· Private foundation
The Sauer Family Foundation
Its FY2025 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, FY2017 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- Under $10k5 grants · $21k
- $10k–50k26 grants · $748k
- $50k–250k67 grants · $7.5M
- $250k+12 grants · $5.6M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICES | $900,000 |
| AMHERST H WILDER FOUNDATION | $774,830 |
| MOBILE HOPE | $685,000 |
| BLACK MEN TEACH | $530,000 |
| SERVEMINNESOTA | $440,000 |
| UNIVERSITY OF MN FOUNDATION | $372,732 |
| KEEPING FAMILIES CONNECTED MN | $366,500 |
| SCOTT COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES CHILD WELFARE | $345,077 |
| WALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS | $345,000 |
| WEST CENTRAL INITIATIVE | $300,000 |
| BELLIS | $300,000 |
| WAYSIDE RECOVERY CENTER | $258,561 |
| THE GLOBAL ORPHAN PROJECT (AKA CAREPORTAL) | $240,000 |
| THE SANNEH FOUNDATION | $236,250 |
| WASHBURN CENTER FOR CHILDREN | $225,000 |
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 (FY17–25, $10.4M) land where the poverty rate runs at 12%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 90% 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
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against +13% for those funded once.
162 repeat relationships: 79 still active in FY2025, 83 since wound down; 29 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 82% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $2.5M went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- UOUNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION8× · 2017–2025 · $1.9M · revenue +105%
- AHAMHERST H WILDER FOUNDATION4× · 2018–2025 · $1.2M · revenue +70%
- LSLUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE OF MINNESOTA3× · 2021–2025 · $1.1M · revenue +29%
Funded once
- FCFIDELITY CHARITABLE TRUSTone grant, 2024 · $9.0M
- VSV3 SPORTS INCone grant, 2023 · $3.0M · revenue -88%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2021 · $272k
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.
Touchstone mental health provides innovative, person-centered services that foster hope, health and well-being. we envision a world where all people whose lives are affected by mental illness will flourish with effective treatment, quality…
Strengthen central mn communities through leadership in workforce excellence.
Mentoring partnership of minnesota (mpm) builds and elevates the capacity of programs, systems and policies to strengthen youth mentoring relationships. strategic priorities include: 1. support a statewide mentoring partner network2.…
Mity's mission is to inspire and challenge intellectually curious students to pursue their passions within a diverse, inclusive community and empower them by building skills and relationships for lifelong success.
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…
Child care aware of minnesota was incorporated in 1992 to provide technical assistance, training and coordination for the child care resource and referral programs throughout minnesota, to collect data regarding the supply of and demand…
Pica provides comprehensive early childhood and family development services that empower children and families to reach their full potential.(expanded mission on schedule o)pica supports parents and their communities in defining their…
Strengthening lives, families, and communities through our cornerstone values.
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…
Women's Foundation of Minnesota is a statewide community foundation investing in ending systemic inequities and driving innovation for gender and racial justice. WFM applies an Intersectional Equity Framework inclusive of gender, race,…
Map is a local, statewide, and national resource for communities looking to develop and implement proven, innovative, community-centered strategies that address gender-based violence. using map's "we are all connected" (waac) prevention…
Lifeworks' mission is to partner with people with disabilities to drive change by increasing opportunity and access in the community.
How this is measured
174 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. 174 of the 307 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 V3 SPORTS INC ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds WAYSIDE HOUSE INC ↗
- Who funds WALLIN EDUCATION PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds AMHERST H WILDER FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS AND TRAUMA INC ↗
- Who funds LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE OF MINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds SERVEMINNESOTA ↗
- Who funds Black Men Teach ↗
- Who funds University of St Thomas ↗
- Who funds Washburn Center for Children ↗
- Who funds Mobile Hope ↗
- Who funds CANINE INSPIRED CHANGE ↗
- Who funds AUGSBURG UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds BELLIS ↗
- Who funds AMPERSAND FAMILIES ↗
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TWIN CITIES ↗
- Who funds Foster Advocates ↗
- Who funds AIN DAH YUNG (OUR HOME) CENTER ↗
- Who funds FOSTERING MEDIA CONNECTIONS ↗
- Who funds NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE ↗
- Who funds MONTESSORI TRAINING CENTER OF MINNESOTA INC ↗
- Who funds GREAT MN SCHOOLS ↗
- Who funds THE SANNEH FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds URBAN LEAGUE TWIN CITIES ↗
- Who funds FamilyWise Services ↗
- Who funds YWCA OF MINNEAPOLIS ↗
- Who funds READING PARTNERS ↗
- Who funds WEST CENTRAL INITIATIVE ↗
- Who funds KIPP Minnesota ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE CHILDREN ↗
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: Otto Bremer Trust · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Greater Twin Cities United Way · Medica Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The Richard M Schulze Family Foundation · The Sheltering Arms Foundation · The Walser Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Mardag Foundation · Hardenbergh Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Sauer Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Sauer Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Sauer Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Sauer Family 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 Sauer Family’s filings →