The McKnight Foundation’s Mississippi River Program is sunsetting after 27 years and more than 1,400 grants totaling more than $190 million in investments. The Foundation has set a new, strategic course for the future with an emphasis on climate change and racial equity and announced the change late last year. Freshwater has been fortunate to receive Mississippi River Program funding for many years for our work with the Clean Water Council, the Legacy Amendment’s Clean Water Fund, and our work to improve water quality along the Mississippi River corridor. To help bridge the gap, the McKnight Foundation has awarded Freshwater a $200,000 unrestricted operating grant to sustain our work in the coming years as we seek new revenue streams. As the Mississippi River Program comes to a close, Program Director Mark Muller recently shared his reflections and lessons learned in a blog post honoring almost three decades of transformational work for the Mississippi, which drains part or all of 31 states. Read what he had to say about how work to preserve the river has persisted and evolved.
“Today, farmers, environmentalists, and the general public are far more advanced in understanding the land and water connections, and we are managing water far better than in the past.”
—Mark Muller, McKnight Mississippi River program director