Skip to content
Surly Gives a Damn at a glanceAlso receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

Surly Gives a Damn

Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$9k
Granted FY2023
3
Grants FY2023
1
States reached
$5k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2023.

Food & Nutrition$44kHousing & Shelter$31kHealth$22kPublic Safety & Disaster$18kRecreation & Sports$12kCrime & Legal$10kPhilanthropy$10kEnvironment$10kOther$0
02FY2023 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

$2,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$4k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
COMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM$5,000
BRIDGING$2,500
PLYMOUTH CHRISTIAN YOUTH CENTER$1,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–23, $58k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%COMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS: $12k → 11%COMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: $5k → 11%OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $6k → 11%OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $5k → 11%OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $5k → 11%OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $5k → 11%OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $5k → 11%PRISM: $721 → 11%PRISM: $236 → 11%FRASER: $9k → 11%FRASER: $5k → 11%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
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.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

57%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$107k · 9 repeat orgs$80k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +91% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.

9 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2023, 7 since wound down; 1 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

9
32

Total granted

$107k
$79k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+91%
+23%

Still filing today

78%
72%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2023, 88% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $1k went to new ones.

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

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

’17’18’19’21’22’23
Human ServicesFood & NutritionCommunity ImprovementEnvironmentYouth DevelopmentCivil RightsOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). 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

  • OA
    OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA
    5× · 2017–2022 · $26k · revenue +309%
  • BI
    Bridging Inc
    5× · 2018–2023 · $21k · revenue +23%
  • CE
    COMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS INC
    2× · 2017–2023 · $17k · revenue +9%

Funded once

  • NA
    NORTHSIDE ACHIEVEMENT ZONE
    one grant, 2017 · $10k · revenue -5%
  • M
    MATTERgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $6k · revenue +173%
  • MO
    MINNESOTA OFF ROAD CYCLISTS-MORCgraduated
    one grant, 2017 · $5k · revenue +43%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Minnesota Business Partnership

The minnesota business partnership's mission is to maintain a high quality of life for all minnesotans by ensuring that the state's economy remains strong, globally competitive and its prospects for growth bright by working with elected…

—
2
St Paul Transportation Management Organization

Move minnesota leads the movement for an equitable and sustainable transportation system that puts people first. we are passionate about connecting communities, ending the climate crisis, expanding access to jobs and resources, and…

Environment
3
Minnesota Council on Foundations

MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.

—
4
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The minnesota chamber of commerce proactively leads the business community statewide to: advance pro-business, responsible minnesota public policy that creates jobs and grows the econony; provde member services to address evolving business…

—
5
Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce

Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.

—
6
Great Plains Food Bank

End hunger together.

Food & Nutrition
7
Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

The alliance is a coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups with a mission to build power across the intersections of geography, race, culture, and issues in the twin cities region to eliminate systems of oppression…

Community Improvement
8
Mn Community Measurement

Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.

Health
9
United Way of Ne Minnesota

United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.

—
10
Mill City Farmers Market Inc

Mission: to inspire and nurture a healthy community by building a local, sustainable, and organic food economy in a vibrant experiential marketplace.vision: to be a nationally recognized marketplace model that connects, educates, and…

—
11
Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

—
12
Minneapolis Climate Action

Minneapolis Climate Action is a 501c(3) nonprofit founded in 2007 by a group of dedicated individuals committed to addressing climate change in their community. After almost 10 years of working at the neighborhood level and piloting the…

Environment
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Minneapolis Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual Transgender Pride-T. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

34 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 34 of the 43 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
8
Early backer (in before they grew)
32/34
Grantees still filing
21/34
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

OPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $26,000 · Human ServicesOPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTACOMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS INC: $16,502 · Human ServicesCOMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PR…FRASER: $14,097 · Human ServicesFRASER+2 more: $1,495 · Human ServicesBridging Inc: $21,395 · OtherBridging IncHABITAT FOR HUMANITY: $10,000 · OtherHABITAT FOR HUMANITYHEARTS & HAMMERS: $8,000 · OtherHEARTS & HAMMERSTree Trust: $5,000 · OtherTree TrustCITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER: $4,500 · OtherCITY OF BROOKLYN CENTERUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: $5,000 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATIONPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC: $5,000 · OtherPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INCTHE JUNGLE THEATER: $5,000 · OtherTHE JUNGLE THEATER+19 more: $15,704 · Other+19 moreMATTER: $5,650 · Food & NutritionMATTERFOOD GROUP MINNESOTA INC THE: $5,000 · Food & NutritionFOOD GROUP…SISTERS CAMELOT: $5,000 · Food & NutritionSISTERS CA…EVERY MEAL: $1,232 · Food & NutritionEVERY MEALFEEDING AREA CHILDREN TOGETHER: $682 · Food & NutritionMISSISSIPPI PARK CONNECTION: $9,544 · EnvironmentMINNESOTA OFF ROAD CYCLISTS-MORC: $5,228 · EnvironmentTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $10,000 · PhilanthropyNORTHSIDE ACHIEVEMENT ZONE: $10,000 · Crime & LegalOUTFRONT MINNESOTA: $5,000 · Civil RightsGAY-LESBIAN-BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER PRIDE-T: $1,500 · Civil Rights
Human Services$58,094Other$79,599Food & Nutrition$17,564Environment$14,772Philanthropy$10,000Crime & Legal$10,000Civil Rights$6,500

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetOPEN ARMS OF MINNESOTA: $26,000 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetBridging Inc: $21,395 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetCOMMUNITY EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS INC: $16,502 over 2y, 0.3% of budgetFRASER: $14,097 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $10,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetNORTHSIDE ACHIEVEMENT ZONE: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetMISSISSIPPI PARK CONNECTION: $9,544 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetFOOD GROUP MINNESOTA INC THE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTree Trust: $5,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetOUTFRONT MINNESOTA: $5,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE JUNGLE THEATER: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetDANE COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY: $2,169 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetWORLD BICYCLE RELIEF NFP: $1,550 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetGAY-LESBIAN-BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER PRIDE-T: $1,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetTHE SANNEH FOUNDATION: $1,416 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLYMOUTH CHRISTIAN YOUTH CENTER: $1,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPEOPLE RESPONDING IN SOCIAL MINISTRY: $957 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetSPARE KEY: $943 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetANNA MARIE'S ALLIANCE: $538 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHEART OF THE CITY RACE: $527 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetLiving Well Disability Services: $500 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMIDTOWN GREENWAY COALITION: $500 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetKeystone Community Services: $358 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetNICE RIDE MINNESOTA: $154 over 1y, 0.0% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Saint Paul & Minnesot…The Minneapolis Found…Pohlad Family Foundat…Mightycause Charitabl…Xcel Energy FoundationCh Robinson Worldwide…The Richard M Schulze…Otto Bremer TrustThe Jamf Nation Globa…Bame FoundationThe Walser FoundationTarget Foundation
Saint Paul & Minnesota FoundationMN28.7× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Mightycause Charitable Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Ch Robinson Worldwide Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · The Jamf Nation Global Foundation · Bame Foundation · The Walser Foundation · Target Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Surly Gives a Damn funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Surly Gives a Damn. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%23%45%68%90%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    11report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    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 a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than 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 to 24 months.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Surly Gives a Damn?

    Find your warmest path to Surly Gives a Damn 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.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 43 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its 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.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2023, released 2023. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2024) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2023, the most recent year this funder made grants.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Surly Gives a Damn’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home