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Messerli & Kramer Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Messerli & Kramer Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$35k
Granted FY2025still arriving
7
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Education$103kHuman Services$64kHousing & Shelter$29kYouth Development$21kOther$0
02FY2025 · 7 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$566k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
ADVANCING EQUITY COALITION$5,000
EAST SIDE LEARNING CENTER$5,000
BREAKTHROUGH TWIN CITIES$5,000
KEYSTONE COMMUNITY SERVICES$5,000
MINDS MATTER TWIN CITITES$5,000
BABY'S SPACE A PLACE TO GROW$5,000
READING PARTNERS$5,000
02The need
03

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 (FY21–25, $19k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%BABY'S SPACE A PLACE TO GROW: $5k → 11%BABY'S SPACE A PLACE TO GROW: $5k → 11%FOSTER ADVOCATES: $4k → 14%FOSTER ADVOCATES: $4k → 14%FOSTER ADVOCATES: $1k → 14%0%20%40%50%more need →
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.
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.

90%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$207k · 15 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

15 repeat relationships: 5 still active in FY2025, 10 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

15
3

Total granted

$207k
$12k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+79%

Still filing today

93%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $10k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
EducationHuman ServicesYouth DevelopmentHousing & ShelterCommunity ImprovementInternationalOther
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

  • ES
    EAST SIDE LEARNING CENTER
    6× · 2018–2025 · $28k · revenue +63%
  • BT
    Breakthrough Twin Cities
    5× · 2020–2025 · $22k · revenue +83%
  • KC
    Keystone Community Services
    5× · 2017–2025 · $21k · revenue +142%

Funded once

  • CC
    CATHOLIC CHARITIES TWIN CITIES
    one grant, 2023 · $4k
  • CP
    COLLEGE POSSIBLE INCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $4k · revenue +79%
  • A
    ACES
    one grant, 2021 · $4k
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.

1
Ed Allies

Edallies partners with schools, families, and communities to ensure that every young minnesotan has access to a rigorous and engaging education. we advance policies that put underserved students first, remove barriers facing successful…

Education
2
Minnesota Education Equity Partnership

To transform systems, structures and public narratives to advance race equity and excellence in education.

Housing & Shelter
3
Achieve Twin Cities

As one of the upper midwest's leading career and college readiness organizations, achieve twin cities rallies community support and delivers best-in-class programs to inspire and equip young people in minneapolis and saint paul, minnesota…

Youth Development
4
Mothers Tutoring Academy

Mothers Tutoring Academy (MTA) is a non-profit and an after-school tutoring institution founded on the tenets of the bylaws of the State of Minnesota. It's co-educational where both genders sit and study together and an inclusive school…

Education
5
Youthprise

Youthprise is a nonprofit intermediary that invests in the future of Minnesota by investing in youth. Youthprise's mission is to increase equity with and for Minnesota's indigenous, low-income, and racially diverse youth.

Education
6
Leadership Matters Mn

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.

Education
7
Achieve Now

Achieve now is a philadelphia-based social justice organization that sees literacy as a mechanism to effect social change. our mission is to provide k-2 school children in greater philadelphia with high-quality, culturally competent…

Education
8
Think Small

To advance quality care and education of children in their crucial early years.

Human Services
9
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…

—
10
Springboard Collaborative

Springboard collaborative combines targeted student instruction with parent training in an incentivized system that closes the literacy gap, by transferring the summer from a barrier into a springboard for financially disadvantaged…

Human Services
11
Level Up Academy

By tapping the intrinsic motivation and curiosity of every child, we deliver higher than usual growth.

Education
12
The Campbell Institute

Children's institute's mission is to leverage research, practice, policy, and advocacy to shift systems toward justice for families so that all of oregon's children, prenatal to grade 5, have access to opportunity.

Unclassified
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Literacy Minnesota; the most unlike its peers is Perspectives 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

16 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

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 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 16 of the 20 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
4
Early backer (in before they grew)
16/16
Grantees still filing
11/16
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

EAST SIDE LEARNING CENTER: $28,000 · EducationEAST SIDE LEARNING CENTERBreakthrough Twin Cities: $22,000 · EducationBreakthrough Twin CitiesREADING PARTNERS: $19,000 · EducationREADING PARTNERSWALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS: $13,000 · EducationWALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERSLITERACY MINNESOTA: $12,000 · EducationLITERACY MINNESOTAAdvancing Equity Coalition: $5,000 · EducationCOLLEGE POSSIBLE INC: $4,000 · EducationKeystone Community Services: $21,000 · OtherKeystone Community ServicesCOMMONBOND COMMUNITIES: $17,000 · OtherCOMMONBOND COMMUNITIESIndividual grant recipient: $12,000 · OtherIndividual grant recipientPERSPECTIVES INC: $8,000 · OtherPERSPECTIVES INCMINDS MATTER TWIN CITITES: $5,000 · OtherMINDS MATTER TWIN CITITESCATHOLIC CHARITIES TWIN CITIES: $4,000 · OtherCATHOLIC CHARITIES TWIN CITIESACES: $4,000 · OtherACESBABY'S SPACE A PLACE TO GROW: $10,000 · Human ServicesBABY'S SP…Foster Advocates: $9,000 · Human ServicesFoster Ad…PEOPLE SERVING PEOPLE INC: $12,000 · Housing & Shelter30000 Feet: $8,000 · Youth DevelopmentNEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $8,000 · Community ImprovementJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT NORTH: $8,000 · International
Education$103,000Other$71,000Human Services$19,000Housing & Shelter$12,000Youth Development$8,000Community Improvement$8,000International$8,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetEAST SIDE LEARNING CENTER: $28,000 over 6y, 1.2% of budgetBreakthrough Twin Cities: $22,000 over 5y, 0.3% of budgetKeystone Community Services: $21,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetREADING PARTNERS: $19,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMONBOND COMMUNITIES: $17,000 over 4y, 0.0% of budgetWALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS: $13,000 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLITERACY MINNESOTA: $12,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetPEOPLE SERVING PEOPLE INC: $12,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetBABY'S SPACE A PLACE TO GROW: $10,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetFoster Advocates: $9,000 over 3y, 0.9% of budget30000 Feet: $8,000 over 2y, 0.7% of budgetNEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE: $8,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetJUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT NORTH: $8,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetPERSPECTIVES INC: $8,000 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOLLEGE POSSIBLE INC: $4,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
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 TrustSaint Paul & Minnesot…The Walser FoundationMortenson Family Foun…Greater Twin Cities U…The Richard M Schulze…The Minneapolis Found…Mightycause Charitabl…The Sauer Family Foun…Hardenbergh FoundationFr Bigelow FoundationWarren Foundation
Otto Bremer TrustMN21.4× affinity8 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Otto Bremer Trust · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Walser Foundation · Mortenson Family Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · The Sauer Family Foundation · Hardenbergh Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Warren 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 Messerli & Kramer Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Messerli & Kramer Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    6report 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 Messerli & Kramer Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Messerli & Kramer 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 20 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Messerli & Kramer’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