Marnita's Table

Marnita’s Table turned 20 in 2025!

We thought we’d be able to frolic and celebrate the deep impact we’ve achieved over the past 20 years in Minnesota and beyond, but instead we are confronted by critical funding challenges that threaten our ability to survive. 

Marnita’s Table seeks to close gaps across difference through making Intentional Social Interaction (“IZI") / Digital Intentional Social Interaction (“dIZI”) the new pattern for society. Our model ensures those who are traditionally unheard and excluded are actively and intentionally welcomed and valued at the policy-making, and resource-sharing table including IBPOC; women and gender expansive people; the disenfranchised; the poor; those who are LGBTQIA2s+; those who live with disabilities or other abilities; and those from communities historically and currently pushed to the margins.

IZI was never designed to be walled off behind a paywall. Instead, it was created to spread as far and as wide as possible, with the support of people who believe in building bridges instead of barriers. We hope that you are inspired to invest today or before 2025. 

We deliver as much as we can of our mission-driven transformational work where IZI is needed the most and has the least funding. We continue to be desperately needed in rural and exurban areas where black and brown people are once again being spat upon and told to “return to where you came from,” even if they “came from” that very place and have lived there all their lives. 

IZI is a human-centered technology that can be implanted, like an Intel processor to make any entity, organization, or community function more cohesively. There are other social capital building projects, but until IZI they focused on a specific area or population, each treating the lack of social capital as a totally unique scenario only applicable to that one community or challenge. IZI is designed to transfer and scale so that communities in need of coming together and revitalization can amicably and collaboratively solve almost any challenge confronting them. 

In 2008, we pivoted away from being funded mostly by grants and donors, instead deploying a social entrepreneurial consulting model where we derived more than 60% of our income from someone who hired us. We again pivoted in 2020 during Covid and following where we secured more than 80% of our income from someone who hired us. 

 We are compelled to pivot once again! We are asking for support from investors, donors, angels during this time of perceived scarcity and anger. If you’ve never made a donation, please make one now! If you haven’t made a donation for the past few years, please consider making one today! If you were planning to make a donation at the end of the year, please make it now! Please consider making a recurring donation on our contribute page to provide the Table further protection from the attacks on organizations like ours. You may have family members, or others whom you know with the financial bandwidth who would like to support our work! If you know of someone who needs our skills at building strong teams/communities, please open a door to these opportunities. Please. We need your help now! 

As you consider your ability to support our work, ask:

• Has Marnita’s Table brought something positive to you over the last 20 years?
• Have you learned, grown or expanded your personal relationships from your interactions and participation with The Table?
• Is there anything that happened for you at the Table that is still impacting you?
• If you have not experienced IZI / Marnita’s Table, has someone shared with you how it has transformed their life or the life of someone they know? 

Please act today! Your contribution to Marnita’s Table in an amount that reflects either our past or future positive impact on individuals and communities at this time of strife and discord is so valued and appreciated.