· Private foundation
The McKnight Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2024
- Under $10k28 grants · $130k
- $10k–50k185 grants · $4.8M
- $50k–250k444 grants · $48M
- $250k+133 grants · $93M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Minneapolis Foundation | $10,000,000 |
| United States Energy Foundation | $9,600,000 |
| Minneapolis Foundation | $5,000,000 |
| Minnesota Home Ownership Center | $2,200,000 |
| The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience | $2,000,000 |
| Rewiring America Inc | $2,000,000 |
| Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund | $2,000,000 |
| Community Foundation of Jackson Hole | $1,850,000 |
| Greater Minnesota Housing Fund | $1,750,000 |
| Brick By Brick Training & Development Corporation | $1,500,000 |
| Region Nine Development Commission | $1,500,000 |
| Youthprise | $1,500,000 |
| The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience | $1,500,000 |
| Brick By Brick Training & Development Corporation | $1,500,000 |
| Local Initiatives Support Corporation | $1,300,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY19–24, $12.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 9% of The McKnight Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 61% of the giving stays in MN; by stated purpose, 63%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +41% since the first grant, against +23% for those funded once.
735 repeat relationships: 449 still active in FY2024, 286 since wound down; 116 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (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 FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $24M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION5× · 2020–2024 · $47M · revenue +40%- TMTHE MCKNIGHT ENDOWMENT FUND FOR NEUROSCIENCE6× · 2019–2024 · $22M · revenue +4% · 100% of their budget
- GMGREATER MINNESOTA HOUSING FUND6× · 2019–2024 · $13M · revenue +581% · 43% of their budget
Funded once
- TETHE ENERGY FOUNDATIONone grant, 2019 · $7.3M · revenue -13%
- MCMINNESOTA COMEBACKone grant, 2019 · $1.0M · revenue 0% · 80% of their budget
- GMGREAT MN SCHOOLSgraduatedone grant, 2020 · $500k · revenue +39%
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.
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.
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…
Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.
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…
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…
Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.
United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.
To create an extraordinary downtown minneapolis, applying the core values of leadership, collaboration, advocacy and innovation.
Central indiana corporate partnership (cicp) is an alliance of indiana's business and research university leaders coming together to foster long-term prosperity for the region. cicp's mission is to transform the economy of indiana in order…
To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.
Midwest dairy works with others to give consumers an excellent dairy experience increasing sales, fostering innovation, and inspiring consumer confidence of dairy products and practices.
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…
Common good iowa engages iowans to create and advocate for research-based public policy that makes life better and more equitable for all who make iowa home.
How this is measured
940 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. 940 of the 1,155 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Showing the 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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.
- Who funds UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds THE MCKNIGHT ENDOWMENT FUND FOR NEUROSCIENCE ↗
- Who funds Youthprise ↗
- Who funds GREATER MINNESOTA HOUSING FUND ↗
- Who funds FAMILY HOUSING FUND ↗
- Who funds LOCAL INITIATIVES SUPPORT CORPORATION ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds NEW VENTURE FUND ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF JACKSON HOLE ↗
- Who funds THE ENERGY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FRESH ENERGY ↗
- Who funds NORTHWEST MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SOUTHWEST INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds PROPEL NONPROFITS ↗
- Who funds SOUTHERN MINNESOTA INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WEST CENTRAL INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds NORTHLAND FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds TAKEACTION MN EDUCATION FUND ↗
- Who funds PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES ↗
- Who funds WINDWARD FUND ↗
- Who funds GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
- Who funds Meridian Institute ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY OF MINNESOTA INC ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA HOME OWNERSHIP CENTER ↗
- Who funds Innovia Foundation ↗
- Who funds NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ↗
- Who funds PARK CITY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds The Cowles Center ↗
- Who funds NEXUS COMMUNITY PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds Metropolitan Economic Development Association ↗
- Who funds BME NETWORKS INC ↗
- Who funds NORTHCOUNTRY COOPERATIVE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds ST PAUL TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION ↗
- Who funds CLIMATE AND CLEAN ENERGY EQUITY FUND ↗
- Who funds CONSERVATION MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds ROCKEFELLER PHILANTHROPY ADVISORS INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Target Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The Bush Foundation · Propel Nonprofits · Headwaters Foundation for Justice · Mortenson Family Foundation · Northwest Area Foundation · Minnesota Humanities Center · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Jerome Foundation Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The McKnight Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The McKnight Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Inclusive Prosperity Capital Inc: 100% of income from government
- Forth Mobility Fund: 7% of income from government
- Ceres Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Play a game based on McKnight’s filings →