Meet Robert Thompson

Robert Thompson has worked with and supported nonprofit organizations for more than thirty years in a variety of capacities, as executive director, manager, board member, coach, fundraiser, legislative director, publisher and communications director, and more. Robert worked for the Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) and managed neighborhood funding programs at the City of Minneapolis for almost twenty years, supporting volunteers across the City in developing and implementing long-term resident-based neighborhood action plans.

Robert joined the MICAH board with the goal of bringing understanding of good public participation practices to the board and members of MICAH.

Unlike typical government policy makers, Robert has developed and managed several broad-based, bottom-up planning processes in which participants are empowered to set the agenda in providing recommendations to policy-makers at the local level, and has facilitated meetings with hundreds of residents in which participants themselves set the agenda, generate ideas, and establish priorities.

In one planning process, Robert organized workshops in which residents, rather than professional planners, learned how to plan and facilitate a series of meetings in which diverse residents and stakeholders across Minneapolis discussed the future of resident-based planning in the City. More than 500 residents from many diverse cultures and groups participated in these meetings.

Robert has also supported organizations with conflict resolution and has long experience in resolving public disputes.

Before working for NRP and the City of Minneapolis, Robert worked as a community organizer, publisher, fundraiser, and executive coordinator for organizations including the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, Minnesota COACT, and Citizens for a Loring Park Community.

Robert has Masters Degrees in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management. He currently is Principal in his consulting business, providing business services, coaching and mentoring, meeting facilitation, strategic planning, training, and other support for small- and medium-sized nonprofits across the Twin Cities.

Robert Thompson is the current Treasurer for MICAH