How much does United Way of 1000 Lakes give?

United Way of 1000 Lakes reported 11 itemized grants totaling $120,500, out of $144,500 in total grant expense reported on the return in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 13 organizations a year over FY2018 to FY2024.

What does United Way of 1000 Lakes fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Human Services (32%), Youth Development (23%), Health (17%).

Who are United Way of 1000 Lakes's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Itasca County Family YMCA Inc ($147k), Boys' Club of Duluth ($108k), Eldercircle ($96k).

Does United Way of 1000 Lakes fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 17% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as United Way of 1000 Lakes?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation, Northland Foundation, C K Blandin Foundation.

Where is United Way of 1000 Lakes based?

United Way of 1000 Lakes is based in MN.

United Way of 1000 Lakes

United Way of 1000 Lakes at a glance Mostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

United Way of 1000 Lakes

United way's mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of itasca-area communities.

$145k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$20k

Largest

01What it funds

0198% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2025.

Human Services$361kYouth Development$258kHealth$187kHousing & Shelter$107kFood & Nutrition$72kScience & Tech$38kEducation$30kCommunity Improvement$20kOther$0

02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured

The 11 grants below total $120,500, the rows itemized in this filing. The $144,500 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $24,000 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k3 grants · $21k
$10k–50k8 grants · $100k

$10,000

Median grant

States reached

$327k

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
SMART NORTH	$20,000
ITASCA COUNTY FAMILY YMCA	$15,000
ITASCA COUNTY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY	$15,000
ADVOCATES FOR FAMILY PEACE	$10,000
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF NORTHLAND	$10,000
GRACE HOUSE	$10,000
SUPPORT WITHIN REACH	$10,000
ITASCA YOUTH FOR CHRIST	$10,000
PROJECT READ	$7,500
PROJECT CARE FREE CLINIC	$7,500
FIRST CALL	$5,500

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 (FY17–25, $370k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 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.

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.

03Its grantees

repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.1M · 17 repeat orgs$60k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +42% since the first grant, against +9% for those funded once.

17 repeat relationships: 11 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.1M

$60k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%

+9%

Still filing today

88%

20%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesYouth DevelopmentHealthScience & TechOther

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

IC
ITASCA COUNTY FAMILY YMCA INC
8× · 2017–2025 · $147k · revenue +59%
BC
BOYS' CLUB OF DULUTH
7× · 2018–2025 · $108k · revenue +25%
E
ELDERCIRCLE
5× · 2017–2021 · $96k · revenue +15%

Funded once

I
INITIATIVES
one grant, 2017 · $20k
IA
ITASCA AREA SCHOOLS COLLABORATIVE
one grant, 2024 · $15k
SW
SUPPORT WITHIN REACH
one grant, 2017 · $11k

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.

Care in Action Minnesota

Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of children who have experienced abuse or neglect, strengthen families and prevent childhood maltreatment, by providing timely crucial support that meets the basic needs of local families and…

Human Services

Arc Northland

To promote and protect the rights of people with disabilities and their families while supporting inclusion and participation in the community throughout their lifetime.

—

Minnesota Chapter of the National Childrens Alliance

The Minnesota Children's Alliance leads the development and growth of locally based children's advocacy centers and multidisciplinary teams to ensure equitable access to services for healing and growth.

Crime & Legal

United Way of North Central Iowa

Seeking to build a stronger, more caring community by forming partnerships with businesses, community experts, education & health & human service agencies to achieve targeted outcomes & sustained changes in community conditions which will…

Philanthropy

Violence Free Minnesota

To represent victim/survivors of relationship abuse and member programs; challenge systems and institutions; promote social change; and support, educate, and connect member programs.

—

Minnesota Recovery Connection

Minnesota Recovery Connection's mission is to strengthen the recovery community through peer-to-peer support, public education and advocacy.

Human Services

Community Resource Connections Inc

Improving access to and the effectiveness of services through facilitation and coordination of community services and provision of information and referral services.

Community Improvement

Area Neighborhood Service Center Inc

The Service Center offers a variety of programs including but not limited to: emergency food shelf and food commodities programs for mothers with small children and seniors; monthly supplemental food programs for seniors and the disabled;…

—

Family Promise in Anoka County

Family Promise in Anoka County (FPAC) empowers families experiencing housing insecurity to build a foundation of lasting independence.

Human Services

Minnesota Voice

Minnesota Voice is a collaboration of organizations working toward permanent change in social, racial, and economic justice by increasing civic engagement and voter participation across the state.

Public Benefit

World Youth Connect

World Youth Connect builds communities across cultures and beyond borders. By creating and encouraging civic engagement opportunities we help young people gain the skills and experience they need to be successful. World Youth Connect…

Youth Development

South Central Minnesota Youth for Christ Inc

Reaching out to young people everywhere to raise up life-long followers of Jesus who lead by their godliness in lifestyle, devotion to the Word of God and prayer, passion for sharing the love of Christ, and commitment to social involvement.

Youth Development

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Itasca County Family Ymca Inc; the most unlike its peers is Itasca County Habitat for Humanity. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

04the grantee network

18 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. 18 of the 23 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)

17/18

Grantees still filing

16/18

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Human Services$369,884Other$279,261Youth Development$251,906Health$156,734Science & Tech$57,500Community Improvement$8,567

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.

Grand Rapids Area Community FoundationMN39× affinity16 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation · Northland Foundation · C K Blandin Foundation · Minnesota Power Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Second Harvest Northland · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Second Harvest North Central Food Bank · Mardag Foundation · Deer River Healthcare Center Inc · United Way of Ne Minnesota · Smdc Medical Center

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 United Way of 1000 Lakes funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from United Way of 1000 Lakes. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

8report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%

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.

Play a game based on United Way of 1000 Lakes’ 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