· Public charity
The Optimist Club of St Cloud
The purpose of the st cloud optimist club is to develop optimism as a philosophy of life; to promote an active interest in good government and civic affairs; to inspire respect for the law; to promote patriotism and work for international accord and friendship among all people; to aid and encourage the development of youth, in the belief…
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2018–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 7 grants below total $74,655 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $236,582 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $161,927 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $31k
- $10k–50k2 grants · $44k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| COMMUNITYGIVING | $31,800 |
| GREAT RIVER EDUCATIONAL ARTS THEARE | $12,100 |
| SALVATION ARMY - ST CLOUD | $7,750 |
| UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL MN | $6,000 |
| SARTELL SCHOOL DISTRICT - OAK RIDGE EARLY LEARNING CENTER | $6,000 |
| CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD | $5,600 |
| SAUK RAPIDS RICE MUSIC BOOSTERS INC | $5,405 |
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 (FY22–25, $12k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 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.
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.
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.
Enhancing and strengthening our community and our regional core.
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.
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.
Improving access to and the effectiveness of services through facilitation and coordination of community services and provision of information and referral services.
The mission of community shares of minnesota is to create a fair, just and equitable minnesota. community shares of minnesota accomplishes its mission by: supporting collective action to eliminate root causes of inequality and injustice;…
The association works to promote member credit unions as being safe and sound institutions for insured deposits, responsible lending, and the best place for consumers to receive financial services.
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…
The citizens league is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that empowers people to engage in civic life and public policy, to make minnesota a better place to live and work for everyone.
To promote, within the territory covered by the charter from time to time granted it by the boy scouts of america and in accordance with the congressional charter, bylaws, and rules and regulations of the boy scouts of america, the…
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is United Way of Central Minnesota and the most unlike its peers is Central Mn Council of Boy Scouts of America. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 17 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 COMMUNITYGIVING ↗
- Who funds GREAT RIVER EDUCATIONAL ARTS THEATRE ↗
- Who funds CATHOLIC CHARITIES OF THE DIOCESE OF ST CLOUD ↗
- Who funds ST CLOUD ROTARY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds PUBLIC SAFETY FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds DISTRICT 742 LOCAL EDUCATION ACTIVITIES FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds CENTRAL MN COUNCIL OF BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA ↗
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: Communitygiving · United Way of Central Minnesota · Rick and Helga Bauerly Foundation · Granite Partners Foundation of Minnesota Inc · Initiative Foundation · Ja Wedum Foundation · Morgan Family Foundation · Central Mn Noon Optimist Club Inc · Xcel Energy Foundation · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc
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 The Optimist Club of St Cloud 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.
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.