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Foundation for Essential Needs at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Foundation for Essential Needs

To reshape the minnesota hunger relief system so that all food shelf shoppers (clients) are provided with predictable, healthy food options in a dignified and welcoming environment.

$84k
Granted FY2025still arriving
6
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$37k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2025.

Food & Nutrition$490kHuman Services$119kCommunity Improvement$37kReligion$13kEmployment$5kHealth$5k
02FY2025 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $13k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $71k
$10,966
Median grant
1
States reached
$604k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
360 COMMUNITIES$37,404
BASIC NEEDS INC OF S WASHINGTON COUNTY$12,431
CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD$10,966
CROSS CENTER OF BENTON CO$10,000
WALKER AREA FOOD SHELF$7,800
NORTHPOINT HEALTH AND WELLNESS$5,462
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 (FY21–25, $121k) land where the poverty rate runs at 8%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 90% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%BASIC NEEDS INC OF S WASHINGTON COUNTY: $12k → 6%SEMCAC: $35k → 8%LIFEGATE SERVICES: $6k → 9%CATHOLIC CHARITIES DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD: $11k → 11%SEMCAC: $30k → 8%SEMCAC: $26k → 8%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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 26% of Foundation for Essential Needs’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in MN; by stated purpose, 74%.

Foundation for Essential Needslessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

42%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$279k · 3 repeat orgs$391k to everyone else

3 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 3 since wound down; 6 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
22

Total granted

$279k
$307k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+29%
+145%

Still filing today

67%
27%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $84k went to new ones.

50%100%’19’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’19’21’22’23’24’25
Food & NutritionHuman ServicesPhilanthropyCommunity ImprovementHealthOther
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

  • CL
    CLIFTON LARSON ALLEN LLP
    2× · 2022–2023 · $112k
  • S
    SEMCAC
    4× · 2021–2024 · $91k · revenue +16%
  • RW
    RED WING AREA FOOD SHELF
    2× · 2022–2023 · $75k · revenue +29%

Funded once

  • UW
    UNITED WAY OF FREEBORN COUNTY INC
    one grant, 2023 · $78k · revenue -37%
  • IF
    INCARNATION FOOD CENTER
    one grant, 2021 · $29k
  • CP
    CAMDEN PROMISE FOOD SHELF
    one grant, 2021 · $21k
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
Lonsdale Area Food Shelf Inc

Provide emergency food relief for the families in the Lonsdale MN region .

Food & Nutrition
2
North Scott Food Pantry

The North Scott Food Pantry provides food for people in need. Clients receive enough food for about one week and are allowed to get food every 28 days. There were 721 visits to our food pantry in 2025.

Food & Nutrition
3
St Croix Food Shelf
Food & Nutrition
4
Loaves and Fishes Food Shelf
Food & Nutrition
5
Bread of Life Community Services
Food & Nutrition
6
Heavens Table Food Shelf

Provide food for hungry individuals in martin county, mn

Food & Nutrition
7
Nac Food Pantry Inc

Providing weekly food assistance

Food & Nutrition
8
3G Food Pantry

Local food pantry serving those food insecurity.

Food & Nutrition
9
South County Community Food Bank

Providing nutritious food to low income families and individuals in south clatsop county

Food & Nutrition
10
Wabasha Area Food Share Inc

Community Food Shelf offering free food to low income area residents

—
11
Covenant Cupboard Food Pantry

Address the food insecurity needs in our community

Food & Nutrition
12
Cumby Food Pantry

food pantry

Food & Nutrition
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Basic Needs Inc of South Washington County; the most unlike its peers is A Place for Hope. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

30 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. 30 of the 31 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
12
Early backer (in before they grew)
30/30
Grantees still filing
21/30
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

CLIFTON LARSON ALLEN LLP: $112,300 · OtherCLIFTON LARSON ALLEN LLPINCARNATION FOOD CENTER: $29,250 · OtherINCARNATION FOOD CENTERCAMDEN PROMISE FOOD SHELF: $21,214 · OtherCAMDEN PROMISE FOOD SHELFTHE SALVATION ARMY - WEST 7TH: $18,370 · OtherTHE SALVATION ARMY - WEST 7THNEW CREATION BAPTIST CHURCH FOOD SHELF: $15,848 · OtherCALVARY LUTHERAN FOOD SHELF (MINNEAPOLIS): $15,673 · OtherWEST AFRICAN FAMILY SERVICES: $13,222 · OtherEVANGELIST TEMPLE HOUSE OF REFUGE OUTREACH MINISTRY: $12,833 · OtherTHE SALVATION ARMY - EASTSIDE FOOD SHELF: $11,831 · OtherTHE SALVATION ARMY NOBLE CORPS: $11,808 · Other+9 more: $66,225 · Other+9 moreSEMCAC: $91,307 · Human ServicesSEMCACBasic Needs Inc of South Washington County: $12,431 · Human ServicesBasic Needs Inc of S…CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD: $10,966 · Human ServicesCATHOLIC CHARITIES O…LIFEGATE SERVICES: $5,856 · Human ServicesRED WING AREA FOOD SHELF: $75,243 · Food & NutritionRED WING AREA FO…WELLS AREA FOOD SHELF: $6,846 · Food & NutritionWELLS AREA FOOD …JOYCE UPTOWN FOODSHELF: $6,169 · Food & NutritionJOYCE UPTOWN FOO…HOMETOWN RESOURCE CENTER: $6,115 · Food & NutritionHOMETOWN RESOURC…AREA FOOD SHELF OF NEW RICHLAND: $5,308 · Food & NutritionUNITED WAY OF FREEBORN COUNTY INC: $78,094 · PhilanthropyUNITED WAY OF…360 Communities: $37,404 · Community ImprovementNorthPoint Health and Wellness Center Inc: $5,462 · Health
Other$328,574Human Services$120,560Food & Nutrition$99,681Philanthropy$78,094Community Improvement$37,404Health$5,462

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

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSEMCAC: $91,307 over 4y, 0.2% of budgetUNITED WAY OF FREEBORN COUNTY INC: $78,094 over 1y, 16% of budgetRED WING AREA FOOD SHELF: $75,243 over 2y, 19% of budget360 Communities: $37,404 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCROSS CENTER OF BENTON COUNTY: $10,000 over 1y, 12% of budgetWALKER AREA FOOD SHELF INC: $7,800 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetJOYCE UPTOWN FOODSHELF: $6,169 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetHOMETOWN RESOURCE CENTER: $6,115 over 1y, 5.3% of budgetAREA FOOD SHELF OF NEW RICHLAND: $5,308 over 1y, 9.4% 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.

  • Who funds SEMCAC ↗
  • Who funds UNITED WAY OF FREEBORN COUNTY INC ↗
  • Who funds RED WING AREA FOOD SHELF ↗
  • Who funds 360 Communities ↗
  • Who funds Basic Needs Inc of South Washington County ↗
  • Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD ↗
  • Who funds CROSS CENTER OF BENTON COUNTY ↗
  • Who funds WALKER AREA FOOD SHELF INC ↗
  • Who funds WELLS AREA FOOD SHELF ↗
  • Who funds JOYCE UPTOWN FOODSHELF ↗
  • Who funds HOMETOWN RESOURCE CENTER ↗
  • Who funds LIFEGATE SERVICES ↗
  • Who funds NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center Inc ↗
  • Who funds AREA FOOD SHELF OF NEW RICHLAND ↗

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.

Hunger Solutions Minn…Saint Paul & Minnesot…Channel One IncThe Minneapolis Found…Otto Bremer TrustLand O'Lakes Foundati…Edina Realty Foundati…Mardag FoundationXcel Energy FoundationOpen Your Heart to th…Food Group Minnesota …Minnesota Community F…
Hunger Solutions MinnesotaMN79.1× affinity36 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Hunger Solutions Minnesota · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Channel One Inc · The Minneapolis Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Land O'Lakes Foundation · Edina Realty Foundation · Mardag Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless · Food Group Minnesota Inc The · Minnesota Community 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 Foundation for Essential Needs funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Foundation for Essential Needs. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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 Foundation for Essential Needs?

    Find your warmest path to Foundation for Essential Needs 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 31 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Foundation for Essential Needs’ 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