The Junior League of Minneapolis

The Junior League of Minneapolis is an organization of women whose mission is to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration, and training.

Since 1923, The Junior League of Minneapolis has been the driving force behind the initiatives and institutions that make our community a healthier, more vital place to live.

Our history has remained rich in our more than 100 years of service, and our impact on the community is meaningful. The community projects established by JLM have been diverse and far-reaching. 

Our community projects focus on addressing underlying issues contributing to the Twin Cities’ opportunity gap ⎯ one of the worst in the nation. The Opportunity Gap is the disparity of opportunities, experiences, and resources across various socioeconomic statuses, as well as an inequality between different races and ethnicities.

The Junior League of Minneapolis has committed to mending this gap within our community. Specifically, our 30 Million Words and Between the Lines projects address the literacy gap. We also support nonprofit partners and past projects in our local community that are working to narrow the opportunity gap with our Helping Hands project.

1. 30 Million Words—30 Million Words hosts Book Bashes. These are fun, celebratory events that provide one-on-one mentoring centered around a culturally relevant book. Children are paired with a JLM volunteer to read the selected book and participate in creative arts and crafts related to the book. They are also given a copy of the book to keep and read again and again.
2. Between the Lines — Between the Lines provides children of incarcerated female parent/caregivers an audio recording of their parent/caregiver reading a book to them, a personal message from their parent/caregiver, and a new, wrapped copy of the book.
3.  Helping Hands—Helping Hands offers thousands of volunteer hours to local nonprofit partners and past JLM projects that need hands-on womanpower to achieve their missions and meet their objectives. Shifts are structured on a “done-in-a-day” model, where tasks are discrete and solve a short-term need for the partner organization.

To support our members in tackling the challenges facing our community, The Junior League of Minneapolis develops women’s potential through skill-based training and facilitates leadership development. These experiences help members strengthen their skills, better understand our community’s needs, and become leaders in their workplaces and other nonprofit organizations.  

We look forward to this year’s Give to the Max Day, and together with you, we can continue to be catalysts for change in our community.