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Plinth

· Private foundation

Valley News 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.

$51k
Granted FY2025still arriving
43
Grants FY2025still arriving
5
States reached
$7k
Largest
01What you fund
0190% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20172025.

Education$96kHuman Services$57kPhilanthropy$49kArts & Culture$38kYouth Development$37kHealth$32kRecreation & Sports$23kHousing & Shelter$21kOther$0
02FY2025 · 43 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

$700
Median grant
5
States reached
$1.0M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Individual grant recipient$7,000
Ronald McDonald House$4,800
Mankato Youth Place$4,500
Minnesota State University Foundation$3,000
Tee It Up For The Troops$2,700
B The Light Foundation (Breast Cancer)$2,694
Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota$2,500
Mankato Area United Way$2,500
Educare Foundation$1,500
Kiwanis Holiday Lights$1,250
Twin Rivers Council For The Arts$1,250
Bethany Lutheran College & Seminary Inc$1,000
Feeding Our Communities Partners$1,000
Junior Achievement$800
Open Door Health Center$750
02The need
03

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.

show:

Your human-services grants (FY17–25, $41k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%Wounded Warriors Project: $500 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Mankato Youth Place: $11k → 15%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Mankato Youth Place: $8k → 15%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Wounded Warriors Project: $250 → 14%Mankato Youth Place: $5k → 15%Mankato Family YMCA: $2k → 15%Mankato Family YMCA: $2k → 15%Mankato Family YMCA: $2k → 15%Mankato Family YMCA: $1k → 15%Mankato Family YMCA: $1k → 15%Mankato Youth Place: $1k → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Mankato Youth Place: $750 → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Vine: $750 → 15%Vine: $500 → 15%Mankato Youth Place: $500 → 15%Vine: $500 → 15%Vine: $500 → 15%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount

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.

Which US states your grants reach

MN
IL
WI
NY
CA
NE
DC
TX
FL

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.

03Your edge
repeat funding

Who you back again

Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations you’ve funded before.
$384k · 72 repeat orgs$22k to everyone else

72 repeat relationships — 35 still active in FY2025, 37 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

72
15

Total granted

$384k
$10k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+48%
+167%

Still filing today

43%
33%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $12k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureHuman ServicesHealthEducationRecreation & SportsYouth DevelopmentOther

First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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

  • MY
    MANKATO YOUTH PLACE INC
    6× · 2020–2025 · $26k · revenue +146%
  • TI
    TEE IT UP FOR THE TROOPS INC
    8× · 2017–2025 · $16k · revenue +104%
  • SC
    SOUTH CENTRAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION
    9× · 2017–2025 · $14k · revenue +66%

Funded once

  • OC
    ON COURSE FOUNDATION USAgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $5k · revenue +167%
  • IG
    Individual grant recipient
    one grant, 2020 · $500
  • MO
    March of Dimes - MN Chapter
    one grant, 2017 · $500

Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Your field

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.

1
Minnesota Medical Association

To be the leading voice of medicine to make minnesota the healthiest state and the best place to practice.

2
Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Industry

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…

3
Minnesota Council on Foundations

MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.

4
Minnesota Business Partnership

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…

5
Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce

Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.

6
Mn Community Measurement

Mn community measurement empowers stakeholders with meaningful information to drive improvement.

Health
7
Mill City Farmers Market Inc

Mission: to inspire and nurture a healthy community by building a local, sustainable, and organic food economy in a vibrant experiential marketplace.vision: to be a nationally recognized marketplace model that connects, educates, and…

8
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc

The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits informs, promotes, connects and strengthens individual nonprofits and the nonprofit sector.

Philanthropy
9
Midwest Dairy Association

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.

10
African Development Center

Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota

Human Services
11
Minnesota Land Trust

The minnesota land trust protects and restores minnesota's most vital natural lands in order to provide wildlife habitat, clean water, outdoor experiences and scenic beauty for generations to come.

Environment
12
Minnesota Valley Action Council Inc

Develop resources and opportunities which empower people and communities.

Community Improvement

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Committee Against Domestic Abuse Inc and the most unlike its peers is Lake Washington Fireworks Celebration. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

Your grantees are a median of 36 years old; the field is 13. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.

THE FIELDby orgYOUR GRANTEESby number24%0%<5yr15%6%5–10yr20%16%10–20yr16%25%20–35yr12%28%35–55yr13%25%55yr+
THE FIELDby orgYOUR MONEYby value24%0%<5yr15%14%5–10yr20%9%10–20yr16%32%20–35yr12%29%35–55yr13%16%55yr+

The field is 24% startups (under 5 years old) — 0% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.

Closures · last 5 years

The orgs you fund almost never close 0.0% lost their exemption, against 16% of the field you don’t fund.

orgs you fund
0.0%0/42
the rest of the field
16%
2,781/17,085

Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.

04the grantee network

38 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2026.

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 20172026, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 38 of the 96 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
16
Early backer (in before they grew)
37/38
Grantees still filing
27/38
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

Minnesota State University Foundation — $51,570 · OtherMinnesota State University FoundationMankato Area United Way — $27,708 · OtherMankato Area United WaySOUTH CENTRAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $14,440 · OtherMinnesota State University — $14,150 · OtherMankato Area Foundation — $13,740 · OtherRonald McDonald House — $12,500 · OtherEDUCARE FOUNDATION INC — $11,800 · Other+68 more — $135,757 · Other+68 moreMANKATO YOUTH PLACE INC — $26,417 · Human ServicesMANKATO YOUT…ONE BRIGHT STAR — $6,600 · Human ServicesONE BRIGHT S…THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOC OF MANKATO INC — $6,500 · Human ServicesTHE YOUNG ME…VINE FAITH IN ACTION — $6,000 · Human ServicesVINE FAITH I…WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC — $2,500 · Human ServicesTWIN RIVERS COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS — $17,500 · Arts & CultureTWIN RIVE…CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA — $11,105 · Arts & CultureCHILDRENS…BLUE EARTH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $5,000 · Arts & CultureBLUE EART…MANKATO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $1,250 · Arts & Culture+1 more — $1,000 · Arts & CultureTEE IT UP FOR THE TROOPS INC — $16,107 · EducationBETHANY LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC — $10,500 · Education+1 more — $100 · EducationOPEN DOOR HEALTH CENTER — $5,750 · HealthHouse of Hope Inc — $4,500 · HealthAmerican Heart Association Inc — $1,650 · HealthAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC — $1,500 · HealthPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC — $750 · HealthFeeding Our Communities Partners — $8,250 · Food & NutritionWACONIA UNITED FOOD SHELF — $400 · Food & NutritionCOMMITTEE AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE INC — $5,000 · Crime & Legal
Other$281,665Human Services$48,017Arts & Culture$35,855Education$26,707Health$14,150Food & Nutrition$8,650Crime & Legal$5,000

Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetMANKATO YOUTH PLACE INC — $26,417 over 6y, 0.8% of budgetTWIN RIVERS COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS — $17,500 over 9y, 3.5% of budgetTEE IT UP FOR THE TROOPS INC — $16,107 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetSOUTH CENTRAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION — $14,440 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetMankato Area Foundation — $13,740 over 6y, 0.2% of budgetEDUCARE FOUNDATION INC — $11,800 over 9y, 1.9% of budgetCHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA — $11,105 over 9y, 0.2% of budgetBETHANY LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC — $10,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetFeeding Our Communities Partners — $8,250 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetONE BRIGHT STAR — $6,600 over 8y, 2.0% of budgetTHE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOC OF MANKATO INC — $6,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetVINE FAITH IN ACTION — $6,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetOPEN DOOR HEALTH CENTER — $5,750 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetCOMMITTEE AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE INC — $5,000 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetBLUE EARTH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY — $5,000 over 9y, 0.3% of budgetON COURSE FOUNDATION USA — $4,888 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetHouse of Hope Inc — $4,500 over 8y, 0.0% of budgetPartners for Affordable Housing — $4,500 over 8y, 0.1% of budgetEMERGENCY COMMUNITY HELP ORGANIZATION INC — $4,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetMANKATO AREA HOCKEY ASSOCIATION — $3,320 over 7y, 0.2% of budgetBLUE EARTH NICOLLET COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY INC — $3,000 over 7y, 0.1% of budgetKIWANIS HOLIDAY LIGHTS INC — $2,500 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetBEST CHRISTMAS EVER INC — $2,500 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetFELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES — $2,500 over 5y, 0.0% of budgetWOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INC — $2,500 over 9y, 0.0% of budgetAmerican Heart Association Inc — $1,650 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetAMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY INC — $1,500 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetMANKATO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA INC — $1,250 over 5y, 0.2% of budgetMANKATO AREA LACROSSE ASSOCIATION — $1,250 over 3y, 0.5% of budgetBlueEarthCountyChptrMNPheasantsInc — $1,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetTHE MANKATO CHILDRENS CHORUS — $1,000 over 4y, 0.9% of budgetLAKE WASHINGTON FIREWORKS CELEBRATION — $1,000 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetPANCREATIC CANCER ACTION NETWORK INC — $750 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetLiving Earth Center — $500 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetGREATER MANKATO GROWTH INC — $450 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetWACONIA UNITED FOOD SHELF — $400 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetCOMPLETELY KIDS — $200 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetMINNESOTA GROCERS EDUCATION FOUNDATION — $100 over 1y, 0.2% of budget
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 MANKATO YOUTH PLACE INC
  • Who funds TWIN RIVERS COUNCIL FOR THE ARTS
  • Who funds TEE IT UP FOR THE TROOPS INC
  • Who funds SOUTH CENTRAL COLLEGE FOUNDATION
  • Who funds Mankato Area Foundation
  • Who funds EDUCARE FOUNDATION INC
  • Who funds CHILDRENS MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN MINNESOTA
  • Who funds BETHANY LUTHERAN COLLEGE INC
  • Who funds Feeding Our Communities Partners
  • Who funds ONE BRIGHT STAR
  • Who funds THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOC OF MANKATO INC
  • Who funds VINE FAITH IN ACTION
  • Who funds OPEN DOOR HEALTH CENTER
  • Who funds COMMITTEE AGAINST DOMESTIC ABUSE INC
  • Who funds BLUE EARTH COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
  • Who funds ON COURSE FOUNDATION USA
  • Who funds House of Hope Inc
  • Who funds Partners for Affordable Housing
  • Who funds EMERGENCY COMMUNITY HELP ORGANIZATION INC
  • Who funds MANKATO AREA HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
  • Who funds BLUE EARTH NICOLLET COUNTY HUMANE SOCIETY INC

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.

Mankato Area FoundationMN49.1× affinity21 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Mankato Area Foundation · Glen a Taylor Foundation · Mayo Clinic Group Return · L & N Andreas Foundation · Jones Page Jacobson Family Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Olseth Foundation · Wynn and Ginnette Kearney Foundation · Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council · The Taylor Foundation

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 Valley News Foundation 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.

2024
202122232425
no gov · 10%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%15%30%45%60%share of the org’s income from governmentmedian 0%
  • Wounded Warrior Project Inc0% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
18report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%
typical government reliance, FY2025

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.

On method. Every financial figure here is read directly from IRS e-file XML — your own 990/990-PF and the multi-year returns of the 96 grantees we resolved across every year we hold, several hundred filings in all (a different count from the grant rows on the cover, which are one fiscal year)— each linked to its source. Grantee achievements and outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III); we read these as association with sustained funding — the foundation is one of several forces — suppress low-confidence name matches rather than guess, and say so where a figure rests on a single grant or filing. Not everything on this page is a filed figure, and the difference matters. Filed is what you reported on your return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears. How we build these →

Generated from your IRS Form 990-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Source object · view filing

More from the funding graph