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Aroha Philanthropies at a glance

· Private foundation

Aroha Philanthropies

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$3.8M
Granted FY2018
82
Grants FY2018
27
States reached
$541k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Philanthropy$23MArts & Culture$5.2MYouth Development$697kHealth$669kHuman Services$264kEducation$95kHousing & Shelter$38kReligion$13kOther$0
02FY2018 · 82 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2018

  • Under $10k18 grants · $113k
  • $10k–50k46 grants · $1.0M
  • $50k–250k14 grants · $1.2M
  • $250k+4 grants · $1.5M
$14,509
Median grant
27
States reached
$5.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
LIFETIME ARTS$541,009
PROJECT SUCCESS$427,320
MACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC$276,671
AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF MUSEUMS$261,580
TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TV$246,709
NATIONAL GUILD FOR COMMUNITY ARTS EDUCATION$140,633
TASKS UNLIMITED$104,170
MATEO LODGE$101,576
COWLES CENTER FOR DANCE & THE PERFORMING ARTS$85,662
VOCALESSENCE$80,533
PEOPLE INCORPORATED$70,892
GREATER TWIN CITIES YOUTH SYMPHONIES$60,146
FILM NORTH$58,750
MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS$57,009
TOUCHSTONE MENTAL HEALTH$52,400
02The need
03

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 (FY17–18, $351k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 79% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%ENGAGE: $150k → 14%YMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY: $15k → 15%GRAFTON COUNTY SENIOR CITIZENS COUNCIL INC: $48k → 10%YMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY: $9k → 15%GRAFTON COUNTY SENIOR CITIZENS COUNCIL INC: $25k → 10%TOUCHSTONE MENTAL HEALTH: $52k → 11%TOUCHSTONE MENTAL HEALTH: $52k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
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

AK
ME
NH
MN
IL
WI
MI
NY
MA
NV
OH
PA
NJ
RI
CA
KY
VA
MD
AZ
NM
TN
DC
LA
MS
AL
FL
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.

83%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$6.3M · 52 repeat orgs$1.3M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +29% since the first grant, against -3% for those funded once.

52 repeat relationships: 52 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 30 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

52
7

Total granted

$6.3M
$532k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%
-3%

Still filing today

75%
71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2018, 80% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $787k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18
Arts & CultureEducationHuman ServicesHealthEnvironmentYouth DevelopmentOther
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

  • LA
    LIFETIME ARTS INC
    2× · 2017–2018 · $1.0M · revenue +24% · 48% of their budget
  • PS
    PROJECT SUCCESS
    2× · 2017–2018 · $687k · revenue +130%
  • CM
    COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER
    2× · 2017–2018 · $612k · revenue +27%

Funded once

  • C
    CAMINARgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $153k · revenue +89%
  • EI
    ENGAGE INC
    one grant, 2017 · $150k · revenue -20%
  • TC
    THE COWLES CENTER FOR DANCE & PERFORMING ARTS
    one grant, 2017 · $82k
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.

1
Museum of Arts and Design

To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.

Arts & Culture
2
Rochester Art Center

Rochester art center offers the opportunity for all people to understand and value the arts through innovative experiences with contemporary art. through world-class exhibitions and programs, we present a welcoming, integrated, and diverse…

Arts & Culture
3
Minnetonka Center for the Arts

In the belief that the visual arts are indispensable to a healthy community, it is the mission of the minnetonka center for the arts to provide teaching excellence, quality exhibitions, and cultural enrichment for people of all ages,…

Arts & Culture
4
Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is a private, non-profit institution chartered by the State of New York Department of Education in 1929 to foster public awareness of modern and contemporary art. (Continued in Schedule O)

Arts & Culture
5
Monterey Museum of Art

The monterey museum of art cultivates curiosity in the visual arts and engages community with the diversity of california art - past, present, and future.

Arts & Culture
6
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

The museum of contemporary art san diego invites all audiences to experience our world, our region, and ourselves through the prism of contemporary art.

Arts & Culture
7
New Museum of Contemporary Art

A center for exhibitions, information, and documentation about living artists since 1977, which continues to be a place of experimentation and a hub of new art and new ideas.

Arts & Culture
8
Guthrie Theater Foundation

The guthrie theater engages exceptional theater artists in the exploration of both classic and contemporary plays, connecting the community we serve to one another and to the world. through its extraordinary artists, staff and facility,…

Arts & Culture
9
Minnesota Fringe Festival

Minnesota fringe connects adventurous artists with adventurous audiences by creating open, supportive forums for free and diverse artistic expression.

Arts & Culture
10
Theater Mu Incorporated

Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.

Arts & Culture
11
Gage Academy of Art

Gage educates, enriches, & transforms our community through the visual arts.

Arts & Culture
12
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Mcad provides a transformative education within a community of support for creative students of all backgrounds to work, collaborate, and lead with confidence in a dynamic, interconnected world.

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is National Guild for Community Arts Education Inc; the most unlike its peers is Theatre 55. 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

69 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. 69 of the 89 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
16
Early backer (in before they grew)
69/69
Grantees still filing
47/69
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

LIFETIME ARTS INC: $1,043,997 · Arts & CultureLIFETIME ARTS INCCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER: $611,987 · Arts & CultureCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTERMACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC: $497,994 · Arts & CultureMACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSICAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS: $261,580 · Arts & CultureAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS+38 more: $1,315,553 · Arts & Culture+38 moreTWIN CITIES PUBLIC TV: $495,856 · OtherTWIN CITIES PUBLIC TVTASKS UNLIMITED: $437,476 · OtherTASKS UNLIMITEDNATIONAL GUILD FOR COMMUNITY ARTS EDUCATION INC: $281,068 · OtherNATIONAL GUILD FOR COMMUNITY ARTS…PEOPLE INCORPORATED: $131,692 · OtherPEOPLE INCORPORATEDGREATER TWIN CITIES YOUTH SYMPHONIES: $110,146 · OtherPILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES: $102,500 · OtherLACMA: $89,216 · OtherTHE COWLES CENTER FOR DANCE & PERFORMING ARTS: $81,747 · OtherBRING ME A BOOK: $77,848 · Other+24 more: $406,438 · Other+24 morePROJECT SUCCESS: $686,538 · EducationPROJECT SUCC…JOHNSON CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $66,367 · EducationJOHNSON CITY…SCHOOL ONE: $28,795 · EducationTEXTILE CENTER OF MINNESOTA: $27,500 · EducationMATEO LODGE INC: $171,036 · HealthCAMINAR: $152,802 · HealthUMRC-PORTER HILLS FOUNDATION: $71,250 · HealthENGAGE INC: $150,000 · Human ServicesTOUCHSTONE MENTAL HEALTH: $104,878 · Human ServicesGrafton County Senior Citizens Council Inc: $72,693 · Human ServicesYMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY: $23,509 · Human ServicesKeshet Dance Company: $60,750 · Youth DevelopmentGARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE: $12,500 · EnvironmentNAPLES BOTANICAL GARDEN INC: $9,390 · Environment
Arts & Culture$3,731,111Other$2,213,987Education$809,200Health$395,088Human Services$351,080Youth Development$60,750Environment$21,890

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetLIFETIME ARTS INC: $1,043,997 over 2y, 48% of budgetPROJECT SUCCESS: $686,538 over 2y, 14% of budgetCOMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER: $611,987 over 2y, 8.1% of budgetMACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC: $497,994 over 2y, 2.4% of budgetNATIONAL GUILD FOR COMMUNITY ARTS EDUCATION INC: $281,068 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetAMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS: $261,580 over 1y, 2.0% of budgetMATEO LODGE INC: $171,036 over 2y, 3.0% of budgetCAMINAR: $152,802 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetENGAGE INC: $150,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetPEOPLE INCORPORATED: $131,692 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFILMNORTH: $117,500 over 2y, 5.3% of budgetMINNEAPOLIS SOCIETY OF FINE ARTS DBA MINNEAPOLIS INSTITUTE OF ARTS: $110,259 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetGREATER TWIN CITIES YOUTH SYMPHONIES: $110,146 over 2y, 4.3% of budgetTOUCHSTONE MENTAL HEALTH: $104,878 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetPILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES: $102,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetChildren's Theatre Company and School: $95,121 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetThe Cowles Center: $85,662 over 1y, 3.7% of budgetTU DANCE: $82,500 over 2y, 5.4% of budgetVOCALESSENCE: $80,533 over 1y, 3.0% of budgetUMRC-PORTER HILLS FOUNDATION: $71,250 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetJOHNSON CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY: $66,367 over 2y, 2.2% of budgetKeshet Dance Company: $60,750 over 2y, 2.6% of budgetThe Minnesota Opera: $55,975 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE NEWARK MUSEUM ASSOCIATION: $52,664 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetTALLER PUERTORRIQUENO INC: $52,500 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetTEACHERS & WRITERS COLLABORATIVE INC: $52,250 over 2y, 5.8% of budgetTHE ERIC CARLE MUSEUM OF PICTURE BOOK ART INC: $47,550 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetWALKER ART CENTER: $47,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSPACE ONE ELEVEN INC: $45,996 over 2y, 8.3% of budgetSILICON VALLEY CREATES: $39,000 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetLUNDSTRUM CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DBA LUNDSTRUM PERFORMING ARTS: $35,000 over 1y, 3.6% of budgetSCHOOL ONE: $28,795 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetTEXTILE CENTER OF MINNESOTA: $27,500 over 2y, 1.7% of budgetCOMMONBOND COMMUNITIES: $25,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetSTAGEBRIDGE: $25,000 over 1y, 4.5% of budgetNORTHERN CLAY CENTER: $25,000 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetYMCA OF ROCK RIVER VALLEY: $23,509 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPARK SQUARE THEATRE: $22,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetEAST SIDE ARTS COUNCIL: $20,000 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetRUM RIVER ART INC: $17,500 over 2y, 6.7% of budgetWalker Methodist Foundation: $17,500 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetNational Assembly of State Arts Agencies Inc: $15,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: $12,500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetJOHN MICHAEL KOHLER ARTS CENTER INC: $12,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE OLANA PARTNERSHIP: $12,500 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetTHE HEARD MUSEUM: $12,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetSPEED ART MUSEUM: $12,500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetGARFIELD PARK CONSERVATORY ALLIANCE: $12,500 over 1y, 0.8% of budget
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.

Target FoundationThe McKnight Foundati…The Minneapolis Found…William Boss Foundati…Mightycause Charitabl…Saint Paul & Minnesot…The Andrew W Mellon F…Jerome Foundation IncHardenbergh FoundationFr Bigelow FoundationXcel Energy FoundationWenger Foundation
Target FoundationMN33.6× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Target Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · William Boss Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Andrew W Mellon Foundation · Jerome Foundation Inc · Hardenbergh Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Wenger 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 Aroha Philanthropies funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Aroha Philanthropies. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government →median 4%
  • The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Inc: 4% of income from government
  • Naples Botanical Garden Inc: 3% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
24report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
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 Aroha Philanthropies?

Find your warmest path to Aroha Philanthropies 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 89 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2018, released 2018. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $4.1M of grant expense with no grantee named in the published copy. A private foundation itemizes every grant it makes, so a return carrying none has filed its list as an attachment that the public copy does not include. The figures above are therefore from FY2018, the most recent year this funder’s grantee list reached the public record.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Aroha Philanthropies’ 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