A Constellation of Neighbors Respond

People were detained on their way to work. Parents stopped dropping their kids off at school. Families stayed inside, afraid to buy groceries or show up for work. By the time it ended, more than 3,700 arrests had been made and roughly 1,700 people had been deported.

At the Constellation Fund, we saw the crisis unfolding in real time — not just through news reports, but through direct calls with our grantee partners. Our program officers listened first: What are your participants facing? What would actually help right now?

The answers came back fast. Food. Rent assistance. Rides to medical appointments. The organizations closest to the families being hurt most were already stretched past their limits.

Launching the Immediate Response Fund

On January 27, we launched the Immediate Response Fund. Then something remarkable happened. Donations arrived from longtime supporters, from people brand new to Constellation, from donors as far away as California and New York who simply wanted Minnesota families to know they weren’t alone.

Within weeks, Constellation granted funds in $50,000 increments to more than a dozen trusted nonprofit partners, sometimes hand-delivering checks to make sure help arrived on time.

By the time the fund closed, 282 donations totaling nearly $1.3 million had come in from 26 states. Sixty-eight percent of those donors were brand new to the Constellation Fund.

Neighbor Is a Verb Here

During this time, we saw a constellation of neighbors showing up: volunteering to pack groceries, giving rides, whistling in the streets, and donating to relief funds across the state. The Minnesota Council on Foundations tracked more than $70.5 million mobilized across the state’s philanthropic sector in the first five months of 2026.

Together, we were part of a response that reverberated a strong message across the Twin Cities and beyond: “Neighbor is a verb here.”