· Private foundation
Mardag Foundation
Its FY2024 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, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k5 grants · $17k
- $10k–50k103 grants · $2.2M
- $50k–250k9 grants · $450k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DIVINE KONNECTIONS INC | $50,000 |
| SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| CHANNEL ONE INC | $50,000 |
| SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| LAKEWOOD HEALTH SYSTEM | $50,000 |
| BEAR PAWS CULTURAL ART | $50,000 |
| YOUNG WOMENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION | $50,000 |
| NORTHWOODS BATTERED WOMENS SHELTER INC | $50,000 |
| SECOND HARVEST NORTHERN LAKES FOOD BANK | $50,000 |
| CITY OF WINONA | $35,000 |
| STATE STREET THEATER CO | $30,000 |
| CHILDRENS DENTAL SERVICES INC | $30,000 |
| COMMUNITY ACTION DULUTH | $25,000 |
| FRANCONIA SCULPTURE PARK | $25,000 |
| EVERGREEN YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES INC | $25,000 |
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 (FY20–24, $3.1M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 80% 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
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 6% of Mardag Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in MN; by stated purpose, 93%.
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 +33% since the first grant, against +12% for those funded once.
161 repeat relationships: 64 still active in FY2024, 97 since wound down; 48 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, 56% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.1M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- AHAMHERST H WILDER FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $195k · revenue +40%
- BCBOYS' CLUB OF DULUTH4× · 2020–2023 · $120k · revenue +10%
- AEARROWHEAD ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AGENCY INCORPORATED4× · 2021–2024 · $115k · revenue +50%
Funded once
- NFNORTHLAND FOUNDATIONone grant, 2020 · $60k · revenue -14%
- MMMINNESOTA MILK BANK FOR BABIESone grant, 2023 · $50k · revenue +8%
- RRECONNECTRONDOgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $50k · revenue +946%
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.
Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
MinnPost produces independent journalism to serve as a trusted guide for Minnesotans exploring the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing our state.
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…
To represent victim/survivors of relationship abuse and member programs; challenge systems and institutions; promote social change; and support, educate, and connect member programs.
Touchstone mental health provides innovative, person-centered services that foster hope, health and well-being. we envision a world where all people whose lives are affected by mental illness will flourish with effective treatment, quality…
United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.
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…
The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.
Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.
Connectability of mn, inc. works to advance the independence, productivity, and full citizenship of people experiencing physical or invisible barriers.
Nexus' mission is to build more engaged and powerful communities by supporting community building initiatives that expand community wealth and foster social and human capital.
How this is measured
338 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. 338 of the 370 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
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.
- Who funds SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds AMHERST H WILDER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NORTHWOODS BATTERED WOMEN'S SHELTER INC ↗
- Who funds BOYS' CLUB OF DULUTH ↗
- Who funds ARROWHEAD ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY AGENCY INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds LIFE HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH HOUSE FOLK SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds ANNA MARIE'S ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds CHANNEL ONE INC ↗
- Who funds LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT ↗
- Who funds AMPERSAND FAMILIES ↗
- Who funds KAIROS ALIVE ↗
- Who funds YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF DULUTH ↗
- Who funds BRIDGES OF HOPE ↗
- Who funds Face to Face Health and Counseling Service Inc ↗
- Who funds VOLUNTEER SERVICES OF CARLTON COUNTY INC ↗
- Who funds RISEUP PARTNERSHIP ↗
- Who funds C A R E Clinic ↗
- Who funds TUBMAN ↗
- Who funds Sod House Theater ↗
- Who funds Mankato Area Foundation ↗
- Who funds DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC TRANSFORMATION ↗
- Who funds Indigenous Roots ↗
- Who funds JEREMIAH PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds PROJECT LEGACY ↗
- Who funds LAKEWOOD HEALTH SYSTEM ↗
- Who funds Goodwill Industries Inc ↗
- Who funds New Pathways Inc ↗
- Who funds SOUTH SUDANESE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis ↗
- Who funds IRREDUCIBLE GRACE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MANKATO YOUTH PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds DIVINE KONNECTIONS INC ↗
- Who funds 180 DEGREES INC ↗
- Who funds Victoria Theater Arts Center dba 825 Arts ↗
- Who funds MERRICK COMMUNITY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds DULUTH COMMUNITY SCHOOL COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds Keystone Community Services ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY ACTION CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds NORTH COUNTRY FOOD BANK INC ↗
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: Fr Bigelow Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Hardenbergh Foundation · Medica Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · The McKnight Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Youthprise · Propel Nonprofits · Hugh J Andersen Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Mardag Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Mardag Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Mardag Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Mardag 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 Mardag’s filings →