How much does The Lulu Foundation give?

The Lulu Foundation reported 40 grants totaling $550,000 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 18 and 36 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does The Lulu Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2018 to FY2025, its largest causes are Civil Rights (19%), Health (11%), Housing & Shelter (11%).

Who are The Lulu Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2018 to FY2025: Women in Need Inc ($220k), Planned Parenthood North Central States ($210k), Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund Inc ($180k).

Does The Lulu Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 22% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Lulu Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Lulu Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include The Minneapolis Foundation, The Ford Foundation, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation.

Where is The Lulu Foundation based?

The Lulu Foundation is based in MN.

The Lulu Foundation

The Lulu Foundation at a glance Also receives grants: funding profile →

· Private foundation

The Lulu 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.

$550k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$40k

Largest

01What it funds

01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.

Civil Rights$572kHealth$345kHousing & Shelter$340kInternational$315kEducation$307kCrime & Legal$265kArts & Culture$159kFood & Nutrition$144kOther$0

02FY2025 · 40 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k12 grants · $60k
$10k–50k28 grants · $490k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$18k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
PLANNED PARENTHOOD NORTH CENTRAL STATES	$40,000
EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY SUPPORT FUND	$30,000
SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER	$30,000
WOMEN IN NEED	$30,000
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF MN	$30,000
NONVIOLENT PEACEFORCE	$20,000
AEON	$20,000
SUMMIT ACADEMY OIC	$20,000
BATTERED WOMEN'S JUSTICE PROJECT	$20,000
FAMILY TREE CLINIC	$20,000
PAGE EDUCATION FOUNDATION	$20,000
CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE	$20,000
SON OF A SAINT	$15,000
NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTER	$15,000
COMUNIDADES LATINAS UNIDAS EN SERVICIO (CLUES)	$15,000

02The need

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 (FY18–25, $337k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 18% of The Lulu Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 44% of the giving stays in MN; by stated purpose, 39%.

The Lulu Foundationlessmore of its giving

Placed by recipient address

How this is measured

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

88%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$2.7M · 45 repeat orgs$363k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +13% since the first grant, against -14% for those funded once.

45 repeat relationships: 34 still active in FY2025, 11 since wound down; 5 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$2.7M

$323k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+13%

-14%

Still filing today

89%

87%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 93% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $40k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Arts & CultureCivil RightsHuman ServicesHealthEnvironmentFood & NutritionOther

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

WOMEN IN NEED INC
8× · 2018–2025 · $220k · revenue +89%
PP
PLANNED PARENTHOOD NORTH CENTRAL STATES
7× · 2019–2025 · $210k · revenue +118%
EVERYTOWN FOR GUN SAFETY SUPPORT FUND INC
8× · 2018–2025 · $180k · revenue +10%

Funded once

Feeding Americagraduated
one grant, 2020 · $75k · revenue +40%
UW
UNITED WAY OF NEW YORK CITYgraduated
one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue +42%
CF
CENTER FOR DISASTER PHILANTHROPY INC
one grant, 2020 · $25k · revenue -22%

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.

Npr Foundation

The npr foundation ("foundation") is organized and operated exclusively for the benefit of its sole supported organization, national public radio, inc. ("npr inc."). the foundation supports npr inc. through various activities such as…

—

Actionaid Usa

Actionaid is an international network building a just, equitable, and sustainable world in solidarity with communities on the frontlines of poverty and injustice. actionaid usa is the u.s. branch of actionaid international, which works in…

Social Science

American Gas Association

American gas association's (the association) mission is to develop and advocate for informed, innovative, and durable policy that fulfills our nation's energy needs, environmental aspirations and economic potential. we are committed to…

—

City Report Inc

CITY REPORT, INC. serves the people of New York through independent journalism that answers their information needs and holds the powerful to account.

Arts & Culture

National Public Radio Inc

National public radio, inc. ("npr") works collaboratively with member public radio station licensees ("member stations") to create a more informed public, one that is challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of…

Arts & Culture

American Flood Coalition Inc

To drive transformational adaptation to protect communities across the country from higher seas, stronger storms, and more frequent flooding.

Environment

Environmental Investigation Agency

To establish and promote programs to protect the global climate, forests, wildlife and the natural environment, through research, advocacy, and investigation.

International

Npr International Operations Inc

Npr international operations, inc. ("nprio") supports the international newsgathering activities of national public radio, inc. through bureaus and offices established locally in foreign countries.

—

America's Newspapers

Providing research, education and practical information all aimed at optimizing newspapers' business operations, deepening their community engagement and enhancing the quality of their journalism.

Employment

Democracy Works Inc

The organization's mission is to leverage web-technologies to improve civic engagement and voter education.

Civil Rights

Women Donors Network

Women donors network advances a just, equitable, and sustainable world through the power of philanthropy, women's leadership, and collective and individual action.

Philanthropy

Internet Society Foundation

At the internet society foundation, we focus on funding initiatives that strengthen the internet in function and reach so that it can effectively serve all people. our work advances the vision of the internet society (isoc): the internet…

International

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of New York City; the most unlike its peers is Round Earth Media. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

79 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. 79 of the 85 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

76/79

Grantees still filing

41/79

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$1,309,227Crime & Legal$380,000Health$365,000Human Services$342,000International$301,000Civil Rights$230,000Education$152,000

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

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.

The Minneapolis FoundationMN27.8× affinity14 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: The Minneapolis Foundation · The Ford Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · New Venture Fund · Tides Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Silicon Valley Community Foundation · John D and Catherine T Macarthur Foundation · Ch Robinson Worldwide Foundation · Xcel Energy Foundation · Women's Foundation of Minnesota · Fr Bigelow 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 The Lulu Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Lulu Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

3get no government money at all

24report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

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 The Lulu Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Lulu Foundation 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.

Play a game based on Lulu’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