· Private foundation
Helen Sperry Lea Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k4 grants · $17k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $117k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE WOODEN FLOOR | $30,000 |
| SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND | $20,000 |
| PROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING | $20,000 |
| MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST | $15,000 |
| BRAVER ANGELS-INST FOR AM VALUES | $11,755 |
| INTERACT CTR FOR VIS PERM ARTS | $10,000 |
| MASS AUDUBON | $10,000 |
| HALLIE Q BROWN COMM CENTER | $9,754 |
| URBAN BOAT BUILDERS | $4,000 |
| FRIEND OF THE MS RIVER | $2,000 |
| WALK IN COUNSELING CENTER | $1,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–25, $175k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +56% since the first grant, against +34% for those funded once.
22 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down.
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 FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- TWTHE WOODEN FLOOR FOR YOUTH MOVEMENT9× · 2017–2025 · $211k · revenue +10%
- PFPROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC9× · 2017–2025 · $144k · revenue +56%
- SHSECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND9× · 2017–2025 · $122k · revenue +96%
Funded once
- SPST PAUL ACADEMYone grant, 2017 · $10k
- AFAMERICAN FARM SCHOOL IN GREECEone grant, 2018 · $8k
VENICE FAMILY CLINICgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $6k · revenue +110%
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.
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.
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…
Mcad provides a transformative education within a community of support for creative students of all backgrounds to work, collaborate, and lead with confidence in a dynamic, interconnected world.
Avivo increases well-being through recovery and career advancement while working to end homelessness.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Develop resources and opportunities which empower people and communities.
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…
Led by minnesota state university students, we are the inclusive voice for all future, current, and former students. we actively work to represent and support minnesota state university students and advocate at a campus, state, and federal…
Map is a local, statewide, and national resource for communities looking to develop and implement proven, innovative, community-centered strategies that address gender-based violence. using map's "we are all connected" (waac) prevention…
The minnesota private business council fights to advance policies that grow minnesota jobs and to elect public officials committed to joining with us.
To collect, display and interpret objects in craft art and design.
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…
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.
How this is measured
17 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. 17 of the 28 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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 THE WOODEN FLOOR FOR YOUTH MOVEMENT ↗
- Who funds PROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST HEARTLAND ↗
- Who funds SIMPSON HOUSING SERVICES INC ↗
- Who funds MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST ↗
- Who funds MASSACHUSETTS AUDUBON SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR TEACHING PEACE INC ↗
- Who funds INTERACT CENTER FOR THE VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS ↗
- Who funds URBAN BOATBUILDERS INC ↗
- Who funds WALK-IN COUNSELING CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds ESALEN INSTITUTE ↗
- Who funds ST PAUL ACADEMY AND SUMMIT SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER ↗
- Who funds VENICE FAMILY CLINIC ↗
- Who funds JUXTAPOSITION ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds LANGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds HEAL THE BAY ↗
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: The K Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · American Endowment Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Helen Sperry Lea Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Helen Sperry Lea Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Massachusetts Audubon Society Inc: 1% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Helen Sperry Lea Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Helen Sperry Lea 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.
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