· Private foundation
Steen Family Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
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.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k12 grants · $37k
- $10k–50k4 grants · $55k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bethlehem Lutheran Church Twin Cities | $23,000 |
| Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry Inc (LPGM) | $12,000 |
| Lutheran Social Services of MN | $10,000 |
| Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative | $10,000 |
| Wartburg College | $7,000 |
| Every Meal | $6,000 |
| Reef Discovery Center | $6,000 |
| A Peace of My Mind | $5,000 |
| St Olaf College | $4,000 |
| Sonoma Bach | $3,500 |
| Community Cloud Forest Conservation | $1,500 |
| St Johns Lutheran Church | $1,000 |
| Way to Grow | $1,000 |
| Source Song Festival | $1,000 |
| NMSU Foundation | $500 |
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 (FY17–25, $49k) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 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.
Which US states your grants reach
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.
23 repeat relationships — 14 still active in FY2025, 9 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, 74% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24k 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
- SOST OLAF COLLEGE9× · 2017–2025 · $61k · revenue +56%
- LSLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE OF MINNESOTA6× · 2020–2025 · $38k · revenue +42%
- APA PEACE OF MY MIND INC5× · 2021–2025 · $30k · revenue +59%
Funded once
- AAEONgraduatedone grant, 2019 · $1k · revenue +193%
- ASAll Saints Episcopal Churchone grant, 2023 · $1k
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2022 · $1k
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.
We believe that great schools are the cornerstone of a just and thriving community. ensuring that every child is able to attend a school that works is our moral and social imperative - our children deserve no less.
We empower individuals and families to confidently navigate aging so that it is a purposeful journey filled with dignity and support.
Gustavus Adolphus College is a church-related, residential liberal arts college firmly rooted in its Swedish and Lutheran heritage. The College offers students of high aspiration and promise a liberal arts education of recognized…
Minnesota Brass shares a unique passion for the live performing arts by producing ensembles and events that challenge our members to reach their full potential while inspiring our audiences.
Benedictine University is an inclusive academic community dedicated to teaching and learning, scholarship and service, truth and justice, as inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition, the social teaching of the Church, and the…
Music education programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin that include intense residential chamber music programs for talented young string players and talented young woodwind and horn players; a residency program in the Twin Cities, public…
United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
As an independent, mission-aligned partner with the edina public schools, the edina education fund secures incremental funding for district-wide programs and services that strengthen academic learning and support the whole person on their…
Arts Midwest works collaboratively with private and public arts supporters to support, inform, and celebrate arts organizations and creative communities across the Midwest. Our mission is to build unprecedented opportunity across the…
Engages, equips and empowers learners to explore their vocations, fulfill their potential and serve the world.
MinnPost produces independent journalism to serve as a trusted guide for Minnesotans exploring the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing our state.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota and the most unlike its peers is Kgsa Foundation. 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 30 years old; the field is 20. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 17% startups (under 5 years old) — 8% of your grantees by number, and just 4% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 0.0% lost their exemption, against 10% of the field you don’t fund.
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.
22 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. 22 of the 33 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 ST OLAF COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE OF MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds A PEACE OF MY MIND INC ↗
- Who funds WARTBURG COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds BEACON INTERFAITH HOUSING COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY CLOUD FOREST CONSERVATION ↗
- Who funds Holden Village ↗
- Who funds 29 11 INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE ↗
- Who funds HOUSING IN ACTION INC ↗
- Who funds EVERY MEAL ↗
- Who funds SONOMA BACH ↗
- Who funds SOURCE SONG FESTIVAL ↗
- Who funds GLOBAL HORIZONS INC ↗
- Who funds WAY TO GROW ↗
- Who funds EDINA ORCHESTRA BOOSTERS ↗
- Who funds AEON ↗
- Who funds THE EDINA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TRUSTEES OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Edina Band Boosters ↗
- Who funds New Mexico State Univ Fdn Inc ↗
- Who funds KGSA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EDINA GIVE AND GO ↗
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: The Minneapolis Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Thrivent Charitable Impact & Investing · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · The Douglass Brandenborg Family Fdn · Frey Foundation · Julie & Doug Baker Jr Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Centerpoint Energy Foundation Inc · Otto Bremer Trust · National Philanthropic Trust
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 Steen Family 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.
- Trustees of Boston University — 12% of income from government
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.