How much does Alice M O'Brien Foundation give?

Alice M O'Brien Foundation reported 39 grants totaling $224,250 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 38 and 42 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Alice M O'Brien Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (20%), Housing & Shelter (17%), Human Services (16%).

Who are Alice M O'Brien Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Second Harvest Heartland ($105k), Simpson Housing Services Inc ($87k), Marine Mills Folk School ($56k).

Does Alice M O'Brien Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 36% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Alice M O'Brien Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as Alice M O'Brien Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota.

Where is Alice M O'Brien Foundation based?

Alice M O'Brien Foundation is based in MN.

Alice M O'Brien Foundation

Alice M O'Brien Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Alice M O'Brien Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$224k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$53k

Largest

01What it funds

0199% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Health$231kHousing & Shelter$196kHuman Services$189kFood & Nutrition$136kArts & Culture$96kEducation$90kAnimals$69kReligion$38kOther$0

02FY2025 · 39 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k31 grants · $46k
$10k–50k7 grants · $125k
$50k–250k1 grant · $53k

$1,500

Median grant

States reached

$2.6M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
MARINE MILLS FOLK SCHOOL	$53,000
CATHEDRAL HERITAGE FOUNDATION	$20,750
BRAIN & BEHAVIOR RESEARCH FOUNDATIO	$20,750
FASD UNITED INC	$20,000
EHLERS-DANLOS SOCIETY	$19,500
CATHOLIC CHARITIES	$16,750
SECOND HARVEST HARTLAND	$16,500
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION	$10,750
PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AM	$4,500
STANDING CEDARS COMMUNITY LAND CONS	$4,500
LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR OF ST P	$4,000
EMERSON HEALTH FOUNDATION	$3,750
CASA OF THE PIKES PEAK REGION INC	$2,250
HOLLAND HALL SCHOOL	$1,500
ST PAUL ACADEMY AND SUMMIT SCHOOL	$1,500

02The need

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY20–25, $123k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 98% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

How this is measured

Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.

Which US states its grants reach

How this is measured

US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

67%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$789k · 51 repeat orgs$396k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +22% since the first grant, against +8% for those funded once.

51 repeat relationships: 23 still active in FY2025, 28 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$789k

$341k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+22%

+8%

Still filing today

65%

61%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 75% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $55k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

Human ServicesHealthFood & NutritionEnvironmentArts & CultureCivil RightsOther

How this is measured

First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

SH
SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND
6× · 2020–2025 · $105k · revenue +17%
SH
SIMPSON HOUSING SERVICES INC
3× · 2020–2024 · $87k · revenue +125%
MM
MARINE MILLS FOLK SCHOOL
3× · 2023–2025 · $56k · revenue +37%

Funded once

TM
THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION (RESTORE REBUILD REIMAGINE FUND)
one grant, 2021 · $70k
MM
MINNESOTA MEDICAL FOUNDATION AT THE
one grant, 2023 · $60k
SI
SETTLED INCORPORATEDgraduated
one grant, 2022 · $38k · revenue +56%

How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

Minnesota Business Partnership

The minnesota business partnership's mission is to maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans by ensuring that the state's economy remains strong, globally competitive and its prospects for growth bright by working with elected…

—

Minnesota Council on Foundations

MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.

—

Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation

Purpose: we inspire, advocate and invest to advance community visions. continued on sch o

Philanthropy

Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—

Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy

Iatp works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.

Food & Nutrition

St Paul Transportation Management Organization

Move minnesota leads the movement for an equitable and sustainable transportation system that puts people first. we are passionate about connecting communities, ending the climate crisis, expanding access to jobs and resources, and…

Environment

Women's Foundation of Minnesota

Women's Foundation of Minnesota is a statewide community foundation investing in ending systemic inequities and driving innovation for gender and racial justice. WFM applies an Intersectional Equity Framework inclusive of gender, race,…

Philanthropy

Planned Parenthood North Central States Foundation

To build and maintain financial support for planned parenthood north central states to advance and protect sexual and reproductive health care for all.

Human Services

Women Winning

To encourage, promote, support, and elect pro-choice women of all political parties to all levels of public office in minnesota.

Public Benefit

The Minneapolis Foundation

The foundation cultivates generosity by taking action on the greatest civic, social, and economic needs partnering with nonprofits, facilitating grantmaking, driving research and advocacy, and providing services to donors seeking to make a…

Philanthropy

Children's Health Care

We champion the health needs of children and families. we are committed to improving children's health by providing the highest-quality, family centered care, advanced through research and education.

Health

Avivo

Avivo increases well-being through recovery and career advancement while working to end homelessness.

Human Services

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Evidence Action; the most unlike its peers is Irene Chadbourne Ecumenical Food Pantry. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

90 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 90 of the 139 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

90/90

Grantees still filing

52/90

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$622,750Human Services$152,250Food & Nutrition$128,500Arts & Culture$81,750Education$77,000Health$61,500Animals$61,250

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Saint Paul & Minnesota FoundationMN37.1× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The Jamf Nation Global Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Ch Robinson Worldwide Foundation · Hrk Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Land O'Lakes Foundation

How this is measured

Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Alice M O'Brien Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Alice M O'Brien Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

6get no government money at all

28report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

typical government reliance, FY20–25

How this is measured

Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Alice M O'Brien Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Alice M O'Brien Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

Play a game based on Alice M O'Brien’s filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions

grants reported with no recipient in the public record

The regranting layer

51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer

The DAF merry-go-round

$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds

The endowment market

who holds foundation money, and what just moved

The camps

funders cluster by geography, not ideology

By state

where grant money is based, and what stays home