How much does Ja Wedum Foundation give?

Ja Wedum Foundation reported 108 grants totaling $1,326,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 77 and 93 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does Ja Wedum Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Education (55%), Public Benefit (13%), Human Services (9%).

Who are Ja Wedum Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: University of Minnesota Foundation ($3.8M), Fergus Area College Foundation ($563k), Norway House ($335k).

Does Ja Wedum Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 31% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Ja Wedum Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Ja Wedum Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Otto Bremer Trust, Communitygiving, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

Where is Ja Wedum Foundation based?

Ja Wedum Foundation is based in MN.

Ja Wedum Foundation

Ja Wedum Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

Ja Wedum Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$1.3M

Granted FY2024still arriving

108

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$500k

Largest

01What it funds

0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Education$8.5MPublic Benefit$2.0MHuman Services$1.4MHealth$837kArts & Culture$594kFood & Nutrition$312kPhilanthropy$269kYouth Development$247kOther$0

02FY2024 · 108 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k74 grants · $253k
$10k–50k31 grants · $424k
$50k–250k2 grants · $150k
$250k+1 grant · $500k

$5,000

Median grant

States reached

$169M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
ALEXANDRIA TECHNICAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION	$500,000
WEST CENTRAL AREA EDUCATION FOUNDATION	$100,000
FERGUS AREA COLLEGE FOUNDATION INC	$50,000
ALLINA HOSPICE FOUNDATION	$40,000
ST CLOUD AREA SCHOOLS	$30,000
PINKY SWEAR FOUNDATION	$30,000
CENTRAL MINNESOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$25,000
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION	$17,500
BAPTIST ON MISSION	$16,000
SOPHIE'S SQUAD	$15,000
BOLDER OPTIONS	$15,000
CZECH AND SLOVAK SOKOL MINNESOTA	$13,000
CENTRAL MINNESOTA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION	$12,000
HENNEPIN THEATRE TRUST	$10,000
HOPE ACADEMY	$10,000

02The need

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 (FY17–24, $543k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 95% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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 grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

74%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$11M · 157 repeat orgs$4.0M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +30% since the first grant, against +21% for those funded once.

157 repeat relationships: 65 still active in FY2024, 92 since wound down; 23 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

157

124

Total granted

$11M

$3.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+30%

+21%

Still filing today

53%

41%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $236k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesEducationHealthArts & CultureYouth DevelopmentCommunity ImprovementOther

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

UO
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION
8× · 2017–2024 · $3.8M · revenue +105%
NH
Norway House
2× · 2017–2021 · $335k · revenue +637%
DC
DUNWOODY COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
7× · 2017–2024 · $164k · revenue +56%

Funded once

CO
CITY OF ROCHESTER
one grant, 2017 · $2.0M
EG
ESPLANADE GARDENS SENIOR INC
one grant, 2022 · $750k
KN
Knute Nelsongraduated
one grant, 2017 · $150k · revenue +108%

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.

Minnesota Business Partnership

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…

—

The Foundation for Health Care Continuums

The mission of the foundation for health care continuums is to strengthen each community we serve by providing a wide spectrum of housing and health care services that honor the evolving, aging population.

Health

Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—

Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Industry

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…

—

United Way of Ne Minnesota

United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.

—

Minnesota Council on Foundations

MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.

—

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St Cloud

At Catholic Charities, we focus our efforts around three core pillars: Food Access, Mental Health and Housing. Guided by our mission - to serve and enhance human dignity for all people - we provide essential services and foster a sense of…

Human Services

Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce

Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.

—

Mn Community Measurement

Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.

Health

Ecumen

We empower individuals and families to confidently navigate aging so that it is a purposeful journey filled with dignity and support.

—

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.

Philanthropy

St Paul Transportation Management Organization

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…

Environment

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Communitygiving; the most unlike its peers is Esplanade Garden Senior Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

160 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 2026, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 160 of the 310 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

153/160

Grantees still filing

110/160

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$8,296,517Education$5,110,870Arts & Culture$551,500Human Services$507,530Health$329,070Philanthropy$268,500Food & Nutrition$244,000

Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.

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.

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.

Otto Bremer TrustMN54.4× affinity37 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Otto Bremer Trust · Communitygiving · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota · Granite Partners Foundation of Minnesota Inc · Minnesota Community Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Morgan Family Foundation · Target 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 Ja Wedum Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Ja Wedum Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

1get no government money at all

47report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 Ja Wedum Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Ja Wedum 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.

Play a game based on Ja Wedum’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