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Plinth

· Public charity

Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network

Child care aware of minnesota was incorporated in 1992 to provide technical assistance, training and coordination for the child care resource and referral programs throughout minnesota, to collect data regarding the supply of and demand for child care, and to create and manage statewide, child care-focused projects.

$2.7M
Granted FY2021
40
Grants FY2021
1
States reached
$21k
Largest
01What you fund
01

What you funded, over time

By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).

A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 96% of MINNESOTA CHILD CARE RESOURCE AND REFERRAL NETWORK’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.

02FY2021 · 40 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 40 grants below total $638,250 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,709,547 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $2,071,297 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.

$15,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$8.4M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
MINI APPLIE INT MONTESSORI$21,000
BRIGHT START CHILD CARE CENTER INC$21,000
UNLIMITED POTENTIAL IN EDUCATION INC OPERATING AS JACK & JILL$21,000
AURORA CHILD CARE INC$18,250
OPEN ARMS LUTHERAN CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER$18,250
ST PAUL MIDWAY YMCA EARLY CHILDHOOD LEARNING CENTER$18,250
NEW HORIZON ACADEMY$18,250
LOVELY CHILD CARE CENTER LLC$18,250
CLOSE TO MY HEART$18,250
Individual grant recipient$18,250
KID ZONE CHILD CARE CENTER$15,500
YANYO CHILDCARE CENTER INC$15,500
HALLIE Q BROWN EARLY LEARNING CENTER$15,500
Individual grant recipient$15,500
CROSS VIEW EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER$15,500
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY20–21, $657k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%A CHILD'S DELIGHT TOO INC: $31k → 11%KIDS-R-IT INC: $37k → 11%UNDER THE RAINBOW EARLY EDUCATION: $37k → 9%PARENTING RESOURCE CENTER: $6k → 10%WE CARE DAY CARE INC: $31k → 11%SAINT PETER COMMUNITY CHILDCARE CENTER INC: $37k → 9%BUTTERFLY HILL NATURE PRESCHOOL INC: $12k → 9%TRACY KID'S WORLD: $17k → 11%KIDDY KAROUSEL: $21k → 15%HALLIE Q BROWN EARLY LEARNING CENTER: $16k → 14%HAPPY TIME DAY CARE CENTER: $47k → 15%THRIVE CHILD CARE AND FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER: $47k → 9%GOOD NEWS CHILDREN'S CENTER INC: $55k → 9%LINCOLN PARK CHILDREN & FAMILIES COLLABORATIVE: $6k → 15%APPLE TREE LEARNING CENTER: $18k → 15%KIDS CORE-WESTONKA SCHOOL AGE KIDS CORE: $16k → 11%YMCA OF THE GREATER TWIN CITIES: $128k → 11%BABYS SPACE: $16k → 11%EARLY STEPS LEARNING FOUNDATION: $13k → 11%HAZEL PARK LEARNING CENTER: $13k → 14%HAZEL PARK LEARNING CENTER: $12k → 14%METROKIDS: $47k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

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.

7%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$1.2M · 24 repeat orgs$17M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +59% since the first grant, against +23% for the ones you funded once.

24 repeat relationships — 24 still active in FY2021, 0 since wound down; 15 grantees were first funded in FY2021 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

24
408

Total granted

$1.2M
$17M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+59%
+23%

Still filing today

4%
8%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2021, 57% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $276k went to new ones.

50%100%’20’21
RenewedFirst-time

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

’20’21
Human ServicesEducationYouth DevelopmentOther

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

  • SC
    SUCCESS CHILD CARE INC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $316k
  • LC
    LOVELY CHILD CARE CENTER LLC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $55k
  • JC
    JAMA CHILD CARE LLC
    2× · 2020–2021 · $47k

Funded once

  • NH
    NEW HORIZON ACADEMY CORPORATE OFFICE
    one grant, 2020 · $2.2M
  • KL
    KINDERCARE LEARNING CENTER
    one grant, 2020 · $1.2M
  • SB
    STEP BY STEP MONTESSORI
    one grant, 2020 · $262k

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Beggining Child Care Center

Child care services and child preschool instruction

Education
2
Tlc Child Care Inc

Provide christian based daycare and pre-school

Human Services
3
Monarch Preschool Inc

Monarch Preschool offers a unique play-based learning experience for your child. Play-based, child-led education supports social and emotional development, strengthens language and numeracy skills, and inspires a life-long love of learning.

4
Mountain Tots Preschool

Mountain Tots preschool provides high quality early learning enrichment programs that enhances educational, social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development as well as Kindergarten-readiness. We provide preschool and childcare…

Education
5
Little Lambs Childcare Center
Human Services
6
Kid Central

Our mission is to provide quality and safe childcare for the families in our community and provide our youngest learners with a positive start to their education journey.

Education
7
Joyful Learning Edc

In 2001, Joyful Learning Educational Development Center (Joyful Learning EDC) was founded with a clear vision to provide accessible, high-quality childcare that meets the diverse needs of every child.

Education
8
Giggles & Wiggles Preschool Inc
Education
9
Riceville Community Daycare Inc
Human Services
10
Little Footprints Learning Center

To improve the learning for the childrens in the community

Religion
11
Wilmore Day Care Center

At Wilmore Day Care Center, it is our mission to provide holistic care for your child within a loving, Christian environment. We strive to ensure a well-rounded educational experience that will encourage lifelong learning.

12
Giggles & Grace Early Learning Center

Giggles & grace early learning center, inc., with community, parents and teachers, is committed to providing a safe, nurturing christian environment emphasizing the total development of each child; spiritual, intellectual, emotional,…

Human Services

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Morris Area Child Care Center and the most unlike its peers is Lakeside Early Learning. 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 25 years old; the field is 17. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number19%6%<5yr14%14%5–10yr20%19%10–20yr17%25%20–35yr14%19%35–55yr15%17%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value19%4%<5yr14%16%5–10yr20%24%10–20yr17%27%20–35yr14%17%35–55yr15%12%55yr+

The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 6% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 4% lost their exemption, against 12% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
4%
3/72
the rest of the field
12%
2,939/23,584

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.

04the grantee network

42 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 42 of the 447 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
11
Early backer (in before they grew)
37/42
Grantees still filing
27/42
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

NEW HORIZON ACADEMY CORPORATE OFFICE — $2,176,000 · OtherNEW HORIZON ACADEMY CORPORATE OFFICEKINDERCARE LEARNING CENTER — $1,222,750 · OtherKINDERCARE LEARNING CENTER+190 more — $9,936,300 · Other+190 moreYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH — $127,750 · Human ServicesGOOD NEWS CHILDRENS CENTER INC — $54,750 · Human ServicesMetroKids Daycare Center — $46,500 · Human ServicesTHRIVE FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER — $46,500 · Human ServicesHAPPY TIME DAY CARE CENTER — $46,500 · Human ServicesKIDS-R-IT INCORPORATED — $36,500 · Human ServicesSaint Peter Community Childcare Center — $36,500 · Human ServicesUNDER THE RAINBOW EARLY EDUCATION CENTER — $36,500 · Human Services
Other$13,335,050Human Services$431,500

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH — $127,750 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetGOOD NEWS CHILDRENS CENTER INC — $54,750 over 1y, 4.4% of budgetCIVIC LEAGUE DAY NURSERY — $46,500 over 1y, 4.0% of budgetTHRIVE FAMILY RESOURCE CENTER — $46,500 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetHAPPY TIME DAY CARE CENTER — $46,500 over 1y, 5.6% of budgetLITTLE HEARTS PRESCHOOL & CHILDCARE — $44,500 over 1y, 8.3% of budgetLAKE HARRIET MONTESSORI INC — $38,250 over 1y, 9.9% of budgetCOMMUNITY CHILD CARE CENTER INC — $38,250 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetST CROIX KIDS — $38,250 over 1y, 10% of budgetKIDS-R-IT INCORPORATED — $36,500 over 1y, 4.6% of budgetSaint Peter Community Childcare Center — $36,500 over 1y, 5.2% of budgetUNDER THE RAINBOW EARLY EDUCATION CENTER — $36,500 over 1y, 2.8% of budget
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 YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH

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.

Think SmallMN72.7× affinity35 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Think Small · First Children's Finance · Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation · Northland Foundation · Rochester Area Foundation · Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers · Otto Bremer Trust · The Sauer Family Foundation · Initiative Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc

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 Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral Network 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%your share of their income ↑0%19%38%56%75%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    22report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–75%
    typical government reliance, FY2025

    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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 447 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your 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. How we build these →

    Generated from your IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2021, released 2021. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports $3.3M of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2021, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph