How much did STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION grant in FY2021?

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION reported 19 grants totaling $304,904 in its FY2021 IRS filing.

Where is STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION based?

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION is based in MN.

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION

Foundation Dossiers Mostly funded, not a grantmaker — see who funds it →

· Public charity

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION

The Organization's purpose is to reinforce community values and create community building models and to facilitate community building activities by and with others.

$305k

Granted FY2021

Grants

Communities

$24k

Largest

01What you fund

01FY2021 · 19 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2021

Under $10k9 grants · $78k
$10k–50k10 grants · $184k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$1.1M

Total assets

Largest grants

African Career Education & Resource Inc$24,000
Islamic Association of North America Inc$24,000
Hmong American Partnership$21,500
Rainbow Health Minnesota$21,000
Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y la Accion Latina-COPAL$21,000
CAPI USA$18,000
Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota$18,000
WellShare International$15,065
Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research$11,500
American Indian Community Housing Organization$10,000
The Cultural Wellness Center$9,000
African Immigrants Community Services$9,000
Briva Health$9,000
Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio Inc$9,000
Lighthouse Center for Vital Living$9,000

02The need

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 (FY21–21, $36k) land where the poverty rate runs at 12% — the area typically sits at 8%. 100% of those dollars reach neighborhoods with above-average need. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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 line in 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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

03Your 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.

Minneapolis American Indian Center

The Organization's mission is to provide excellent services witin a foundation of cultural values that help meet the needs of the American Indian community. The Organization offers services to the American Indian community in Minneapolis,…

Human Services

Coalition of Asian American Leaders

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.

Arts & Culture

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

African Community Services

To assist new americans arriving from africa become productive and well-adjusted citizens.

Education

Division of Indian Work

To support and strengthen urban american indian people through culturally based education, traditional healing approaches, and leadership development. we achieve this by focusing on community and delivering programs and services directly…

Human Services

Minnesota Humanities Center

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

—

Center for Community Services

Foster understanding and cultural exchange between american and chinese peoples and assist new immigrants in the greater minneapolis area to achieve economic self-sufficiency, social empowerment, and cultural appreciation.

Human Services

Sahan Journal

Sahan Journal provides immigrants and communities of color with free, fair, and responsive journalism that shows everyone the way to a more equitable Minnesota.

Education

African Community Senior Services

African community senior services is guided by its community champions, empowers immigrants, refugees and underserved communities, in minneapolis and st paul, through its programs that promote health, transportation, education, and…

Human Services

The Awood Center

The awood center provides education and leadership development among workers in the east african community of minnesota. the awood center creates a culturally and linguistically relevant space to build unity and develop the next generation…

Arts & Culture

La Oportunidad Inc

A mission of "championing the development of latino individuals and families to create a strong, peaceful community," through its holistic, culturally relevant programming by providing bilingual/bicultural human services.

—

California Consortium for Urban Indian

The mission of ccuih is to facilitate shared development resources for our members and to raise public awareness in order to support a health and wellness network that meets the needs of american indians living in urban communities in…

—

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hmong American Partnership and the most unlike its peers is American Indian Community Housing. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

03the grantee network

15 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.

Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

14/15

Grantees still filing

14/15

Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Other$78,500Health$39,000Human Services$36,000International$33,065Employment$30,500Education$24,000Civil Rights$21,000

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.

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 Minneapolis FoundationMN33.3× affinity15 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Minneapolis Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Greater Twin Cities United Way · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Medica Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · Target Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Northwest Area Foundation · The Sheltering Arms Foundation · Allina Health System

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 organisation 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.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–25%

typical government reliance, FY20–24

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. 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.

04Through Plinth

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y la Accion Latina-COPAL.

Agentic due diligence · confidence × risk

Financial management

low risk

~18 months of operating runway; revenue grew over 5 filed years.

Track record & reputation

low risk

5 years of Form 990 filings, still active; revenue up 2.5× since.

Legal standing

low risk

US 501(c)(3); EIN 831278469 on file with current IRS Form 990 filings.

Governance

Live in Plinth

Board composition & governance documents — verified live in Plinth from the applicant.

Compliance & sanctions

Live in Plinth

OFAC / UN sanctions screening — run live in Plinth at assessment.

Program capacity

Live in Plinth

Staffing, M&E and activity alignment — assessed live in Plinth from submitted proposals.

Live · Plinth’s real DD engine

Run the actual assessment on Comunidades Organizando El Poder Y la Accion Latina-COPAL, cold from public data.

Generated live from public IRS filings + open web sources by Plinth’s agentic engine. Shown as an illustration of the product, not a formal assessment.

Post-award monitoring · continuous checks

On trackFinancial stability— Roughly 18 months of cash on hand.
On trackSustained operations— Filing through 2024; revenue grew over the period.
On trackReliance on your funding— Your grants peaked at 15% of their budget — diversified.
Awaiting reportEvidence of delivery— Plinth collects the grantee's own monitoring reports post-award.

What you see here is static and public. In Plinth it’s operational — the full six-pillar framework on every applicant (with their own documents + live registry and sanctions checks), monitoring dashboards on every award, custom board reports, and eligibility routing for intake.

Agentic due diligenceMonitoring dashboardsCustom board reportsEligibility routing

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPro

How do I get to Stairstep Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Stairstep Foundation through people who sit on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the introduction across shared trustees and officers.

Every link is a documented governance overlap in public IRS 990 filings — not a personal network — and each hop carries its own confidence tier. Low-confidence or distant paths are held back rather than guessed.

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

15 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Stairstep Foundation?

More from the funding graph

STAIRSTEP FOUNDATION

Where the money goes

Do your dollars go where the need is?

15 grantees, every filing reconciled, 2017–2024.

Government reliance of your grantees

Your grantmaking, live and operational

How do I get to Stairstep Foundation?

More from the funding graph