· Public charity
Lovin' Lake County
To promote and develop tourism through marketing and events, stimulating Lake Countys economy, enhancing the quality of life for all residents, and protecting the areas unique attributes for the continual benefit of its citizens.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 26 grants below total $523,223 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $704,246 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $181,023 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k12 grants · $89k
- $10k–50k12 grants · $217k
- $50k–250k2 grants · $217k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Fall Lake Township | $130,006 |
| Lake County Chamber of Commerce | $87,127 |
| Bay Days | $30,000 |
| Green DoorCity of Beaver Bay | $30,000 |
| Rocky Wall Productions | $23,000 |
| Knife River Recreation Council | $20,000 |
| Lake County Agricultural Society | $18,000 |
| Friends of Finland | $17,965 |
| City of Silver Bay | $17,325 |
| North Shore Scenic Railroad | $15,000 |
| Two Harbors Farmer's Market | $14,000 |
| Chrissy Scandin LLC | $12,000 |
| Silver Bay Blue Line Club | $10,000 |
| Veterans on the Lake | $10,000 |
| Two Harbors Commnity Radio KTWH | $9,525 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY22–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 7% of your 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.
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.
20 repeat relationships — 17 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 9 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, 85% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $79k 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
- LCLake County Chamber of Commerce3× · 2022–2024 · $253k · revenue +9% · 38% of their budget
- KRKNIFE RIVER RECREATION COUNCIL3× · 2022–2024 · $58k · revenue +5% · 27% of their budget
- LCLAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY2× · 2023–2024 · $14k · revenue +4%
Funded once
- SYScott Young Distributionone grant, 2022 · $16k
- TNTracks N Racksone grant, 2022 · $11k
- DWDueces Wild LLCone grant, 2023 · $10k
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.
The Lake Minnetonka Historical Society tells the story of Lake Minnetonka by collecting, preserving and sharing its history.
Historic steamboat rides and eduction about Lake Minnetonka.
Historical museum
To represent historical societies, museums, and research centers in Northwest Minnesota.
Historical/Educational train ride over scenic and historic railroad tracks Offering an educational experience on the history and geography of the St. Louis River estuary.
To preserve and promote maritime history
Preserve and interpret the History & culture of Seaside Oregon by operating a Museum and outreach programs.
To educate the public on the history of Manistee County
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Duluth & North Shore Railway Inc and the most unlike its peers is Rocky Wall Productions. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
12 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. 12 of the 38 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 Lake County Chamber of Commerce ↗
- Who funds BAY DAYS ↗
- Who funds ROCKY WALL PRODUCTIONS ↗
- Who funds KNIFE RIVER RECREATION COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds Friends of Finland and Community ↗
- Who funds DULUTH & NORTH SHORE RAILWAY INC ↗
- Who funds LAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds JOHN BEARGREASE SLED DOG MARATHON INC ↗
- Who funds VETERANS ON THE LAKE RESORT ↗
- Who funds TWO HARBORS COMMUNITY RADIO ↗
- Who funds BALLET MAGNIFICAT INC ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
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: Lloyd K Johnson Foundation · Duluth-Superior Area Community Foundation · Northland Foundation · Amazonsmile 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 Lovin' Lake County 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 Lovin' Lake County?
Find your warmest path to Lovin' Lake County 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.