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· Private foundation

Border States 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.

$403k
Granted FY2025still arriving
33
Grants FY2025still arriving
8
States reached
$100k
Largest
01What you fund
01FY2025 · 33 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k24 grants · $81k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $105k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $217k
$5,000
Median grant
8
States reached
$12M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Habitat for Humanity Lake Agassiz$100,000
UND Center for Innovation Foundation$63,659
Down Home$53,800
United Way Cass Clay$42,000
American Red Cross$15,000
YWCA Cass Clay$15,000
TNT Kid's Fitness$12,500
Homeward Animal Shelter$10,500
Depelchin Childrens Center$10,000
Jeremiah Program$7,000
Wounded Warrior Project$6,000
BIO Girls Inc$5,300
Fargo Theatre$5,000
Gi-Gi's Playhouse$5,000
ND FFA Foundation$5,000
02The need
02

Do your dollars go where the need is?

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

show:

Your human-services grants (FY25–25, $20k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 78% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%Depelchin Childrens Center: $10k → 17%Wounded Warrior Project: $6k → 14%The Great North Pole: $3k → 12%Community of Care: $1k → 12%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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

Which US states your grants reach

ND
MN
NY
SD
TN
SC
TX
FL

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

03Your field

The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Great Plains Food Bank

End hunger together.

Food & Nutrition
2
Catholic Charities North Dakota

Guided by our values, Catholic Charities North Dakota serves people in need and advocates for the common good of all.

3
United Way of North Central Iowa

Seeking to build a stronger, more caring community by forming partnerships with businesses, community experts, education & health & human service agencies to achieve targeted outcomes & sustained changes in community conditions which will…

Philanthropy
4
Minnesota Council on Foundations

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

5
North Dakota State University Foundation

Building enduring relationships that maximize advocacy and philanthropy to support North Dakota State University.

Education
6
Advocates for Family Peace

To improve lives by ending domestic violence.

Human Services
7
Keystone Community Services

To strengthen the capacity of individuals and families to improve their quality of life.

8
Wesco Industries

Empowering and Supporting People in Healthy Communities.

9
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.

Philanthropy
10
Feeding South Dakota

To eliminate hunger in south dakota.

Food & Nutrition
11
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…

12
Coop Careers Inc

Building a movement of diverse, upwardly mobile college grads overcoming underemployment through digital skills and peer connections.

Education

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Ywca Cass Clay and the most unlike its peers is Hope Blooms. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 24 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number25%0%<5yr15%15%5–10yr18%20%10–20yr15%35%20–35yr11%20%35–55yr16%10%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value25%0%<5yr15%27%5–10yr18%8%10–20yr15%45%20–35yr11%8%35–55yr16%12%55yr+

The field is 25% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/23
the rest of the field
16%
1,296/8,068

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

03the grantee network

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

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 22 of the 32 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
9
Early backer (in before they grew)
22/22
Grantees still filing
11/22
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Habitat for Humanity Lake Agassiz — $100,000 · OtherHabitat for Humanity Lake AgassizDOWN HOME — $53,800 · OtherDOWN HOMEUnited Way Cass Clay — $42,000 · OtherUnited Way Cass ClayAmerican Red Cross — $15,000 · OtherAmerican Red Cross+13 more — $43,000 · Other+13 moreUND Center for Innovation Foundation — $63,659 · Community ImprovementUND Center for Inn…+2 more — $3,000 · Community ImprovementDEPELCHIN CHILDREN'S CENTER — $10,000 · Human ServicesWOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC — $6,000 · Human ServicesThe Great North Pole — $3,400 · Human ServicesOpportunity Foundation Inc — $2,000 · Human ServicesHope Blooms — $2,000 · Human ServicesCommunity of Care — $1,000 · Human ServicesYWCA CASS CLAY — $15,000 · Housing & ShelterJEREMIAH PROGRAM — $7,000 · Housing & ShelterTNT Kid's Fitness — $12,500 · Recreation & SportsTri-City United Soccer Club — $3,000 · Recreation & SportsHOMEWARD ANIMAL SHELTER INC — $10,500 · AnimalsBIO Girls Inc — $10,300 · Youth Development
Other$253,800Community Improvement$66,659Human Services$24,400Housing & Shelter$22,000Recreation & Sports$15,500Animals$10,500Youth Development$10,300

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetJEREMIAH PROGRAM — $7,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetSHERRY'S HOPE INC — $5,000 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetTri-City United Soccer Club — $3,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetRed River Human Services Foundation — $3,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetFARGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION — $2,500 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetUNSEEN — $2,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetOpportunity Foundation Inc — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION — $2,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE BURRELL FOUNDATION — $1,000 over 1y, 1.0% of budgetCASA OF WEST TEXAS — $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them

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

The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Caring FoundationND34.4× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota Caring Foundation · The Barry Foundation · Dakota Medical Foundation · Midcontinent Foundation · Alex Stern Family Foundation · Fargo-Moorhead Area Foundation Corporation · Cass County Electric Cooperative Foundation · Dakota Medical Charities · Sanford Group Return · Otto Bremer Trust · Xcel Energy Foundation · Swanson Cares

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

Government reliance of your grantees

Every dot is one organization Border States Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%4%8%11%15%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Wounded Warrior Project Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
0get no government money at all
5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–15%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.

04Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Border States Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Border States 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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 32 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

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