Minnesota · Private foundation
George W Neilson Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
- $1.6M
- Granted FY2025(still arriving)
- 34
- Grants FY2025
- 26
- Organizations funded FY2024
- 50%
- First-time grantees FY2024
- Median grant, FY2025
- $26,000
- Largest grant, FY2025
- $400,000
- Organizations funded a year
- 18 to 29
- FY2018 to FY2024
- States reached, FY2025
- 2
- Total assets, FY2025
- $30M
- Applications
- Takes unsolicited applications
- Per its most recent filing; check its own site
How open it is to new grantees
In FY2024, 50% of the organizations George W Neilson Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 42% of its grant dollars.
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 58% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $582k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
The numbers by year
| Fiscal year | Organizations funded | To those organizations | First-time grantees |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025still arriving | 29 | $1.6M | 52% |
| FY2024 | 26 | $1.4M | 50% |
| FY2023 | 29 | $1.5M | 48% |
| FY2022 | 27 | $1.6M | 52% |
| FY2021 | 22 | $1.5M | 50% |
| FY2020 | 18 | $1.5M | 56% |
| FY2019 | 27 | $1.6M | 74% |
| FY2018 | 26 | $1.5M | 77% |
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Top grantees
Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.
| Grantee | Total granted | Years | Share of their budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bemidji Community Arena Corporation | $2,025,000 | 5 | 58% |
| Greater Bemidji Inc | $1,006,550 | 5 | 20% |
| Boys & Girls Club of the Bemidji Area | $885,250 | 7 | 19% |
| Bemidji State University Alumni and Foundation | $854,957 | 9 | 3% |
| Northwoods Battered Women's Shelter Inc | $505,000 | 3 | 18% |
| Bemidji Community Arts Council Inc | $333,718 | 4 | 18% |
| Beltrami County | $320,000 | 2 | n/a |
| Opportunities in Science Inc | $257,000 | 3 | 18% |
| Bemidji Curling Club Inc | $250,000 | 1 | n/a |
| Bemidji Symphony Orchestra | $191,579 | 8 | 27% |
Show all 52 grantees
What it could do for these grantees
Plus 88 recipients with no EIN on record ($5.0M), not named here.
Where it is load-bearing
George W Neilson Foundation supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 10 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 36 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.
Tap a dot to name the grantee.
How this is measured
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.
Open a dossier: Northwest Minnesota Foundation · Sanford Group Return · Region 2 Arts Council · First National Bank of Bemidji Foundation · United Way of Bemidji Area · Team Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · The Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union Foundation · Otter Tail Power Company Foundation · C K Blandin Foundation · North Country Snowmobile Club · Midcontinent Foundation
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to George W Neilson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to George W Neilson 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.
About George W Neilson Foundation
- How much does George W Neilson Foundation give?
- George W Neilson Foundation reported 34 grants totaling $1,579,712 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 29 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.
- What does George W Neilson Foundation fund?
- By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Recreation & Sports (28%), Education (14%), Human Services (11%).
- Who are George W Neilson Foundation's largest grantees?
- By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Bemidji Community Arena Corporation ($2.0M), Greater Bemidji Inc ($1.0M), Boys & Girls Club of the Bemidji Area ($885k).
- Does George W Neilson Foundation fund new organizations?
- In FY2024, 50% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
- Does George W Neilson Foundation accept unsolicited applications?
- Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.
- Which funders back the same organizations as George W Neilson Foundation?
- Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Northwest Minnesota Foundation, Sanford Group Return, Region 2 Arts Council.
- Where is George W Neilson Foundation based?
- George W Neilson Foundation is based in MN.
Play a game based on George W Neilson’s filings →