Formerly the Director of Development and Special Projects, she brings 25 years of experience at the foundation to her new role
The Northland Foundation has announced that longtime staff member Zane Bail has been named Chief Operating Officer effective July 1, 2021. The promotion to COO represents a position that is new to both Bail and the foundation.
Bail joined the Northland Foundation in 1997, and for more than a decade served as Director of Development and Special Projects. In that time, she has helped raise significant funding resources from public and private partners, design and evaluate programs, and lead several multi-million-dollar, multi-year initiatives.
In her new role, Bail will provide leadership for strategy, programming, and fund development. She will oversee an array of initiatives aimed at helping children, youth, families, older adults, and communities thrive in tandem with an experienced staff team. She will continue to manage development efforts across the organization, lead program evaluation, as well as play a more visible role in maintaining and building relationships with key partners and funders to support the strategic goals of the foundation.
“With all the change and reimagining that is happening across our region right now, the foundation is evolving, too, and establishing a COO position will serve our organization as we move forward,†stated Tony Sertich, President of the Northland Foundation.
“I am excited to have Zane step into this new position. She is a dedicated, creative, and thoughtful collaborator with our community partners, other foundations and funders, and our staff and board,†added Sertich. “Zane connects the dots for the foundation, yes, but also for the people and communities we serve.â€Â
Bail holds a Master of Arts degree in Urban & Regional Studies and Public Administration from Minnesota State University Mankato with a concentration in Program Evaluation, Aging Planning, and Gerontology and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Minnesota Duluth. She is a native of Duluth, Minnesota, who moved back to her home state in 1997 to accept a job at the Northland Foundation.
About the Northland Foundation
The Northland Foundation serves seven counties in northeastern Minnesota and all or parts of five Native nations which share that geography. The foundation offers a Grant Program supporting nonprofits and other formally organized entities such as school districts and Tribal governments; Maada’ookiing which is new, Indigenous-led grantmaking to Native individuals for projects in their community; the KIDS PLUS Program which includes young children, youth, and intergenerational programming; the Business Services Program which offers small business gap lending and hosting the regional Northland Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and other special initiatives. Learn more at https://www.northlandfdn.org/index.php.