· Private foundation
Stearns Foundation Inc
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| DOLLARS FOR SCHOLARS | $2,500 |
| GOPHER CAMPFIRE SANCTUARY | $2,500 |
| RIVERSONG MUSIC FESTIVAL | $1,250 |
| HUTCH CENTER FOR THE ARTS | $1,000 |
| MCLEOD ALLIANCE | $500 |
| PARENTS FOR SENIORS | $250 |
| HUTCHINSON HEALTH FOUNDATION | $200 |
| UNITED WAY OF MCLLEOD COUNTY | $200 |
| UNITED WAY OF MCLEOD COUNTY | $200 |
| MEGHAN'S PLACE | $200 |
| HUTCH CENTER FOR THE ARTS | $200 |
| Individual grant recipient | $200 |
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 (FY19–25, $600) land where the poverty rate runs at 7%, 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.
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.
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.
21 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2025, 13 since wound down; 2 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 71% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $3k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- RMRIVERSONG MUSIC FESTIVAL3× · 2023–2025 · $4k · revenue +6%
- CRCROW RIVER HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC6× · 2017–2022 · $2k · revenue +43%
- AHAVEYRON HOMES INC4× · 2018–2023 · $850 · revenue +20%
Funded once
- RCRIDGEWATER COLLEGE FOUDATIONone grant, 2019 · $5k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2017 · $2k
- RRIVERSONGone grant, 2018 · $2k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
West central mental health housing, inc., was formed as a minnesota corporation in 1989. the company is primarily engaged in owning and operating under management contract, low income housing for handicapped individuals in willmar,…
The mission of mental health resources is to foster hope, health and recovery for people affected by mental illness and substance use disorder.
Through programs, advocacy and collaboration, people are empowered to discover their potential and live as engaged citizens, free of stigma, within a thriving community.
Hudson milestones seeks to build and maintain a hudson county based organization dedicated to the care, support and advancement of people with developmental disabilities and their families towards achieving to the maximum extent possible…
Emma norton services' mission is to provide transformational housing for women and families on their journey of recovery. to achieve this mission, ens offers supportive housing in both site based and scattered site models that serve both…
The organization collaborates with a network of partners to create a holistic safety net of services for vulnerable persons. hcc strives to support and empower individuals and families facing various challenges, ultimately enhancing the…
Connecting people to affordable rental homes, increasing choice and access for all.
To provide a care facility for individuals with special needs over the age of 22.
Alexandra house's mission is to empower victims of domestic and sexual violence, and inspire social change through education, support and advocacy.
To end homelessness and relieve hunger through action and advocacy.
Mission: helping people rebuild their lives. vision: strengthening our community one life at a time. core values: respect, integrity, fairness, collaboration, compassion.
To be a recognized leader in community mental health, respected for our clinical quality, innovation, and adaptation to a rapidly changing health care and social services environment.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hutchinson Health Foundation and the most unlike its peers is Gopher Campfire Sanctuary. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
13 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. 13 of the 40 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 RIVERSONG MUSIC FESTIVAL ↗
- Who funds HUTCHINSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds GOPHER CAMPFIRE SANCTUARY ↗
- Who funds CROW RIVER HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INC ↗
- Who funds MCLEOD ALLIANCE ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF MCLEOD COUNTY ↗
- Who funds AVEYRON HOMES INC ↗
- Who funds AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC ↗
- Who funds MEGHAN'S PLACE INC ↗
- Who funds 2B CONTINUED ↗
- Who funds GREATER MINNESOTA FAMILY SERVICES ↗
- Who funds HUTCHINSON HEALTH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EQUUL ACCESS INC ↗
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: Southwest Initiative Foundation · Minnesota Community Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Charities Aid Foundation America · Amazonsmile 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 Stearns Foundation Inc 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Stearns Foundation Inc?
Find your warmest path to Stearns Foundation Inc 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.