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Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Public charity

Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc

The Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota is a consortium of the eleven Regional Arts Councils that serve all Minnesota counties, providing continuous improvement of the individual councils through implementation of best practices in programming, management, and leadership development and information for Minnesota artists and…

$200k
Granted FY2021
11
Grants FY2021
1
States reached
$80k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its fieldRead
04Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01FY2021 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2021

  • Under $10k4 grants · $35k
  • $10k–50k6 grants · $85k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $80k
$11,484
Median grant
1
States reached
$10k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Metropolitan Regional Arts Council$80,299
Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council$18,231
Central Minnesota Arts Board$15,759
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council$14,873
Southwest Minnesota Arts Council$13,106
Lake Region Arts Council$11,484
Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council$11,333
The Five Wings Arts Council$9,667
East Central Regional Arts Council$9,477
Northwest Minnesota Arts Council$7,999
Region 2 Arts Council$7,772
02The need
02

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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY21–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 70% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council: $11k → 8%Lake Region Arts Council: $11k → 9%Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council: $18k → 9%Central Minnesota Arts Board: $16k → 9%The Five Wings Arts Council: $10k → 10%Northwest Minnesota Arts Council: $8k → 11%Southwest Minnesota Arts Council: $13k → 11%East Central Regional Arts Council: $9k → 12%Metropolitan Regional Arts Council: $80k → 14%The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council: $15k → 15%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.
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 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
Seward Arts Council
—
2
Mankato Area Arts Council

The mission of the Mankato Area Arts Council, DBA Carnegie Art Center, is to be a vibrant community destination that inspires, nurtures, and expands artistic, cultural, and educational experiences.

—
3
Sioux Falls Arts Council

Our mission is to enrich sioux falls culture, economy, and opportunity by building a stronger and more vibrant arts community.

—
4
Campbell County Arts Council Inc

Public service of the arts for the Campbell County, SD, community.

Arts & Culture
5
Washington County Arts Council Inc

Promotes the arts and related activities at local, state and national levels

—
6
Midcoast Fine Arts

Community development arts agency

—
7
Allied Arts of Whatcom County

To sustain and enrich our community through the arts.

Arts & Culture
8
Wallowa Valley Arts Council

To promote the arts in wallowa county, oregon.

—
9
Bemidji Community Arts Council Inc

To nurture, exhibit and promote the visual arts

—
10
Mcdowell Arts Council Association

Promoting the arts and enriching the culture of the locality through arts

Arts & Culture
11
Art Reach of Mid Michigan

Community art center organized to promote, stimulate and encourage involvement, appreciation, enjoyment and understanding of the arts in mid-michigan

—
12
Cecil County Arts Council Inc

Arts council is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting, promoting and sustaining the arts in cecil county. the arts council also provides grant and scholarship opportunities to community residents, organizations and schools.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Five Wings Arts Council; the most unlike its peers is Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
03the grantee network

11 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.

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

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/11
Grantees still filing
11/11
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

METROPOLITAN REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $80,299 · Arts & CultureMETROPOLITAN REGIONAL ARTS COUNCILSOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL INC: $18,231 · Arts & CultureSOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL INCARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $14,873 · Arts & CultureARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCILSOUTHWEST MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL: $13,106 · Arts & CultureSOUTHWEST MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCILLAKE REGION ARTS COUNCIL: $11,484 · Arts & CultureLAKE REGION ARTS COUNCILPRAIRIE LAKES REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $11,333 · Arts & CulturePRAIRIE LAKES REGIONAL ARTS COUNCILTHE FIVE WINGS ARTS COUNCIL: $9,667 · Arts & CultureEAST CENTRAL REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $9,477 · Arts & CultureNORTHWEST MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL: $7,999 · Arts & CultureREGION 2 ARTS COUNCIL: $7,772 · Arts & CultureCENTRAL MINNESOTA ARTS BOARD: $15,759 · Other
Arts & Culture$184,241Other$15,759

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetMETROPOLITAN REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $80,299 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetSOUTHEASTERN MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL INC: $18,231 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetCENTRAL MINNESOTA ARTS BOARD: $15,759 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $14,873 over 1y, 1.9% of budgetSOUTHWEST MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL: $13,106 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetLAKE REGION ARTS COUNCIL: $11,484 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetPRAIRIE LAKES REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $11,333 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetTHE FIVE WINGS ARTS COUNCIL: $9,667 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetEAST CENTRAL REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL: $9,477 over 1y, 1.6% of budgetNORTHWEST MINNESOTA ARTS COUNCIL: $7,999 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetREGION 2 ARTS COUNCIL: $7,772 over 1y, 1.6% 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 set of overlaps that mostly run through this funder rather than between each other.

The McKnight Foundati…
The McKnight FoundationMN28× affinity11 shared granteesties to 0 of 0Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The McKnight 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 Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2025
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%5%10%15%20%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    10report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–20%
    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.
    04Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota Inc 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 11 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 e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $8k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2021, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Forum of Regional Arts Councils of Minnesota’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