· Private foundation
Wilson Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.
Read this first · the figures below need context
67% of Wilson Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to National Philanthropic Trust, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 13 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2023, the last year Wilson Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 9 organizations, $2M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2022–2024.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- $10k–50k2 grants · $50k
- $50k–250k3 grants · $500k
- $250k+6 grants · $1.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| CENTER FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT | $250,000 |
| PROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC | $250,000 |
| BEACON INTERFAITH HOUSING COLLABORATIVE | $250,000 |
| GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC | $250,000 |
| YOUTHPRISE | $250,000 |
| FRESH ENERGY | $250,000 |
| HIRED | $200,000 |
| MINNESOTA HOMEOWNERSHIP CENTER | $150,000 |
| SUMMIT ACADEMY OIC | $150,000 |
| NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST JP MORGAN CHARITABLE GIFT FUND - WILSON DAF | $40,000 |
| NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST JP MORGAN CHARITABLE GIFT FUND - WILSON DAF | $10,000 |
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.
Your human-services grants (FY22–24, $952k) land where the poverty rate runs at 11%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those 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 +36% since the first grant, against 0% for the ones you funded once.
8 repeat relationships — 8 still active in FY2023, 0 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call). Read against FY2023, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
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 FY2024, 79% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $788k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
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
- GPGREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC3× · 2022–2024 · $900k · revenue +61%
- YYouthprise3× · 2022–2024 · $900k · revenue +11%
- PFPROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC3× · 2022–2024 · $900k · revenue +45%
Funded once
- TCTWIN CITIES HABITAT FOR HUMANITYone grant, 2024 · $250k · revenue -26%
- IGIndividual grant recipientone grant, 2024 · $150k
- MHMINNESOTA HOME OWNERSHIP CENTERgraduatedone grant, 2023 · $150k · revenue +47%
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.
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…
Minnesota housing partnership (mhp) expands housing and community development opportunity by leading collaborative work to promote systems change and grow develoopment capacity.
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…
The organization's mission is to bring stakeholders together to promote prosperity and long-term growth of minnesota's economy.
Grow businesses, build wealth and increase reinvestement in the african communities of minnesota
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…
MCF is a vibrant philanthropic community connecting, strengthening and mobilizing the power of philanthropy to advance prosperity and equity.
Creating powerful advocacy to enhance economic vitality in the minneapolis-st. paul region.
Strengthen central mn communities through leadership in workforce excellence.
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.
The mission of the greater msp partnership is to accelerate regional competitiveness and inclusive economic growth through job creation, capital investment and execution of strategic initiatives. the partnership works to strengthen our…
The citizens utility board (cub) of minnesota champions affordable, reliable, safe, and clean home energy for all minnesotans.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hired and the most unlike its peers is Fresh Energy. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
16 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. 16 of the 21 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 NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ↗
- Who funds GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC ↗
- Who funds Youthprise ↗
- Who funds PROJECT FOR PRIDE IN LIVING INC ↗
- Who funds BEACON INTERFAITH HOUSING COLLABORATIVE ↗
- Who funds FRESH ENERGY ↗
- Who funds CENTER FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT ↗
- Who funds HIRED ↗
- Who funds SUMMIT ACADEMY OIC ↗
- Who funds TWIN CITIES HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA HOME OWNERSHIP CENTER ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY ACTION DULUTH INC ↗
- Who funds AVIVO ↗
- Who funds SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA PRIVATE INDUSTRY COUNCIL INC ↗
- Who funds MINNESOTA TRAINING PARTNERSHIP INC ↗
- Who funds INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ↗
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: Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation · The Minneapolis Foundation · The McKnight Foundation · Otto Bremer Trust · Xcel Energy Foundation · Target Foundation · Thrivent Financial for Lutherans · Fr Bigelow Foundation · The K Foundation · Pohlad Family Foundation · Margaret a Cargill Foundation · United States Energy 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 Wilson 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.
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 Wilson Foundation?
Find your warmest path to Wilson 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.