Get to Know Jenna Ray, Our New Executive Director and CEO

After six months as Interim Executive Director, Jenna Ray is now GiveMN’s permanent Executive Director! Jenna brings extensive experience in nonprofit leadership and community-oriented fundraising, and we're excited to have her expertise as our team embarks on this next chapter in our efforts to enhance giving and foster community-driven change.

As she transitions into this permanent role, Jenna sat down with GiveMN's Marketing and Communications team to share a little bit about herself, her hopes for GiveMN's future, her go-to karaoke song, and more! Read on to get to know her!

1. What inspired you to take on the role of Executive Director at GiveMN, and what excites you most about this new chapter?
   Right now, at GiveMN, we have an extraordinary opportunity to double down on Minnesota’s commitment to leading the nation in generosity, civic engagement, and entrepreneurship. To drive innovation in fundraising technology and practice to ignite generosity and grow giving. To repair civic fabric and address the dual crises of growing loneliness and declining household giving with curiosity, conviction, and optimism. That's work I find deeply compelling, and work that I'm uniquely positioned to lead.
   
   I’ve always aspired to be the right leader at the right time. That’s what called me to join the GiveMN board back in 2020, and the staff two years later. And it’s what called me to this role when my friend and mentor Jake Blumberg stepped away to lead our community in a new way.
   
   I’ve led a lot of fundraising campaigns over the years. Some were big, some were small. Some were in rural organizations, Native-led organizations, volunteer-led organizations, in cause areas from higher education to community development to animal welfare to gender equity. What they all had in common was hope: hope that our greatest dreams were not only possible, but also firmly within reach–just a few clicks or dollars away. That same hope is what brings me to GiveMN in a new way today.
   
   Over the last five years, I’ve had the incredible pleasure of getting to know the dedicated folks who make up the GiveMN Green Team—our wildly talented staff and board—as well as our partners, stakeholders, and community. The love that I hold for each of these people, and for the state of Minnesota, is deeper than our beloved Lake Superior. And working to bring their dreams to life $5, $10, $100 at a time is the gift and honor of a lifetime.
   
   
2. What’s one value or principle that guides your leadership style?
   Care: in my culture, leadership isn’t defined by power, position or title, but by how leaders provide for the people in their orbit and community. In our way, leaders step forward when called, compelled by a commitment to true and meaningful service, and they fall back when their work is done. That’s how I’ve always sought to lead and hope to every day in this new role.
   
   
3. GiveMN is all about generosity and community—what does “giving” mean to you personally?
   For me, the answer is tied to an understanding of “wealth” as what’s too important or valuable to be held or kept to oneself. From that perspective, wealth is something that must be shared, whether it takes the form of knowledge, resources, time, or money and other assets. “Giving” then, is the way in which one shares these resources with others for communal and collective good.
   
   
4. What’s a nonprofit, campaign, or cause that’s had a significant impact on your life?
   A few years ago, a good friend asked me to join a culture campaign he was leading. The goal was to bring Minnesotans of all walks and backgrounds together around our shared love of place. I remember asking, “Why me?” I wasn't an organizer. I wasn't a sustainability or policy expert. I wasn't even an especially good fundraiser. But I was a lot of other things. And I learned that day to listen when smart people recognize your gifts and invite you to important tables and conversations. Today I lead that organization as vice chair of the board of directors. And together, we're bringing Minnesotans together and building something special here that other states can replicate.
   
   
5. If you had a magic wand to improve one aspect of the nonprofit sector instantly, what would it be and why?
   Understanding. There’s too big a gap between the value and meaning of the work we do and the ways in which that work can sometimes be perceived and understood by the public at large. We’ve got a problem of connection and meaning-making that we can and must address together. Because we know our work matters, our program participants know our work matters, and our neighbors and lawmakers do, too. We just need to do a better job of bringing all of those folks together around an understanding of who we are, what we do, and how our success supports the success and health of all. 
   
   
6. What’s one thing on your desk right now that makes you smile?
   I get distracted easily so I try to keep my desk clear of most things, but I do have a few treasures here. One of those is the money plant I brought home on the day I found out I was going to be GiveMN’s new ED!
   
   
7. You have a free day with no meetings or emails—how are you spending it?
   Oh, I’m in the garden, dirt under my fingernails, sun on my skin, dog at my side. If I’m lucky, I’m pulling some berries off the bushes I planted last spring—before my son gets to them first! Gardening keeps me connected to family and traditions and place, which makes me a better leader on the days when I do have back-to-back meetings and more emails than I can count.
   
   
8. What’s your go-to karaoke song or guilty pleasure playlist?
   “Cadillac Ranch” by Bruce Springsteen. It started as a joke between my husband and me one night when it came up in our shuffle unexpectedly as we were driving Highway 59 between Morris and Barrett, but I’m proud to say that after 13 years of practice, I’m getting pretty good at the chorus. Third verse lyrics still trip me up, though.
   
   
9. In one word, how would you describe your hopes for the future of GiveMN? And why that word?
   Connected. In a moment when we as a society face dual crises of generosity and loneliness, connection is the solution to both—not just for the nonprofit sector, but for all of us, as individuals and as a whole. Nonprofits generally, and GiveMN specifically, have a critical role to play in bridging the gaps that keep us apart from one another and from our highest potential. I’m committed to closing that gap, and you can count on GiveMN to do so under my watch and care. Will you join us?