Tell Your Story

This year’s state budget agreement contained more than $2 billion in drastic cuts to vital services, including many that Minnesota nonprofits provide to residents every day throughout the state. Those reductions have a human impact: many people are suffering because of lost services. To prevent future spending cuts of such magnitude, policymakers and the public need to hear about the impact of cuts in their communities.

The Minnesota Budget Project is looking for examples of how budget cuts are hurting Minnesota communities. We’re looking for stories that illustrate how people’s lives have changed as a result of budget cuts. Please share your stories with us.

Please complete the three questions below. The questions are guides - please feel free to add or subtract any information. After receiving your form we will contact you to discuss sharing your story with the public. We can provide training materials to help you prepare to share your story with the media and provide one-on-one advice to help you frame your story and make the case for a balanced approach to our state’s challenges, including raising revenues.

Question Title

1. What state budget cuts affect your organization? Explain in general or specific terms, such as how much state funding your organization has lost for which services due to recent budget cuts, how that has compounded over the years, and what percentage of your organization's program budgets were cut.

Question Title

2. What changes did your organization make because of the cuts? For instance, staffing changes, or reduction or elimination of services, etc. Put it in perspective: How serious were these changes for your organization?

Question Title

3. How have the budget cuts affected the people and community your organization serves? How were their lives affected? Their families? Were they forced to lose independence, ability to function, etc?

Question Title

4. Your name, organization, and phone/email you'd like us to use when we contact you:

For more information, please contact Leah Gardner at lgardner@mnbudgetproject.org or at 651-757-3063. We will contact you in the near future. Thank you for your help with this important issue.