· Private foundation
Carlson Family Lightshield Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k22 grants · $39k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $123k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $153k
- $250k+1 grant · $350k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COVENANT CHRISTIAN ACADEMY | $350,000 |
| GATEWAY CHURCH | $153,466 |
| MN ADULT TEEN CHALLENGE | $25,500 |
| CITY OF BIG LAKE FINANCEHUMAN RESOURSES DEPARTMENT | $25,000 |
| ST JUDES | $17,000 |
| CAER FOOD SHELF AKA COMMUNITY AID ELK RIVER | $12,500 |
| BIG LAKE COMMUNITY FOOD SHELF | $12,500 |
| FISHING FOR LIFE | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| HUNTER HOULE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION | $10,000 |
| ALL NATIONS NEW LIFE | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| SRP CRITICAL RESPONSE TEAM | $5,000 |
| THUMBS UP HIGH | $5,000 |
| COOK LIONS CLUB FLOOD RELIEF | $3,510 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY20–24, $136k) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 39% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
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
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.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +33% since the first grant, against -4% for the ones you funded once.
18 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2024, 4 since wound down; 18 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 40% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $399k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- FFFishing For Life4× · 2020–2024 · $90k · revenue +50%
- CACOMMUNITY AID OF ELK RIVER2× · 2020–2021 · $41k · revenue +33%
- ASACHIEVE SERVICES INC3× · 2020–2024 · $31k · revenue +49%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $250k
- COCITY OF ELK RIVERone grant, 2021 · $58k
- TPTURNING POINT INCone grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue 0%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
See schedule o. founded in 1902, university of northwestern - st. paul is a nondenominational christian university that integrates the educational philosophy of "faith, learning and living" through two focuses: higher education and media.…
We empower individuals and families to confidently navigate aging so that it is a purposeful journey filled with dignity and support.
To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.
Abhe is the quality and credibility resource partner that connects efforts among christian postsecondary educational institutions and with others invested in serious bible learning that shapes a life of godly influence and service to the…
Augsburg university educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders.the augsburg experience is supported by an engaged community that is committed to intentional diversity in its…
The mission of crown college is to provide a biblically based education for christian leadership in the christian and missionary alliance, the church-at-large, and the world.
St. olaf college challenges students to excel in the liberal arts, examine faith and values, and explore meaningful vocation in an inclusive, globally engaged community nourished by lutheran tradition.
The mission of advocate health care is to serve the health needs of individuals, families and communities through a wholistic philosophy rooted in our fundamental understanding of human beings as created in the image of god.
In the spirit of service, not self, the mission of the american legion auxiliary is to support the american legion and to honor the sacrifice of those who serve by enhancing the lives of our veterans, military, and their families, both at…
The university of minnesota alumni association (umaa) fosters a lifelong spirit of belonging and pride by connecting alumni, students, and friends to the university of minnesota and each other. the alumni association advocates for the…
The organization's mission is to bring stakeholders together to promote prosperity and long-term growth of minnesota's economy.
Shaped by the catholic benedictine heritage, the college of st. scholastica provides intellectual and moral preparation for responsible living and meaningful work. in conjunction with this mission statement, the college's vision statement…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Oak Hills Fellowship and the most unlike its peers is Bame Foundation. 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 23 years old; the field is 15. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 22% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 44% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 15% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
34 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 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 34 of the 85 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.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
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.
- Who funds COVENANT CHRISTIAN ACADEMY ↗
- Who funds Fishing For Life ↗
- Who funds TURNING POINT INC ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY AID OF ELK RIVER ↗
- Who funds BIG LAKE COMMUNITY FOOD SHELF INC ↗
- Who funds STMA BREAKFAST CLUB ↗
- Who funds ACHIEVE SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds OAK HILLS FELLOWSHIP ↗
- Who funds ABBA CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds Hunter Houle Memorial Foundation ↗
- Who funds THUMBS UP HIGH 5K ↗
- Who funds LIVIN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES ↗
- Who funds 2WHEELS4HEROES ↗
- Who funds GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY ST PAUL ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S CANCER RESEARCH FUND ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN LEGION POST 112 ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Connexus Energy Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Bame Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Communitygiving · Hunger Solutions Minnesota · Otto Bremer Trust · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Network for Good
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 Carlson Family Lightshield 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.
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.