Donna Svendsen Email & Phone Number

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

As General Mills Foundation Associate Director, led the company's global employee volunteer engagement program, grants programs, and the multi-million dollar United Way Campaign across the U.S. and Canada:•Served as grants officer leading strategies for programs in education, international community grants, Twin Cities Celebrating Communities of Color Grants and grantmaking in General Mills’ U.S. facilities. •Designed, led and implemented the company’s global employee engagement program encompassing volunteerism, nonprofit board placements and retiree volunteerism - resulting in 83% of employees volunteering. •Drove community impact by leading the company’s multi-million dollar United Way Campaign at headquarters and throughout the U.S. and Canada, consistently resulting in the number one corporate campaign in the Twin Cities. Assisted the company in raising a total of $92 million over 11 years. •Directed the Twin Cities annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Breakfast, one of the nation’s largest with 2,000 attendees at the Minneapolis Convention Center.•Planned, convened and hosted the Hawthorne Huddle, a monthly north Minneapolis community meeting that addresses crime, poverty and other pressing community issues. •Developed, wrote, designed and executed Foundation communications and publicity including annual reports, newsletters, advertising, news releases and media relations.

St. Paul, Minnesota

Raised visibility of one of the nation’s top 25 liberal arts college by strategically planning public relations and media campaigns as well as developing and leading community events: •Developed and pitched story ideas to reporters and editors about the college’s mission, values and its students, faculty and staff that resulted in high-profile news stories in national, regional and local print and broadcast media. •Wrote and edited press releases, story pitches and tipsheets on a variety of news, issue oriented and human interest stories. •Worked with the Macalester College President, Provost and other senior leaders to drive PR and media attention, including garnering featured news articles and opinion pieces that ran in newspaper editorial pages. •Created directory of faculty and staff subject matter experts who served as sources for the national and local news media. •Assisted in developing and marketing college and community events such as the Broadcast Journalism Series with Minnesota Public Radio. •Wrote feature stories for college alumni magazine, faculty/staff bulletin and other campus publications.•Oversaw content of the college’s news Web site.

St. Paul, Minnesota

Reported, wrote, edited and produced in-depth radio news stories and features for various statewide news programs, including the local editions of “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered.” •Served as a political reporter at MPR’s Capitol Bureau where I covered the Minnesota Legislature and state politics, and served as the station’s social issues reporter covering poverty, housing, family and children’s issues.•Work included a mixture of live reports, general assignment reporting and feature work. In addition, was responsible for developing story ideas for features.