The Oberholtzer Foundation Names New Executive Director

Living Lightly Booklet Update

We are pleased to release the 2024 version of our Living Lightly Booklet. It is loaded with beautiful photos of Mallard Island buildings, is chock full of historical information, and provides ways to get involved and in touch with the Oberholtzer Foundation.

The updates include new photos of buildings and many of the photos are in color, which adds vibrancy to the pages. We also added a new section on volunteering, and we changed the name of the Library back to the Boat House.  This change was the result of the 2022 flood. We had to remove over three thousand books from the Library to save them from the flood waters, but this lead to the creation of the Mallard Island Annex Library in International Falls. It also allowed us to return this historic building back to a Boat House.

Living Lightly

JOB POSTING

January 12, 2024

The Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation Board of Directors announce their search for a new Executive Director (ED)

The mission of the Foundation is “to maintain Ober’s legacy and North Woods island home as a source of inspiration, renewal, and connection to Indigenous Peoples, kindred spirits, and the natural world: Gi-bezhi-goomin (We are all one.).”

The Executive Director is a full-time leader responsible for managing and caring for Ober’s islands in Rainer, Minnesota and implementing the Foundation’s mission and strategic direction, ensuring consistent and timely progress. This is a hybrid position where one can work remotely most of the year and on site at the Backus Community Center in International Falls at the Mallard Island Annex Library or on Mallard Island for Board meetings and some program weeks. The Chair of the Board directly supervises the Executive Director. The ED will supervise staff that include two program directors and volunteer caretakers.

The ideal candidate should:

• Have experience working as an Executive Director of a non-profit;
• Have knowledge of the regulations and requirements of non-profits;
• Have experience with nonprofit accounting and financial management (QuickBooks experience a plus);
• Be able to demonstrate past successes in fundraising and securing grants;
• Understand how to broaden and nurture a base of supporters;
• Be able to work independently between Board and committee meetings;
• Be an organized record keeper and administrator;
• Have experience recruiting, maintaining, and coordinating a group of volunteers to support a nonprofit’s mission;
• Have the ability to work across cultures and world views, including respecting and celebrating Anishinaabe (Ojibway) traditions;
• Have strong communication skills both orally and written, and
• Have experience organizing events.

Additional desired skills/knowledge:

• Some knowledge of Minnesota history, in particular that related to land and resource development and conservation in northern Minnesota, including Ernest C. Oberholtzer’s contributions;
• A basic understanding of the role of Indigenous Peoples in the Rainy Lake watershed;
• The care of historic facilities and archival collections;
• Experience using a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system for communications, and
• A love for the natural world in general and Mallard Island specifically.

To apply, please email a letter of interest, current resume or CV, and two references from employers within the past five years to Peggy Smith, Search Committee Chair at pasmith@lakeheadu.ca and George Glazier, Board of Directors Chair at glaziergp@gmail.com. In your letter of interest, we would like to know what interests you about this position, and the unique attributes you can bring to our mission. Although a college degree may be preferable, it is not required in favor of experience that relates to this position. The salary range is between $60,000-$70,000/year with competitive benefits and a health stipend. The deadline for applications is February 9, 2024.

WTIP Podcast – Mallard Island

In his September 15, 2023 podcast on the Boundary Waters, Joe Friedrich, an award winning journalist, featured Mallard Island. In it, he covers Ober’s legacy of wilderness advocacy, the Ober Foundation and Mallard Island today, the positive health impacts of being out in the wilderness on people, and more. It’s worth a listen! Way to go Joe!

2023 Annual Fall Gathering

THE NEXT GENERATION

You are invited to the Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation’s Annual Fall Gathering: The Next Generation.

Where: Wargo Nature Center, 7701 Main St. Lino Lakes, MN

When: Saturday, October 28 from 2:00 – 4:30

Special Musical Guest: Doug Wood, former board chair, award winning author, artist, musician, naturalist and wilderness guide

Silent Auction: We will be holding our silent auction again this year! Many exciting and unique items will be available. All proceeds from the auction will help us continue to share Ober’s wilderness advocacy career and his close connections to the Rainy Lake Anishinaabe community. If you would like to donate to our silent auction, please contact us.

Please join us at our fall gathering in October, where you visit with old friends and make new ones! We will be celebrating a successful summer of programming after recovering from a historic flood. While we are working hard to build the next generation of our foundation family, we will also be remembering a dear former board member of 15 years, Bob Hilke.

See you soon!

Oberholtzer Foundation 990 Report

The Oberholzter Foundation has released its 2022 990 report. The Foundation follows best practices and posts these reports so they are publicly available. To view the report, please click here 990 Report and scroll to the bottom of the page.

2022 Annual Report Released

The Oberholzter Foundation has released the 2022 Annual Report. To view the report, click here: REPORT

Ober Foundation Awarded Legacy Grants

The Ernest C. Oberholtzer Foundation was awarded two Legacy grants provided by the State of Minnesota from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the Minnesota Historical Society.

The grants will fund two different initiatives. One is to hire professionals to assess and write a collections storage plan for a historically significant collection of books, which will allow greater protection and public access to this resource. The collection was housed in a flood prone building on Mallard Island. In a move to be more flood resilient, the board voted to move this special  collection of books to International Falls to the Backus Community Center. We hope to create a Mallard Island Annex Library there.   We are excited about the expanding access to this collection.

The second initiative is to hire a qualified specialist to conduct a conditions assessment of the Oberholtzer Estate’s historic stonework on Mallard Island, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.   This report will help provide a roadmap to restoring the vast amount of stonework surrounding Mallard Island, the former home of Ernest C. Oberholtzer. People boat by Mallard Island throughout the summer season to admire the historic buildings and the stonework. We are hoping to ensure that this can continue for generations to come!

The Foundation is thrilled to be awarded these grants and we are thankful to the people of Minnesota for making this grant possible. We will provide updates on these projects as we move forward.

Welcome Teghan and Eric!

At the December meeting, the Oberholtzer Foundation Board of Directors elected Teghan Grulkowski and Eric Rundell both to three-year terms on the board.

Teghan is a caretaker in training on Mallard Island, an alum of the Stewards of the Wilderness Program and also serves on the Foundation’s Program Committee. She was a keynote speaker at one of our fall gatherings and has served on the fall gathering planning committee. Teghan graduated from Bemidji State University and was an Environmental Studies major with minors in Indigenous Sustainability and Economics. She works in the energy field in energy efficiency. She resides in the Duluth area.

Eric Rundell has been coming to Mallard Island with his family since he was born. The Rundell family opens and closes Mallard Island each year. Eric also leads carpentry work weeks on Mallard Island and serves on the Foundation’s Facilities Committee. He brings a wide variety of skills and a very strong commitment to Mallard Island and its care and upkeep. He works for a utility company as a GIS Technician and Utility Locator. He resides in Grand Rapids.

Teghan and Eric represent the next generation of leadership on the board. They join the board January 1.

Give to the Max Day – Early Giving Has Begun!

Give to the Max Day, November 17 of this year, is a giving holiday in Minnesota! We are participating in the event this year to help us continue to share Ober’s legacy to an even broader audience! After an historic flood, a new initiative was born that will make us more flood resilient in the future! Our goal this year is to raise $5,000 toward our campaign called, “From the Flood to the Falls!” Please make a donation to help us continue to share Ober’s wilderness advocacy legacy with more people.

Please visit our fundraising page by clicking on the campaign title below:

FROM THE FLOOD TO THE FALLS CAMPAIGN