· Private foundation
Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen 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.
Read this first · the figures below need context
92% of Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to The Minneapolis Foundation, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 0 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 52 organizations, $334k. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant clustered by its grantee’s IRS cause code (NTEE), by year — across FY2020–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 67 grants below total $259,500 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $334,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $74,500 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k64 grants · $155k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $55k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $50k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light | $50,000 |
| Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota | $30,000 |
| League of Women Voters Minnesota Education Fund | $25,000 |
| Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy | $5,000 |
| Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (Planned Parenthood) | $5,000 |
| MN350 | $5,000 |
| Joyce Preschool | $5,000 |
| Real Change Homeless Empowerment Project | $4,000 |
| University of Minnesota Foundation | $4,000 |
| Voyageurs National Park Association | $4,000 |
| Mixed Blood Theatre | $3,000 |
| Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness | $3,000 |
| Frogtown Farm | $3,000 |
| Centro Tyrone Guzman | $3,000 |
| Children's Law Center of Minnesota | $3,000 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY21–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-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.
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.
51 repeat relationships — 41 still active in FY2023, 10 since wound down; 25 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2023, 78% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $57k 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
- ILIMMIGRANT LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC3× · 2020–2023 · $97k · revenue +195%
- MCMINNESOTA CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY3× · 2020–2023 · $13k · revenue +59%
- RCRAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC3× · 2020–2023 · $10k · revenue +4%
Funded once
- OYOPEN YOUR HEART TO THE HUNGRY AND HOMELESSone grant, 2020 · $15k · revenue -22%
- TTTree Trustgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $4k · revenue +98%
- ELENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTER OF THE MIDWESTgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $4k · revenue +32%
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.
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…
MinnPost produces independent journalism to serve as a trusted guide for Minnesotans exploring the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing our state.
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
Minnesota fringe connects adventurous artists with adventurous audiences by creating open, supportive forums for free and diverse artistic expression.
Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.
Arts Midwest works collaboratively with private and public arts supporters to support, inform, and celebrate arts organizations and creative communities across the Midwest. Our mission is to build unprecedented opportunity across the…
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…
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
Wonderlust Productions is a multicultural, multi-disciplinary arts ensemble that illuminates a community's story through performance, mixing community members from across generations, ethnicities, and perspectives, alongside an ensemble of…
Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.
The minnesota chamber of commerce proactively leads the business community statewide to: advance pro-business, responsible minnesota public policy that creates jobs and grows the econony; provde member services to address evolving business…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Minneapolis Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Frogtown Garden. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 33 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 21% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 16% 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.
86 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. 86 of the 119 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 THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds IMMIGRANT LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC ↗
- Who funds OPEN YOUR HEART TO THE HUNGRY AND HOMELESS ↗
- Who funds MN350 ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY ↗
- Who funds REAL CHANGE HOMELESS EMPOWERMENT PROJECT ↗
- Who funds JOYCE PRESCHOOL ↗
- Who funds RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds VOYAGEURS CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S LAW CENTER OF MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds BATTERED WOMEN'S LEGAL ADVOCACY PROJECT ↗
- Who funds THE HISTORY THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE GENERATION ↗
- Who funds CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY OF MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP ↗
- Who funds LUNDSTRUM CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS DBA LUNDSTRUM PERFORMING ARTS ↗
- Who funds Mixed Blood Theatre Company ↗
- Who funds Cornerstone Advocacy Service ↗
- Who funds Youth Farm and Market Project ↗
- Who funds ST ANTHONY PARK AREA SENIORS ↗
- Who funds SOUTHSIDE FAMILY NURTURING CENTER ↗
- Who funds LEGAL RIGHTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds The Banyan Foundation ↗
- Who funds THEATER MU INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds THE FRIENDS OF THE SAINT PAUL PUBLIC LIBRARY ↗
- Who funds INSTITUTE FOR AGRICULTURE & TRADE POLICY ↗
- Who funds HALLIE Q BROWN COMMUNITY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FRESHWATER SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds AFTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS ↗
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: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Hardenbergh Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Mardag Foundation · Margaret a Cargill Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation
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 Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen 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.
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How do I get to Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen 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.