and then the Itasca Project released well-researched reports and recommendations.
Task forces often were led by corporate executives, and McKinsey & Co. staffed the task forces for many years.
Friday’s memo referenced some of the major accomplishments of the Itasca Project. It said that Itasca Project leaders helped pass the “largest transportation investment in the history of the state.” That referred to an increase in the gas tax in 2008. An Itasca Project task force examined how other states were funding transportation and recommended what Minnesota could do to ensure more reliable and consistent funding.
The memo also cited the Mind the Gap/Close the Gap campaign, which expanded public understanding of socio-economic disparities related to race, class and place. It also noted the launch of Business Bridge, an effort to support local purchases by big employers to boost the regional economy.
Greater MSP, a regional economic development organization, was founded in 2011 by the Itasca Project. Greater MSP also provided a physical base for the Itasca Project in recent years.
Plan to strengthen the Itasca Project
Three years ago, Lynn Casey, former chair of the Padilla communications firm, was serving as the Itasca Project’s chair.
In a 2022 interview with Twin Cities Business, she said that the Itasca Project had existed as a virtual entity in which members would provide meeting spaces and McKinsey & Co. provided staff work.
“We’re at a point now where more is expected of Itasca,” Casey said in the 2022 interview. “We really do need more oversight, more accountability to the people who are contributing finances and time.”
Casey said she anticipated that the Itasca Project would establish an executive leadership council to govern the work of Itasca. It would secure a permanent office location and hire full-time staff.
It took all three of those actions.
In 2022, Casey was getting lots of feedback about the Itasca Project. “One of the pieces was Itasca is more important than ever. We need to keep the business community engaged and we need to have more opportunities to help them solve problems with other sector leaders,” Casey said in the 2022 interview. She added that people wanted the Itasca Project to “catalyze action.”
One year ago, on Oct. 23, the Itasca Project hosted a 20th anniversary celebration called “Catalyzing Civic Leadership.” More than 300 longstanding and emerging leaders attended the event at the Union Depot in St. Paul.
Based on that gathering, some might have thought that the Itasca Project was well-suited to build broad-based coalitions to advance public policy changes and important project initiatives.
So, it’s somewhat puzzling that Itasca Project leaders decided to sunset the organization.
While the words Itasca Project were not well-known to the general public, they were recognized by civic leaders in Minnesota. The Itasca Project also was showcased multiple times in Tom Friedman’s column in the New York Times. A native Minnesotan, Friedman characterized the Itasca Project as a model for civic engagement by business leaders.
The disbanding of the Itasca Project is occurring while the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are facing fiscal challenges, the state’s population growth is anemic, and there are sharp political divisions over public safety approaches and various government-funded programs.
In a February TCB article, some business leaders expressed concern that some CEOs lack involvement in civic affairs.
Casey shared a different perspective in that article. “I would not characterize it as a decline,” she said earlier this year. “It is an evolution driven by the complexity and intensity of the corporate environment.”
Casey and some others said that it’s important that business executives below the CEO level take on some of the civic roles that CEOs might have fulfilled in the past.
Casey has been serving on the Itasca Project’s executive leadership council, and her name appeared on Friday’s memo. Other business leaders on the council included: Audrey Lucas, managing partner of the Minneapolis office of McKinsey & Co; David Mortenson, chairman of Mortenson; John Naylor, former CEO of Medica; and Tim Welsh, former vice chair at U.S. Bank and president of Chicago-based CCC Intelligent Solutions, Inc.
In concluding the Friday memo, the executive leadership council said that it understands that “this is a change worthy of further discussion.” It said it would set up a virtual meeting in the coming weeks to “create space for dialogue” among those who received the memo. It said questions, ideas, and concerns should be directed to Steve Grove or Peter Frosch, the CEO of Greater MSP.
This article originally appeared in Twin Cities Business.
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