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Plinth

· Public charity

Venn Foundation

To unleash the full power of program-related investments to achieve charitable impact.

$446k
Granted FY2025still arriving
5
Grants FY2025still arriving
2
States reached
$160k
Largest
01What you fund
01100% classified

What you funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY20182025.

Philanthropy$884kInternational$342kYouth Development$146kHealth$140kArts & Culture$124kCivil Rights$100kEmployment$36kEducation$10k
02FY2025 · 5 grants

Where the money goes

Your grants by size, and where they go.

By grant size · FY2025

  • $10k–50k2 grants · $22k
  • $50k–250k3 grants · $424k
$112,026
Median grant
2
States reached
$29M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT$160,000
MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION$152,010
MINNESOTA CHILDREN'S MUSEUM$112,026
MACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC$11,490
BREAKTHROUGH TWIN CITIES$10,376
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:

Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY18–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 8%. 73% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 8%BETTER FUTURE FORWARD: $100k → 6%MACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC: $11k → 11%BREAKTHROUGH TWIN CITIES: $10k → 14%NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $103k → 7%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $120k → 9%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $125k → 22%GREATER NEW ORLEANS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION: $36k → 23%MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $152k → 11%MINNESOTA CHILDREN'S MUSEUM: $112k → 14%NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $103k → 7%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $160k → 9%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $27k → 22%MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $23k → 11%FAMILY TREE INC: $20k → 14%NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $25k → 7%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $10k → 22%MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION: $10k → 11%NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST: $25k → 7%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $10k → 22%YOUTHPRISE: $122k → 11%WORLD PEDIATRIC PROJECT: $10k → 22%YOUTHPRISE: $14k → 11%YOUTHPRISE: $10k → 11%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.

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.

04

Where the work is directed

The same grants, placed two ways — where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose earmarks the money.

About 27% of Venn Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another.

Venn Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

03Your edge
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 Council on Foundations

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

2
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…

3
Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Inc

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

Philanthropy
4
Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce

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

5
Minnesota Medical Association

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

6
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…

7
Arts Midwest Incorporated

Arts Midwest works collaboratively with private and public arts supporters to support, inform, and celebrate arts organizations and creative communities across the Midwest. Our mission is to build unprecedented opportunity across the…

Arts & Culture
8
African Development Center

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

Human Services
9
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
10
Mn Community Measurement

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

Health
11
Minneapolis Downtown Council

To create an extraordinary downtown minneapolis, applying the core values of leadership, collaboration, advocacy and innovation.

12
United Way of Ne Minnesota

United way of northeastern minnesota invests in nonprofits, programs, and collaborations that equip and empower, creating opportunities for people to thrive in our communities.

For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is The Minneapolis Foundation and the most unlike its peers is World Pediatrics. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.

05the grantee network

10 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 20172025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 10 of the 11 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)
1
Early backer (in before they grew)
10/10
Grantees still filing
5/10
Grew since you first funded

Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee

THRIVENT CHARITABLE IMPACT & INVESTING — $443,721 · PhilanthropyTHRIVENT CHARITABLE IMPACT & INVESTINGNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST — $255,298 · PhilanthropyNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUSTTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION — $184,774 · PhilanthropyTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATIONWORLD PEDIATRICS — $462,000 · InternationalWORLD PEDIATRICSYouthprise — $146,000 · EducationYouthpris…Breakthrough Twin Cities — $10,376 · EducationBreakthro…Minnesota Children's Museum — $112,026 · Arts & CultureMACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC — $11,490 · Arts & CultureBETTER FUTURE FORWARD — $100,000 · OtherGREATER NEW ORLEANS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION — $36,000 · Community ImprovementFamily Tree Inc — $20,000 · Health
Philanthropy$883,793International$462,000Education$156,376Arts & Culture$123,516Other$100,000Community Improvement$36,000Health$20,000

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

25%50%75%100%$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ your share of their budgetWORLD PEDIATRICS — $462,000 over 3y, 1.8% of budgetTHRIVENT CHARITABLE IMPACT & INVESTING — $443,721 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetNATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST — $255,298 over 3y, 0.0% of budgetTHE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION — $184,774 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetYouthprise — $146,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetMinnesota Children's Museum — $112,026 over 1y, 0.9% of budgetGREATER NEW ORLEANS DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION — $36,000 over 1y, 1.7% of budgetFamily Tree Inc — $20,000 over 1y, 0.7% of budgetMACPHAIL CENTER FOR MUSIC — $11,490 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetBreakthrough Twin Cities — $10,376 over 1y, 0.6% 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.

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.

Saint Paul & Minnesota FoundationMN15.2× affinity5 shared granteesties to 9 of 9Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Andersen Corporate Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Xcel Energy Foundation · The Blackbaud Giving Fund · American Online Giving Foundation Inc · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Amazonsmile 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 Venn 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 · 00%0%1%3%5%your share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    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.

    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Venn Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Venn 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.

    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 11 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 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