How much does The Olseth Foundation give?

The Olseth Foundation reported 57 grants totaling $926,738 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 44 and 57 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does The Olseth Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (29%), Education (19%), Arts & Culture (9%).

Who are The Olseth Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Recharge America Inc ($505k), St Olaf College ($360k), Planned Parenthood North Central States ($275k).

Does The Olseth Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Olseth 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 Olseth Foundation?

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

Where is The Olseth Foundation based?

The Olseth Foundation is based in MN.

Foundation Dossiers

Minnesota · Private foundation

The Olseth 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.

$927k
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 57
Grants FY2025: 44
Organizations funded FY2024: 7%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $10,000
Largest grant, FY2025: $100,000
Organizations funded a year: 44 to 57; FY2020 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 7
Total assets, FY2025: $19M
Applications: Preselected organizations only; Per its most recent filing; check its own site

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 7% of the organizations The Olseth Foundation funded were first-time grantees, receiving 5% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 95% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $45k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesArts & CultureEnvironmentFood & NutritionAnimalsRecreation & SportsOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	56	$899k	21%
FY2024	44	$877k	7%
FY2023	44	$882k	9%
FY2022	46	$895k	9%
FY2021	57	$1.1M	11%
FY2020	57	$883k	n/a

99% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Environment$1.6MEducation$1.1MArts & Culture$495kHousing & Shelter$463kFood & Nutrition$424kHealth$418kPhilanthropy$383kCivil Rights$245kOther$0

Where its grants go

Grant dollars by states, across the years we hold.

Which US states its grants reach

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2020 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Recharge America Inc	$505,000	6	22%
St Olaf College	$360,000	6	0%
Planned Parenthood North Central States	$275,000	6	0%
Greater Mankato Area United Way Inc	$228,800	6	1%
The Advocates For Human Rights	$217,000	6	1%
Oregon Natural Resources Council Fund Oregon Wild	$210,000	6	2%
The Library Foundation	$180,000	6	1%
Path Home	$172,500	6	1%
Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation	$150,000	6	1%
The Jungle Theater	$150,000	6	2%

Show all 66 grantees

All grantees of The Olseth Foundation by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Recharge America Inc	$505,000	6	22%
St Olaf College	$360,000	6	0%
Planned Parenthood North Central States	$275,000	6	0%
Greater Mankato Area United Way Inc	$228,800	6	1%
The Advocates For Human Rights	$217,000	6	1%
Oregon Natural Resources Council Fund Oregon Wild	$210,000	6	2%
The Library Foundation	$180,000	6	1%
Path Home	$172,500	6	1%
Oregon Wildlife Heritage Foundation	$150,000	6	1%
The Jungle Theater	$150,000	6	2%
Oregon Food Bank	$140,000	6	0%
Friends of the Hennepin County Library	$137,000	6	1%
People Serving People Inc	$122,500	6	0%
Meals on Wheels People Inc	$121,000	6	0%
Planned Parenthood of the Columbia Willamette Inc	$120,000	6	0%
University of Minnesota Foundation	$105,180	6	0%
Minnesota State University Mankato Foundation Inc	$85,500	6	0%
Climate Generation	$75,000	3	2%
The History Theatre Inc	$72,500	6	1%
Friends of Saturday Academy	$70,000	4	3%
Committee Against Domestic Abuse Inc	$70,000	6	1%
Pear	$70,000	6	1%
Childrens Museum of Southern Minnesota	$65,000	6	2%
Fresh Energy	$60,000	6	1%
Oregon Public Broadcasting	$60,000	6	0%
Minnesota Engagement on Shelter and Housing	$55,000	6	2%
Second Harvest Heartland	$52,500	3	0%
Riverland Community College Foundation	$50,500	6	1%
Free Geek	$47,000	5	1%
Multnomah Arts Center Association	$45,500	5	9%
Steger Wilderness Center for Innovation	$45,000	3	8%
The Fort Lewis College Foundation	$40,000	6	0%
Feeding Our Communities Partners	$40,000	4	1%
The Playwrights' Center Inc	$40,000	3	1%
Giving Voice Initiative	$40,000	6	3%
Off the Blue Couch	$38,000	6	8%
Minneapolis American Indian Center	$35,000	2	0%
Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center	$30,000	6	1%
Emergency Community Help Organization Inc	$30,000	6	0%
Neighborhood House Inc	$30,000	6	0%
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon Inc	$28,000	6	0%
University of Wisconsin Foundation	$25,000	4	0%
Minnesota Public Radio American Public Media	$20,000	2	0%
Central Lakes College Foundation	$17,000	4	0%
Feed The Mass	$15,000	3	2%
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy	$15,000	1	1%
Council of Contributors Inc	$15,000	3	4%
Living Earth Center	$15,000	3	4%
Vine Faith in Action	$15,000	3	0%
Open Door Health Center	$15,000	3	0%
Oregon Community Warehouse Inc	$10,000	1	0%
City of North Mankato	$10,000	2	n/a
Flathead Valley Skatepark Association	$10,000	1	3%
Mankato Curling Club Inc	$10,000	2	9%
Southwest Environmental Center	$10,000	2	4%
United Negro College Fund Inc	$8,000	2	0%
Greater Mankato Growth Inc	$8,000	1	0%
NAMI National	$7,500	1	0%
Young Women's Christian Association of Mankato	$5,000	1	1%
Clean River Partners Inc	$5,000	1	n/a
Women's Advocates Inc	$3,250	1	0%
City of Whitefish	$3,000	1	n/a
Waves of Change	$2,000	1	n/a
Merely Players Community Theatre	$2,000	2	2%
Friends of Sax-Zim Bog	$1,000	1	0%
Shriners Hospitals for Children	$500	1	0%

What it could do for these grantees

Plus 20 recipients with no EIN on record ($788k), not named here.

Each grantee by its size and the share of its budget The Olseth Foundation supplied at peak.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 62.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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 & Minnesota FoundationMN35.2× affinity19 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 · Mayo Clinic Group Return · Xcel Energy Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Mankato Area Foundation · Valley News Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Glen a Taylor Foundation · Meyer Memorial Trust · The Oregon Community Foundation · The Collins 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.

Compare The Olseth Foundation with peer funders

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to The Olseth Foundation?

Find your warmest path to The Olseth 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.

About The Olseth Foundation

How much does The Olseth Foundation give?: The Olseth Foundation reported 57 grants totaling $926,738 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 44 and 57 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.
What does The Olseth Foundation fund?: By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Environment (29%), Education (19%), Arts & Culture (9%).
Who are The Olseth Foundation's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: Recharge America Inc ($505k), St Olaf College ($360k), Planned Parenthood North Central States ($275k).
Does The Olseth Foundation fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 7% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Does The Olseth 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 Olseth Foundation?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, The Minneapolis Foundation, Mayo Clinic Group Return.
Where is The Olseth Foundation based?: The Olseth Foundation is based in MN.