· Private foundation
Lenfestey Family Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 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 FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k71 grants · $187k
- $10k–50k3 grants · $30k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF MINNEAPOLIS | $10,000 |
| VALENCIA ELEMENTARY HOME AND SCHOOL CLUB | $10,000 |
| FLOW (FOR LOVE OF WATER) | $10,000 |
| WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC | $9,000 |
| MACKINAC ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION | $8,000 |
| DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS | $6,000 |
| MICHILIMACKINAC HISTORICAL SOCIETY | $5,000 |
| MINNESOTA CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY | $5,000 |
| MINNESOTA CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS | $5,000 |
| MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART | $5,000 |
| KENWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PTA | $5,000 |
| 350ORG | $5,000 |
| JANET S MUNT FAMILY ROOM | $5,000 |
| MINNESOTA MEDIA ARTS | $5,000 |
| STEGER WILDERNESS CENTER FOR INNOVATION | $5,000 |
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 (FY18–25, $49k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 66% 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.
Where the work is directed
The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.
About 7% of Lenfestey Family Foundation Inc’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.
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 +24% since the first grant, against +2% for the ones you funded once.
84 repeat relationships — 50 still active in FY2025, 34 since wound down; 21 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $43k 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
- OBOpen Book2× · 2022–2023 · $125k · revenue +204%
- TWTHE WOMAN'S CLUB OF MINNEAPOLIS6× · 2017–2025 · $103k · revenue +12%
- TAThe Advocates For Human Rights4× · 2022–2025 · $45k · revenue +30%
Funded once
NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS INCORPORATEDone grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -46%- PEPAGE EDUCATION FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $5k · revenue +69%
- GSGlobal Synergy Group Incone grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue -76%
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.
Iatp works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
The minnesota environmental partnership is a coalition that strengthens member effectiveness and builds collective power to secure a healthy environment for all minnesotans.
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 mission of the greater msp partnership is to accelerate regional competitiveness and inclusive economic growth through job creation, capital investment and execution of strategic initiatives. the partnership works to strengthen our…
Catalyze collaboration across perspectives, power, and systems for social equity and environmental health.
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 land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.
Minnesota fringe connects adventurous artists with adventurous audiences by creating open, supportive forums for free and diverse artistic expression.
Mixed Blood Theatre Company uses theater to disrupt injustice. We are a social justice organization catalyzing action and change through art. Our work is guided by deep community engagement and rooted in radical hospitality.
Arts Midwest works collaboratively with private and public arts supporters to support, inform, and celebrate arts organizations and creative communities across the Midwest. Our mission is to build unprecedented opportunity across the…
Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Springboard for the Arts and the most unlike its peers is Ernest C Oberholtzer Foundation. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
For each theme you fund, this compares how the sector’s money is shifting with how your own giving is shifting.
Sector change and giving change are each shown relative to their own range, growing (right) or shrinking (left); both normalized, so inflation isn’t mistaken for growth.
Your grantees are a median of 35 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 2% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 1% lost their exemption, against 10% 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.
143 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. 143 of the 170 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 Open Book ↗
- Who funds THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF MINNEAPOLIS ↗
- Who funds The Advocates For Human Rights ↗
- Who funds FOR LOVE OF WATER ↗
- Who funds Valencia Elementary Home & School Club ↗
- Who funds THE LOFT INC ↗
- Who funds WATCH ↗
- Who funds MACKINAC ISLAND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Hill & Lake Press Inc ↗
- Who funds UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES USA INC ↗
- Who funds GUTHRIE THEATER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds 350ORG ↗
- Who funds ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF SEATTLE KING COUNTY ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS ↗
- Who funds LENSIC PERFORMING ARTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN INC ↗
- Who funds ANDERSON CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES INC ↗
- Who funds ESPANOLA VALLEY HUMANE SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds RAIN TAXI INC ↗
- Who funds FRESH ENERGY ↗
- Who funds Janet Munt Family Room ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MICHILIMACKINAC HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA INC ↗
- Who funds ANDERSON CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds TWIN CITIES PUBLIC TELEVISION INC ↗
- Who funds ALIGHT ↗
- Who funds Black Mesa Trust inc ↗
- Who funds NURSE-FAMILY PARTNERSHIP ↗
- Who funds SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds Economic Opportunity Institute ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA ↗
- Who funds PROJECT SUCCESS ↗
- Who funds COFFEE HOUSE PRESS INC ↗
- Who funds MIGIZI Communications Inc ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ↗
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: The Minneapolis Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Margaret a Cargill Foundation · Target Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Marbrook Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Jerome Foundation Inc · Otto Bremer Trust · The Head Family Foundation
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 Lenfestey Family Foundation Inc 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.
- Janet Munt Family Room — 44% of income from government
- Xerces Society Inc — 22% of income from government
- New England Foundation for the Arts Incorporated — 8% of income from government
- Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation — 4% of income from government
- Sandy Hook Promise Foundation — 0% of income from government
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 Lenfestey Family Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Lenfestey Family Foundation Inc 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.