Providing resources to strengthen and uplift Saint Paul’s East Side

Rooted Philanthropic focuses its giving and support on the neighborhoods of the city of Saint Paul’s East Side. These neighborhoods radiate with potential and are filled with innovative and entrepreneurial efforts to improve people’s lives. Our focus is to support entrepreneurs and small business owners, ensure a quality education for our youth, and strengthen the community through wellness efforts.

Deep East Side Roots

Shannon Runyon and Chuck Runyon have deep roots on Saint Paul’s East Side. This is the community where they grew up and went to school. They continue to have family living on the East Side. This connection runs deep. They founded Rooted Philanthropic in 2014 as a way to support causes and issues of importance to them and their family. The foundation provided a limited number of grants in its first few years, the most significant of which was to establish the Future Leader Scholarship program at Hill-Murray High School in 2019. In 2020, the founders decided they could and should do more to support the East Side community, making a commitment to expand the work of the foundation and increase their annual grantmaking.

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Areas of Philanthropic Focus

Our goal is to support sustainable, generational wealth, health and well-being by providing resources to the East Side communities. Planting deep roots and measuring our impact long-term will be key to breaking down systemic barriers that have historically inhibited equitable social and financial well-being for all who call the East Side home.

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Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Creating and building ideas and businesses is a long-term path to sustainable economic security and generational asset-building.
Education

A quality and holistic education is fundamental to opportunity.
Wellness

The active pursuit of physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being is an individual and collective set of activities that make each of us and our neighborhoods safer and more resilient.
Special Initiatives

Occasionally, the foundation addresses a need identified by the community by facilitating short or long-term initiatives that do not neatly fit into one of our three funding pillars.

Recognizing our Grantees

Grantee: East Side Community Investment Cooperative

Saint Paul, MN

We provide support to four local community organizations to create and launch an investment cooperative so East Side residents can engage in local real estate development building local wealth.

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Grantee: Theresa Living Center

Saint Paul, MN

We provide general operating support to Theresa Living Center to increase their onsite programming and case management support for women and single-parent families to move from homelessness to stability and self-sufficiency.

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Grantee: Future Leader Scholarship

Hill-Murray High School

We provide scholarship funding to Hill-Murray to support 80 East Side students in grades 9-12 to develop and advance their leadership skills.

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News & Happenings

East Side Saint Paul Women Leaders Initiative Launches Second Cohort

Despite significant progress in gender equality, women in leadership continue to encounter a range of barriers that hinder their advancement and influence. Isolation and burnout are two of the biggest challenges these women face, along with a lack of access to mentors or networking opportunities and representation which allows…
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2025 East Side Saint Paul Small Business Cohort Application is NOW Open!

Given the success of the 2024 program, we are excited to announce the launch of the next East Side Small Business Cohort in 2025. Applications will open August 18, 2025, and close September 18, 2025.
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Felicia Henderson Joins Rooted Philanthropic as Program Officer – Wellness

Felicia Henderson joins Rooted Philanthropic as Program Officer-Wellness. She brings nearly a decade of holistic health and wellness experience to the team. She started on May 12, 2025.
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