Tag: arrangements

Jonathan Weinhagen Resigns from Mounds View School Board Amid Embezzlement Allegations

Jonathan Weinhagen, 42, of Shoreview, resigned from the Mounds View school board on Friday amid allegations that he embezzled more than $200,000 from the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce during his tenure as its president and CEO.

Weinhagen stepped down from his elected school board seat effective immediately, according to a notice from Mounds View Public Schools sent to district families and staff Friday afternoon. He had served on the seven-member board since June 2014. The board will discuss steps to fill the remainder of his term, which ends on January 3, 2028.

The school board chair, Diane Glasheen, and district superintendent, Chris Lennox, did not respond to requests for comment from the Pioneer Press.

The five-count indictment alleges that between December 2019 and June 2024, Weinhagen orchestrated a fraud scheme by setting up sham contracts with a consulting company he created. He deposited money from these contracts into a bank account under the false company’s name and used the funds for personal expenses.

On Wednesday, a grand jury indicted Weinhagen on one count each of wire fraud, mail fraud, attempted bank fraud, and providing a false statement on a loan application. He made his initial court appearance on Thursday and was released from custody on an unsecured $25,000 bond.

One of the allegations includes stealing $30,000 that the chamber had given to Crime Stoppers as reward money following the shootings of three children in Minneapolis in May 2021. After the cases remained unsolved, Weinhagen requested the return of the funds in May 2022 and directed Crime Stoppers to send the refund check to his home, falsely claiming it was the chamber’s new address. He then allegedly used the money for personal expenses.

Additionally, Weinhagen is accused of using a chamber credit card for personal expenses such as first-class airfare and a two-bedroom oceanfront hotel room in Honolulu. He created fake documents to make these expenses appear legitimate as chamber business.

After leaving the chamber, prosecutors say Weinhagen attempted to defraud a bank by applying for a loan of $54,661 with false information. He claimed employment with a Minnesota-based restaurant holding company and submitted a phony bank stub showing a $425,000 annual salary. The bank denied the loan.

Weinhagen worked at the St. Paul Area Regional Chamber of Commerce for about six and a half years, including over two years as vice president, before joining the Minneapolis chamber in October 2016. His resignation from the Minneapolis organization followed an internal investigation that projected a $500,000 deficit for 2024.

As of this publication, an attorney for Weinhagen has not been listed in federal court records, and he has not responded to requests for comment regarding the allegations.
https://www.twincities.com/2025/10/24/jonathan-weinhagen-resigns-from-mounds-view-school-board-amid-federal-fraud-allegations/

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**Trio House Press Acquires Red Dragonfly Press**

Minneapolis-based Trio House Press announced it is acquiring Red Dragonfly Press, the acclaimed Minnesota-based small press founded by the late poet and publisher Scott King.

Known for its commitment to books with rural, communal, and environmental themes, Red Dragonfly has been a part of Minnesota’s literary landscape for more than two decades. Among its books are *Loon in Late November Water* by Freya Manfred and *The Ice-Cream Vigils: Last Poems* by Philip Dacey.

When the acquisition is finalized in 2026, Trio House will officially launch the Red Dragonfly imprint.

For more information, visit triohousepress.org.
https://www.twincities.com/2025/10/19/literary-calendar-for-week-of-oct-19-2/

By GLENN GAMBOA

The first foreign trip Joel Holsinger took in 2019 after joining the board of directors at the global health nonprofit PATH convinced him that he needed to do more to raise money for charities. The investment manager, who is now also a partner and co-head of alternative credit at Ares Management Corp., saw firsthand how a tuberculosis prevention program was helping residents of Dharavi, India’s largest slum. He also saw that the main hurdle to expanding the program’s success was simply a lack of funding.

“I wanted to do something that has purpose,” Holsinger told The Associated Press. “I wanted a charitable tie-in to whatever I do.”

Shortly after returning from India, Holsinger created a new line of investment funds where Ares Management would donate at least 5% of its performance fee, also known as the “promote,” to charities. The first two funds of the resulting Pathfinder family of funds alone have raised more than $10 billion in investments and, as of June, pledged more than $40 million to charity.

Holsinger wanted to expand the model further. On Wednesday, he announced Promote Giving, a new initiative to encourage other investment managers to use the model, which launches with funds from nine firms, including Ares Management, Pantheon, and Pretium.

The funds that are now part of Promote Giving represent about $35 billion in assets and could result in charitable donations of up to $250 million over the next 10 years.

Unlike broader models like ESG investing, where environmental, social, and governance factors are taken into account when making business decisions, or impact investing, where investors seek a social return along with a financial one, Promote Giving seeks to maximize the return on investment, Holsinger said. The donation only comes after investors receive their promised return and only from the manager’s fees.

“We’re not doing anything that looks at lower returns,” Holsinger said. “It’s basically just a dual mandate: If we do good on returns for our institutional investors, we will also drive returns that go directly to charity.”

Charities, especially those who do international work, are in the midst of a difficult funding landscape. The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and massive cuts to foreign aid this year have affected nearly all nonprofits in some way. Those nonprofits who don’t normally receive funding from the U.S. government still face increased competition for grants from organizations who saw their funding cut.

Kammerle Schneider, PATH’s chief global health programs officer, said this year has shown how fragile public health systems are and has reinforced the need for “agile catalytic capital” that Promote Giving could provide.

“There is nothing that is going to replace U.S. government funding,” said Schneider, adding that the launch of Promote Giving offers hope that new private donors may step in to help offer solutions to specific public health problems.

“I think it comes at a time where we really need to look at the overall architecture of how we’re doing this and how we could be doing it better with less.”

Sal Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, which offers free learning resources for teachers and students, says the structure of Promote Giving could provide nonprofits stable income over several years that would allow them to spend less time fundraising and more time on their charitable work.

“It’s actually been hard for us to raise the philanthropy needed for us to have the maximum impact globally,” said Khan.

While Khan Academy has the knowledge base to expand rapidly around the world and numerous countries have shown interest, Khan said the nonprofit lacks enough resources to do the expensive work of software development, localization, and building infrastructure in every country. Khan hopes Promote Giving can grow into a major funder that could help with those costs.

“We would be able to build that infrastructure so that we can literally educate anyone in the world,” he said.

Holsinger hopes for that kind of growth as well. He envisions investment managers signing on to Promote Giving the way billionaires pledge to give away half their wealth through the Giving Pledge, and he hopes other industries will develop their own mechanisms to make charitable donations part of their business models.

Kate Stobbe, director of corporate insights at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a coalition that advises companies on sustainability and corporate responsibility issues, said their research shows that companies that establish mission statements that include reasons for existing beyond simply profit generation have higher revenue growth and provide a higher return on investment.

Having a common purpose increases workers’ engagement and productivity, while also helping companies with recruitment and retention, said Stobbe, who said CECP will release a report that documents those findings based on 20 years of data later this week.

“Having initiatives around corporate purpose help employees feel a connection to something bigger,” she said. “It really does contribute to that bottom line.”

That kind of win-win is what Holsinger hopes to create with Promote Giving.

He said many of the world’s problems don’t lack solutions. They lack enough capital to pay for the solutions.

“We just need to drive more capital to these nonprofits and to these charities that are doing amazing work every day,” he said. “We’re trying to build that model that drives impact through charitable dollars.”

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit [Associated Press philanthropy coverage website].
https://www.twincities.com/2025/10/17/philanthropy-promise-giving/