(Actually we have 11 reasons because we want this one to be a notch above 10!)

11.       Minnesota is home to great progressives like Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale and Paul Wellstone.

10.       Minnesota is home to the only Urban National Park—the Mississippi River National Park & Recreation Area.

9.         Home to two cites that actually pay neighborhood associations to encourage citizen participation.

8.         Home to the largest indoor mall in the world—the Mall of America. Blah, blah, blah! More importantly, home to another type of “mall,” the Global Market Place—a mixed income, mixed use development on Lake Street in Minneapolis—the heart of diversity in the region.

7.         The Twin Cities has the highest per capita number of live theater venues only behind New York City.

6.         The Twin Cities is home of the Coen brothers who gave us the movies Blood Simple, The Big Labowski, Raising Arizona, Oh! Brother Where Art Though, and, most importantly—Fargo—featuring the only death scene in a movie where the instrument of death is a wood chipper!

5.         The Twin Cities is home to a wonderful battle for Transportation Equity: Building a rail line between downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis that will actually benefit the residents and communities it touches.

4.         You will see that Minnesota is no longer a strictly homogeneous state, but actually richly diverse with the largest Hmong, Somali and Liberian populations in the U.S.

3.         Home to the strongest foreclosure recovery response in the country!

2.         You may actually hear someone say “Uff-Duh!” As in: “Uff Duh! Ya know, dat’s a good point ya got dere!”

1.         Minneapolis ranks third in per capita giving. But there is not enough giving to neighborhoods or enough members of the Neighborhood Funders Group!

So, for these reasons and many more, don’t you dare miss the 2010 NFG Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota!