Words by Morgan Mercer | Photos by Sarah White

Pollen is celebrating the 14 businesses that have come together in support of Pollen’s mission to build better connected communities. Together, these businesses challenge Pollenites to raise $15,000 by December 31, which they will match dollar for dollar. Donate today and join them in their investment to power human connection. 

After lakeside dream sessions and planning marathons, Katrina Pierson and Christa Otteson nailed down a philosophy that united them together. With Vela Strategy, the duo wanted to support nonprofits in a new way by connecting people—from staff and board members to donors and volunteers—back to an organization’s purpose. “Our nonprofit clients rely on us to help them mobilize support for their mission,” says Katrina. That often starts internally through staff retreats that rekindle a passion for the work. Then it moves outward, bringing in a new people who feel a strong connection to the work through program evaluation, feasibility studies, story telling, and fundraising.

Pollen: What are some of the biggest barriers you’ve experienced trying to expand your network?

Christa Otteson: We’re based outside the metro with offices in Willmar, St. Cloud, and Duluth. We see incredibly cool networking events happening in the Twin Cities, but often we have to choose between going to those events or reading to our kids at bedtime. When it comes to our line of work, consultants are disconnected in greater Minnesota. We don’t have a professional community beyond the nonprofit-serving networks we’re a part of, but we would like to change that. It’s one of the reasons we designed Vela as a constellation of consultants.

We crave collaboration and know our work is better when we invest in one another as thinking partners.

Pollen: How do you go beyond the transactional and begin to find meaning and depth in your work?

Christa Otteson: That part is never difficult. We’re so invested in our work, perhaps because we’ve worked with so many nonprofits that were in difficult places when they called us. That experience has fostered an indefatigable optimism about what is possible for our clients. That optimism, and a commitment to work with organizations doing good things in the world, draws us in. We can see what lies ahead for an organization, and that aspiration is incredibly motivating for us.

Pollen: How do you find support from peers to stay inspired and motivated?

Christa Otteson: Our group members are all super smart, funny, and compassionate people. We also support one another—from bringing in extra lattes on deadline day, to giving pep talks before a presentation.

We seek a culture that values and practices gratitude and generosity of spirit.

We aren’t shy about calling mentors or friends for advice, or sharing a good meal when we’re in their neighborhood. We’re also involved with a few of the Minnesota Initiative Foundations and the many rural leaders they bring in for capacity building and leadership development. We rarely turn down an opportunity to gather together and learn something with our friends through leadership retreats, mindfulness trainings, and peer coaching circles.

Pollen: Where do you find your greatest sense of community?

Christa Otteson:

We firmly believe in sharing shelter and breaking bread as a means to make the world a more loving and compassionate place.

Our office spaces are incredibly intentional. For years, Katrina had a space in a building full of artists in the heart of downtown St. Cloud. She recently relocated her family to Duluth and is just starting the circle-forming process there. Our Willmar office is located at WorkUp, a fantastic co-working space housed in a beautiful old craftsman building on the MinnWest Technology Campus. There, we share a space with yoga teachers, videographers, marketing experts, and Ted-talk enthusiasts.

I live in New London, a great little art town where my husband started a brewery around the same time Vela launched. There is incredible energy here. Small community organizations are joining with informal networks of friends to build community through creative placemaking, backyard movie nights, and a growing group of die-hard, small town dreamers.

Pollen: How has Pollen brought value to your work?

Christa Otteson: Pollen changed the cultural landscape of the nonprofit sector. It reflects an emerging generation of leadership that interlaces personal and professional realms. It’s a place that weaves art and service together to produce a breathtakingly beautiful portrait of the nonprofit sector as something that is vital, thriving, diverse, evolving, and human. Pollen is a mirror for all of us in this sector, reflecting our true identity as warriors for what is right and good in the world. Pollen grants the next generation permission to claim their space and make an imprint on how things work and who we are. As women, we are inspired by the bold choices Pollen makes to uphold its values and stand up for what’s right, even when that choice may not be popular, clean, or without repercussions.  

Pollen is a fellow flag-waver for telling authentic stories and using them as a means of illumination, truth telling, and claim staking.

We love the humanity that Pollen promotes across the nonprofit sector. The timing couldn’t be better.