· Public charity
Vsa Minnesota
VSA MINNESOTA, a member of the vsa affiliate network, a program of the john f.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2018.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 13 grants below total $155,000 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $167,000 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $12,000 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 · FY2018
- Under $10k4 grants · $28k
- $10k–50k9 grants · $127k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MIXED BLOOD THEATHER COMPANY | $15,000 |
| THE ARTS NEST | $15,000 |
| MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL | $15,000 |
| ARTESCAPE | $15,000 |
| NIMBUS THEATRE | $15,000 |
| UPSTREAM ARTS | $15,000 |
| MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART | $15,000 |
| THREADS DANCE PROJECT | $11,175 |
| SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS | $10,744 |
| FRIENDS OF THE LAKEVILLE ARTS CENTE | $7,681 |
| YOUNG DANCE | $7,500 |
| PEOPLE INCORPORATED | $7,500 |
| ART SHANTY PROJECTS | $5,400 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–18) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 93% of your 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.
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.
And the relationships you keep tend to grow: grantees you re-up on have seen median revenue of +48% since the first grant, against +16% for the ones you funded once.
6 repeat relationships — 6 still active in FY2018, 0 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (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 FY2018, 48% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $80k went to new ones.
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
UPSTREAM ARTS INC2× · 2017–2018 · $30k · revenue +48%- MBMixed Blood Theatre Company2× · 2017–2018 · $30k · revenue +24%
- NTNimbus Theatre2× · 2017–2018 · $30k · revenue +133%
Funded once
- PUPILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIESone grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue -10%
- TPTAKE-UP PRODUCTIONSgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $15k · revenue +133%
- AKAlive & Kickinone grant, 2017 · $14k · revenue +17%
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
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.
Theater mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the asian american experience.
Arts presenter serving the greater Reedsburg area.
We are a theatre company. We provide opportunities for local theatre artists and high quality productions for the public.
Strike Theater is dedicated to building a community for original creative works in the Twin Cities.
Inspire artists, audiences, and our greater southern wisconsin community to celabrate the art of theatre.
We believe that performing arts can engage stimulate inspire challenge educate reflect,empower and nourish artists audiences and communities. We are committed to the cultural enrichment of Saint Pauls ethnically and economically diverse…
Artibus is dedicated to strengthening community through the experience of live performance. We are a hub in Denver for intimate, original performances that explore important social themes and for building community through shared space,…
To enrich the community by producing and presenting exceptional live theatre that touches the heart, engages the mind and delights the spirit.
Open Arts Minnesota creates and fosters inclusive artistic activities for people with disabilities who are of diverse abilities and ages seeking opportunities to discover their unique creative gifts, develop and practice skills, and share…
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Springboard for the Arts and the most unlike its peers is Take-Up Productions. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
18 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. 18 of the 20 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 UPSTREAM ARTS INC ↗
- Who funds Mixed Blood Theatre Company ↗
- Who funds Nimbus Theatre ↗
- Who funds ARTS NEST ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART ↗
- Who funds SIMPLY ARTABLE ↗
- Who funds PILLSBURY UNITED COMMUNITIES ↗
- Who funds TAKE-UP PRODUCTIONS ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA FRINGE FESTIVAL ↗
- Who funds PEOPLE INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds Alive & Kickin ↗
- Who funds YOUNG DANCE INC ↗
- Who funds Illusion Theater and School Inc ↗
- Who funds THREADS DANCE PROJECT ↗
- Who funds SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS ↗
- Who funds The Cedar Cultural Center Inc ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE LAKEVILLE AREA ARTS CENTER ↗
- Who funds ART SHANTY PROJECTS ↗
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: Mightycause Charitable Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Archie D and Bertha H Walker Foundation · William Boss Foundation · Fr Bigelow Foundation · Jerome Foundation Inc · Hugh J Andersen Foundation · Hardenbergh Foundation · Headwaters Foundation for Justice · Target 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 Vsa Minnesota 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.
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to Vsa Minnesota?
Find your warmest path to Vsa Minnesota 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.