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· Public charity

Minnesota Humanities Center

To spark positive change by increasing collective understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our histories through shared experiences.

$4.2M
Granted FY2024still arriving
90
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$473k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172024.

Arts & Culture$14MFood & Nutrition$2.8MHealth$1.3MHuman Services$787kPublic Benefit$736kCrime & Legal$441kCommunity Improvement$330kCivil Rights$287kOther$0
02FY2024 · 90 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

The 90 grants below total $3,912,543 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $4,201,323 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $288,780 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 $10k13 grants · $107k
  • $10k–50k54 grants · $1.2M
  • $50k–250k21 grants · $1.7M
  • $250k+2 grants · $845k
$24,936
Median grant
1
States reached
$44M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Minnesota Childrens Museum$472,500
Hunger Solutions Minnesota$372,659
Springboard for the$237,406
Giiwedinong Museum$177,188
Asian Economic Development Association$105,203
Great River Children's Museum$102,500
Reviving The Islamic Sisterhood For Empowerment$102,284
The Works Museum$85,657
Rondo Community Land Trust$78,750
Film Society of Minneapolis St Paul$77,000
Somali Museum of Min$75,000
WonderTrek Children's Museum$70,053
NEOMURALISMOS DE MEX$66,500
Speaking Out Collective$65,000
Learning Law and Dem$64,723
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 (FY18–24, $730k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%DAKOTA WICOHAN: $24k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $81k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $49k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $49k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $21k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $19k → 11%Young Mens Christian Association Of The North: $62k → 11%AFRICAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY SERVICES: $48k → 11%SOMALI COMMUNITY RESETTLEMENT SERVICES: $7k → 11%AFRICAN IMMIGRANT COMMUNITY SERVICES: $43k → 11%Somali Community Resettlement Services: $9k → 11%YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT AND MN CIVICS YOUTH: $92k → 11%YMCA OF THE GREATER TWIN CITIES: $68k → 11%YMCA OF THE GREATER TWIN CITIES: $33k → 11%East Side Freedom Library: $44k → 14%YMCA YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT: $27k → 11%Face to Face: $9k → 14%Tiwahe Foundation: $26k → 14%NATIVE GOVERNANCE CENTER: $8k → 14%Interact Center For The Visual And Performing Arts: $13k → 14%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.

75%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$16M · 85 repeat orgs$5.2M to everyone else

And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +63% since the first grant, against +21% for the ones you funded once.

85 repeat relationships — 36 still active in FY2024, 49 since wound down; 53 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

85
157

Total granted

$16M
$3.7M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+63%
+21%

Still filing today

66%
30%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 59% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1.6M went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesEducationPublic BenefitFood & NutritionEmploymentOther

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

  • MC
    Minnesota Children's Museum
    9× · 2017–2025 · $3.4M · revenue +98%
  • CM
    CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA
    9× · 2017–2025 · $873k · revenue +122%
  • DC
    DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC
    9× · 2017–2025 · $671k · revenue +17% · 26% of their budget

Funded once

  • R5
    REGION 5 CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
    one grant, 2022 · $113k
  • AP
    ARCATA PRESS
    one grant, 2023 · $83k
  • CL
    COMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICIO
    one grant, 2022 · $80k

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
Mixed Blood Theatre Company

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.

2
Minnesota Voice

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.

Public Benefit
3
Theater Mu Incorporated

Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.

Arts & Culture
4
African American Interpretive Center of Minnesota

Non-profit

Arts & Culture
5
Minnesota Humanities Center

To spark positive change by increasing collective understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our histories through shared experiences.

6
Diaspora One Tikar One People Dna Descendants of C

Preservation of culture

7
Northwest Minnesota Arts Council

Support and enhance the development of the arts in northwestern minnesota. facilitate and encourage the creation and appreciation of the arts.

Arts & Culture
8
Manoomin Arts Initiative

The manoomin arts initiative (mai) is an indigenous-led artist-led creative community development organization that supports artists and cultivates the creative economy within the white earth nation and surrounding communities. we work…

Arts & Culture
9
Science Museum of Minnesota

The museum's mission statement is "turn on the science: inspire learning. inform policy. improve lives."

Arts & Culture
10
Mounds Theatre Company

We believe that performing arts can engage stimulate inspire challenge educate reflect,empower and nourish artists audiences and communities. We are committed to the cultural enrichment of Saint Pauls ethnically and economically diverse…

Arts & Culture
11
Minnesota Multifaith Network

The Minnesota Multifaith Network is the statewide network supporting faith and interfaith leaders and organizations who work for a more just and loving world.

Religion
12
Mankato Area Arts Council

The mission of the Mankato Area Arts Council, DBA Carnegie Art Center, is to be a vibrant community destination that inspires, nurtures, and expands artistic, cultural, and educational experiences.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Springboard for the Arts and the most unlike its peers is Rice County Neighbors United. 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.

← shrinkinggrowing →↓ leaning in → pulling backsteadyAffordable Housing Developm…Private Member ClubsCommunity Support ServicesEducation Fundraising Found…Christian Ministry Support …Senior and Disability Resid…Social Justice Advocacy Org…Regional Business ChambersFamily FoundationsMinnesota Foundations & Fun…Ethnic Community ServicesEnvironmental Conservation …
the sector your giving your giving is ahead of the sector the sector’s ahead of you· dot size = how much the theme matters to each side
Ordered by the change in your giving — leaning in on top, pulling back at the bottom. The bar between the two dots is how out of step you are with the sector. Hover any row for detail.

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 19 years old; the field is 18. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number19%12%<5yr13%17%5–10yr19%21%10–20yr18%20%20–35yr15%19%35–55yr15%11%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value19%3%<5yr13%9%5–10yr19%15%10–20yr18%19%20–35yr15%47%35–55yr15%7%55yr+

The field is 19% startups (under 5 years old) — 12% of your grantees by number, and just 3% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 2% lost their exemption, against 13% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
2%5/228
the rest of the field
13%
2,122/15,901

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

193 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. 193 of the 296 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.

12
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
57
Early backer (in before they grew)
188/193
Grantees still filing
105/193
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Minnesota Children's Museum — $3,384,974 · Arts & CultureMinnesota Children's MuseumCHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA — $872,739 · Arts & CultureCHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTADULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $671,130 · Arts & CultureDULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INCJudy Garland Childrens Museum — $555,345 · Arts & CultureJudy Garland Childrens MuseumSPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS — $527,184 · Arts & CultureSPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTSGREAT RIVER CHILDRENS MUSEUM — $309,500 · Arts & Culture+48 more — $2,856,183 · Arts & Culture+48 moreKA JOOG NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION — $441,780 · OtherKA JOOG NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONWONDERTREK CHILDREN'S MUSEUM — $241,200 · Other+118 more — $5,717,127 · Other+118 moreHUNGER SOLUTIONS MINNESOTA — $2,586,229 · Food & NutritionHUNGER SOLUTION…+2 more — $113,833 · Food & NutritionVETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT — $441,274 · Public BenefitLearning Law and Democracy Foundation — $288,665 · Public BenefitSEAD PROJECT — $101,000 · Public BenefitSGU VETERANS & FAMILIES OF USA INC — $88,412 · Public BenefitPlanting people growing justice leadership institute — $37,000 · Public Benefit+1 more — $15,000 · Public BenefitYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH — $281,937 · Human ServicesSomali Community Resettlement — $233,898 · Human ServicesAFRICAN IMMIGRANTS COMMUNITY SERVIC — $91,000 · Human ServicesEAST PHILLIPS NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTE — $43,825 · Human ServicesDAKOTA WICOHAN — $36,250 · Human ServicesTHE TIWAHE FOUNDATION — $26,255 · Human Services+2 more — $40,000 · Human ServicesASIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION — $105,203 · EmploymentCOMMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICO INC — $51,000 · EmploymentTwin Cities Rise — $40,855 · EmploymentMIGIZI Communications Inc — $60,858 · Education826 MSP — $31,492 · EducationRice County Neighbors United — $27,500 · EducationST CATHERINE UNIVERSITY — $19,250 · EducationYouthprise — $18,697 · EducationTHINKSELF INC — $15,000 · Education
Arts & Culture$9,177,055Other$6,400,107Food & Nutrition$2,700,062Public Benefit$971,351Human Services$753,165Employment$197,058Education$172,797

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 budgetMinnesota Children's Museum — $3,384,974 over 9y, 7.9% of budgetHUNGER SOLUTIONS MINNESOTA — $2,586,229 over 9y, 5.1% of budgetCHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA — $872,739 over 9y, 17% of budgetDULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC — $671,130 over 9y, 26% of budgetJudy Garland Childrens Museum — $555,345 over 7y, 74% of budgetSPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS — $527,184 over 7y, 4.1% of budgetKA JOOG NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION — $441,780 over 8y, 20% of budgetVETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT — $441,274 over 3y, 97% of budgetGREAT RIVER CHILDRENS MUSEUM — $309,500 over 4y, 7.0% of budgetLearning Law and Democracy Foundation — $288,665 over 6y, 100% of budgetYOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH — $281,937 over 6y, 0.1% of budgetWHEEL AND COG CHILDREN'S MUSEUM — $249,747 over 6y, 60% of budgetTHE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ROCHESTER INC — $246,000 over 3y, 18% of budgetSomali Community Resettlement — $233,898 over 7y, 9.7% of budgetMINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP — $197,500 over 5y, 14% of budgetSOMALI MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER — $192,889 over 7y, 9.3% of budgetGIIWEDINONG MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER OF THE NORT — $177,188 over 2y, 73% of budgetOTTER COVE CHILDRENS MUSEUM — $151,769 over 3y, 28% of budgetWONDERTREK CHILDREN'S MUSEUM — $145,447 over 3y, 92% of budgetTHE WORKS — $120,425 over 3y, 5.6% of budgetHmong Cultural Center — $114,909 over 4y, 11% of budgetREVIVING THE ISLAMIC SISTERHOOD FOR — $112,284 over 2y, 8.5% of budgetASIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION — $105,203 over 2y, 9.8% of budgetSEAD PROJECT — $101,000 over 4y, 8.6% of budgetAFRICAN IMMIGRANTS COMMUNITY SERVIC — $91,000 over 3y, 12% of budgetSGU VETERANS & FAMILIES OF USA INC — $88,412 over 4y, 93% of budgetNorth American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems — $86,833 over 4y, 1.1% of budgetGREEN CARD VOICES — $84,021 over 4y, 12% of budgetMINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART — $79,200 over 3y, 2.0% of budgetTHE RONDO COMMUNITY LAND TRUST — $78,750 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetTHE FILM SOCIETY OF MINNEAPOLIS ST PAUL — $77,000 over 2y, 2.8% of budget(NEO)MURALISMOS DE MEXICO — $66,500 over 2y, 20% of budgetSpeaking Out Collective — $65,000 over 2y, 26% of budgetMIGIZI Communications Inc — $60,858 over 1y, 2.1% of budgetCOMPAS INC — $58,625 over 2y, 3.3% of budgetTWIN CITIES FILM FEST — $54,132 over 2y, 10% of budgetUNITED WAY OF CENTRAL MINNESOTA — $52,211 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetCOMMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICO INC — $51,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetHMONG MUSEUM OF MINNESOTA — $50,977 over 2y, 4.5% of budgetUNITECLOUD — $47,400 over 3y, 10% of budgetEAST PHILLIPS NEIGHBORHOOD INSTITUTE — $43,825 over 2y, 6.2% of budgetNative American Community Development Institute — $42,589 over 2y, 2.3% of budgetARCATA PRESS — $42,106 over 3y, 8.5% of budgetDAKHOTA IAPI OKHODAKICHIYE — $41,437 over 3y, 16% of budgetTwin Cities Rise — $40,855 over 2y, 0.6% of budgetWALKER WEST MUSIC ACADEMY — $40,791 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetUNITED FAMILY PRACTICE HEALTH CENTER — $40,659 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetDULUTH-SUPERIOR AREA EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION CORPORATION — $40,000 over 2y, 0.6% 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 Minnesota Children's Museum
  • Who funds HUNGER SOLUTIONS MINNESOTA
  • Who funds CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA
  • Who funds DULUTH CHILDREN'S MUSEUM INC
  • Who funds Judy Garland Childrens Museum
  • Who funds SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS
  • Who funds KA JOOG NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION
  • Who funds VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT
  • Who funds GREAT RIVER CHILDRENS MUSEUM
  • Who funds Learning Law and Democracy Foundation
  • Who funds YOUNG MENS CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTH
  • Who funds WHEEL AND COG CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
  • Who funds THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF ROCHESTER INC
  • Who funds Somali Community Resettlement
  • Who funds MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP
  • Who funds SOMALI MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER
  • Who funds GIIWEDINONG MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER OF THE NORT
  • Who funds OTTER COVE CHILDRENS MUSEUM
  • Who funds WONDERTREK CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
  • Who funds THE WORKS
  • Who funds Hmong Cultural Center
  • Who funds REVIVING THE ISLAMIC SISTERHOOD FOR
  • Who funds ASIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION
  • Who funds SEAD PROJECT
  • Who funds AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS COMMUNITY SERVIC
  • Who funds SGU VETERANS & FAMILIES OF USA INC
  • Who funds North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems

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.

The McKnight FoundationMN117× affinity74 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The McKnight Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Propel Nonprofits · Headwaters Foundation for Justice · The Minneapolis Foundation · Mardag Foundation · Minnesota Historical Society · Youthprise · Target Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · The Bush 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 Minnesota Humanities Center 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%6%25%56%100%your 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
    67report 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, 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 296 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $8.3M 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 FY2024, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    More from the funding graph