· Public charity
Stairstep Foundation
The Organization's purpose is to reinforce community values, create community building models and to facilitate community building activities by and with others.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 19 grants below total $262,065 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $304,904 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $42,839 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 · FY2021
- Under $10k9 grants · $78k
- $10k–50k10 grants · $184k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Islamic Association of North America Inc | $24,000 |
| African Career Education & Resource Inc | $24,000 |
| Hmong American Partnership | $21,500 |
| Rainbow Health Minnesota | $21,000 |
| Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y la Accion Latina-COPAL | $21,000 |
| Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota | $18,000 |
| CAPI USA | $18,000 |
| WellShare International | $15,065 |
| Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research | $11,500 |
| American Indian Community Housing Organization | $10,000 |
| African Immigrants Community Services | $9,000 |
| Tserha Aryam Kidist Selassie Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church | $9,000 |
| Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul | $9,000 |
| Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio Inc | $9,000 |
| Briva Health | $9,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY21–21, $36k) 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 your grants land in higher-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.
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 Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) is a network organization of Asian Minnesotan leaders harnessing our collective power to improve the lives of community.
To assist new americans arriving from africa become productive and well-adjusted citizens.
Services provided include education, community development, youth programs, employment assistance, information dissemination, health and wellness programs, elder services, and child welfare.
Intercultural mutual assistance association builds bridges between cultures by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services.
Lao Assistance Centers mission is to harness the power of a united Lao voice to improve the quality of life for the Lao American community in Minnesota as we work to advance equity through a united, engaged and resilient AAPI community.
To strengthen the resilience and hope of our diverse community members by improving their health and well-being.
Open path resources seeks to bring about positive change for the state of minnesota through organizing practicies with the east african community. building understanding upon key public issues affecting current and future success of east…
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
Open Cities Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) whose mission is to provide culturally competent primary and preventive healthcare services to a largely underserved population in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
Preventing domestic violence and sexual abuse in communities of color throughout minnesota and the nation. by providing culturally-specific resources to women and girls of african descent, we hope to change the cycle of gender-based abuse…
Our mission is to strengthen indigenous leadership and cultural identity.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment Through Research and the most unlike its peers is Capi Usa. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
15 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. 15 of the 19 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 AFRICAN CAREER EDUCATION & RESOURCES IN ↗
- Who funds HMONG AMERICAN PARTNERSHIP ↗
- Who funds COPAL COMMUNIDADES ORGANIZANDO EL PODER Y LA A ↗
- Who funds RAINBOW HEALTH MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds CAPI USA ↗
- Who funds VIETNAMESE SOCIAL SERVICES OF MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds WELLSHARE INTERNATIONAL ↗
- Who funds HISPANIC ADVOCACY AND COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT THROUGH RESEARCH ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY HOUSING ORGANIZATION ↗
- Who funds AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS COMMUNITY SERVIC ↗
- Who funds LIGHTHOUSE CENTER FOR VITAL LIVING ↗
- Who funds Phyllis Wheatley Community Center Inc ↗
- Who funds COMMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICO INC ↗
- Who funds CULTURAL WELLNESS CENTER ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST INDIAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CENTER NWICDC ↗
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: Otto Bremer Trust · The Minneapolis Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Medica Foundation · Target Foundation · Northwest Area Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Mortenson Family Foundation · Mardag 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 Stairstep Foundation 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.