· Private foundation
Frels Family 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 FY2017–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k6 grants · $30k
- $10k–50k23 grants · $330k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST CATHOLIC | $40,000 |
| ST JOHN'S SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY SEMINARY | $25,000 |
| ROBBINSDALE WOMEN'S CENTER | $25,000 |
| RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $20,000 |
| FRANCISION BROTHERS OF PEACE | $15,000 |
| CRADLE OF HOPE | $15,000 |
| ST ODILIA CATHOLIC SCHOOL | $15,000 |
| BELLIS | $15,000 |
| SIGNS AND WONDERS FOR OUR TIMES | $15,000 |
| CHURCH OF SAINT AGNES | $15,000 |
| NET MINISTRIES | $10,000 |
| CORPUS CHRISTI CATHOLIC CHURCH | $10,000 |
| ST JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCH | $10,000 |
| ST PAUL SEMINARY | $10,000 |
| NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE | $10,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY17–24, $105k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 71% of those 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.
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.
46 repeat relationships — 28 still active in FY2024, 18 since wound down; 1 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, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $5k 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
- RWROBBINSDALE WOMEN'S CENTER7× · 2017–2024 · $130k · revenue +183%
- PIPEOPLE INCORPORATED7× · 2017–2024 · $95k · revenue +36%
- NHNEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE7× · 2017–2024 · $80k · revenue +97%
Funded once
- SOSt Odilia Catholic Schoone grant, 2019 · $20k
- SJST JOSEPH CATHOLIC CHURCHone grant, 2022 · $20k
- RCRAMSEY CTY HISTORICAL SOCIETYone grant, 2020 · $20k
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.
We champion the health needs of children and families. we are committed to improving children's health by providing the highest-quality, family centered care, advanced through research and education.
The mission of minnesota public radio is creating the future of public media by amplifying voices to inform, include, and inspire.
The mission of twin cities public television, inc. (tpt) is to enrich lives and strengthen our community through the power of media.see schedule o for continuation.
To advance the success of women attorneys and strive for a just society.
Mity's mission is to inspire and challenge intellectually curious students to pursue their passions within a diverse, inclusive community and empower them by building skills and relationships for lifelong success.
Enriched by the lasallian catholic heritage, saint mary's university of minnesota awakens, nurtures, and empowers learners to ethical lives of service and leadership.
University of minnesota physicians serves as the integrated group practice for the university of minnesota medical school full-time faculty to provide the highest quality healthcare to patients and their families.university of minnesota…
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…
We educate women to lead and influence. we educate at all degree levels through valuing and integrating the liberal arts and professional education within the catholic intellectual tradition, see schedule oemphasizing scholarly inquiry and…
Leadership matters mn is focused on advancing a policy agenda that places working minnesotans first. we support economic growth, job creation and equitable tax and education policies that will allow every minnesotan to thrive.
Minnesota youth symphonies (mys) enriches and inspires talented k-12 orchestral musicians by providing professional, comprehensive educational experiences, and thrills audiences with outstanding performances of orchestral repertoire.
Touchstone mental health provides innovative, person-centered services that foster hope, health and well-being. we envision a world where all people whose lives are affected by mental illness will flourish with effective treatment, quality…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is People Incorporated and the most unlike its peers is Science Museum of Minnesota. 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 57 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 14% 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.
18 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. 18 of the 82 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 ROBBINSDALE WOMEN'S CENTER ↗
- Who funds RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds PEOPLE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE ↗
- Who funds BELLIS ↗
- Who funds Cradle of Hope ↗
- Who funds HELPING PAWS INC ↗
- Who funds ETERNAL WORD TELEVISION NETWORK INC ↗
- Who funds SAINT JOHN'S UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds The Minnesota Opera ↗
- Who funds MINNDEPENDENT ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA ORCHESTRAL ASSOCIATION ↗
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: Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · American Gift Fund · Hardenbergh Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Nicholson Family Foundation · Patrick and Aimee Butler Family · Fred C and Katherine B Andersen Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America
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 Frels Family 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Frels Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Frels Family 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.