· Private foundation
John and Denise Graves Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2019–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k26 grants · $80k
- $10k–50k42 grants · $1.3M
- $50k–250k16 grants · $1.1M
- $250k+1 grant · $250k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| YOUTHPRISE | $250,000 |
| YMCA OF THE NORTH | $190,000 |
| VENN FOUNDATION | $150,000 |
| ACHIEVE TWIN CITIES | $83,316 |
| GREAT MN SCHOOLS | $75,000 |
| PERIS FOUNDATION | $65,000 |
| YOUTHPRISE | $60,000 |
| ED ALLIES | $50,000 |
| FRIENDSHIP ACADEMY OF THE ARTS | $50,000 |
| NORMANDALE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| PROJECT FOR PRIDE AND LIVING | $50,000 |
| EDUCATION EVOLVING | $50,000 |
| IMPROVE YOUR TOMORROW | $50,000 |
| EDUCATORS 4 EXCELLENCE | $50,000 |
| FOSTER ADVOCATES | $50,000 |
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 (FY19–24, $2.3M) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 25% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +36% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
74 repeat relationships — 42 still active in FY2024, 32 since wound down; 25 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, 72% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $754k 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
- TLTHE LINK5× · 2019–2023 · $700k · revenue +86%
LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION2× · 2022–2023 · $661k · revenue +25%- ATACHIEVE TWIN CITIES5× · 2019–2024 · $489k · revenue +33%
Funded once
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2020 · $849k
- OYOPPORTUNITY YOUTH NETWORKone grant, 2023 · $250k
- WEWALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERSone grant, 2022 · $130k · revenue -9%
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.
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
Breakthrough Twin Cities supports students on their journey to college by fostering a community of mutual learning with the next generation of educators so they both can collaborate, grow, and thrive.
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…
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…
To develop and advocate for public policy that makes Minnesota's economy more prosperous and fair for all Minnesotans.
Women's Foundation of Minnesota is a statewide community foundation investing in ending systemic inequities and driving innovation for gender and racial justice. WFM applies an Intersectional Equity Framework inclusive of gender, race,…
United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.
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.
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…
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.
World Youth Connect builds communities across cultures and beyond borders. By creating and encouraging civic engagement opportunities we help young people gain the skills and experience they need to be successful. World Youth Connect…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Minneapolis Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Princeton Einstein Museum Inc. 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 24 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 20% startups (under 5 years old) — 7% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 15% 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.
146 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. 146 of the 264 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
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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 Youthprise ↗
- Who funds THE LINK ↗
- Who funds LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds ACHIEVE TWIN CITIES ↗
- Who funds PROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Ed Allies ↗
- Who funds GREAT MN SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds PERIS Foundation ↗
- Who funds Foster Advocates ↗
- Who funds PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES ↗
- Who funds EDUCATORS FOR EXCELLENCE INC ↗
- Who funds Minnesota Alliance With Youth ↗
- Who funds Lake Street Council ↗
- Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH ↗
- Who funds HOPE COMMUNITY INC ↗
- Who funds Coalition of Asian American Leaders ↗
- Who funds AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds PROPEL NONPROFITS ↗
- Who funds VOICES FOR RACIAL JUSTICE ↗
- Who funds CIRCLE OF DISCIPLINE INC ↗
- Who funds HENNEPIN HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds VENN FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds CHAPIN HALL CENTER FOR CHILDREN ↗
- Who funds FRIENDSHIP ACADEMY OF THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds WALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds Advancing Equity Coalition ↗
- Who funds Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association ↗
- Who funds ACCESS PHILANTHROPY CHARITIES ↗
- Who funds PARTNERSHIPS FOR PERMANENCE ↗
- Who funds CLOSEKNIT ↗
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: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Pohlad Family Foundation · Youthprise · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · Headwaters Foundation for Justice · Mortenson Family Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · Propel Nonprofits
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 John and Denise Graves 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 John and Denise Graves Foundation?
Find your warmest path to John and Denise Graves 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.