Minnesota · Nonprofit
AVENUES FOR YOUTH
AVENUES FOR YOUTH (Minnesota) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,072,988 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($987,500). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.9M
- Funders on record
- 99
- Grants received
- $8.1M
- Net assets
- $7.9M
What Avenues for Youth does
Mission
The mission of Avenues for Youth (afy) is to partner with youth experiencing homelessness to achieve their dreams. We do this by providing shelter, short term and transitional housing and supportive services for youth experiencing homelessness in a safe and nurturing environment. Through such service, avenues seeks to help youth achieve their personal goals and find a positive transition into young adulthood.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
During the year ended june 30, 2025, Avenues for Youth met the increased need we are seeing in our community by supporting more young people than in previous years, while continuing to offer strong programs and services. Avenues broke ground on a new housing and administrative headquarters in north minneapolis which is slated to open in late fy26. This new building will provide more a space for the current north minneapolis shelter and transitional housing programs that is more dignified, trauma-informed and sustainable. It will also allow add eight affordable apartments to the housing mix that avenues offers and allow for additional growth of community-based programs.during the year ended june 30, 2025, avenues operated four programs in the twin cities that supported 338 youth, including young families. While participating in an avenues program, youth no longer need to put their energy into survival. With shelter and all basic needs met, they can work with avenues staff to address other immediate issues, focus on important aspects of their development, and pursue their personal goals for education, employment, relationships, health and wellness, learning life skills and stable…
$2,141,043 spent$6,173 earned by the program68% of program spendingSee schedule oin Avenues for Youth's conneqt host home program members of the community open their homes to youth experiencing homelessness. The program is a community and volunteer-based initiative that matches youth experiencing homelessness ages 16 - 24 with volunteers in the community recruited, screened and trained by avenues. Youth may stay with community members for a few nights or up to a year.conneqt supports youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer. Their hosts are lgbtq themselves or allies. The process of matching youth and community members is youth-driven. While living with community members, youth receive all basic needs and have the opportunity to work with their case manager and other specialists on our team to identify and address their longer-term personal goals. The hosting arrangement is often life-changing, both for community members and youth. The overall goal is to provide youth experiencing homelessness with the stability, support and coaching they need so, when they leave the community members' homes, they have a vision for their future and are building the skills and relationships needed to pursue that vision. Simultaneously,…
$300,994 spentof which $2,218 as grants10% of program spendingSee schedule oavenues for young families rapid rehousing programavenues for young families supports homeless-youth led families. This "rapid rehousing program" supports youth-led families by helping them locate an apartment in the community, providing temporary rent subsidies and wrapping comprehensive services around the entire family to give them a strong start toward independent living. Rent subsidies are provided by a grants from the us department of housing and urban development and the state of minnesota's homeless youth act (hya). The addition of hya funding in fy24 allowed avenues to double the size of the program. Avenues now works with 24 young families at a time, up from 12 young families. During fy25, avenues supported 32 young families, including a total of 33 adults and 48 children. Of the eleven households who exited the program, 100% achieved stable housing. This was the third year in a row that 100% of youth-headed households achieved stable housing upon leaving the program.
$718,697 spentof which $284,321 as grants23% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,160,734.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $5.9M to $18M (+201%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 33% · 2018 40% · 2020 44% · 2021 52% · 2022 40% · 2023 45% · 2024 34% · 2025 57%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of AVENUES FOR YOUTH’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Katherine Meerse
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 53 funders, grant income rose $377k → $1.4M.
21 of 99 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AVENUES FOR YOUTH’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 99 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AVENUES FOR YOUTH has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 12% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
49% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AVENUES FOR YOUTH.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 31% · 2018 26% · 2019 29% · 2020 11% · 2021 16% · 2022 15% · 2023 36% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
51% of AVENUES FOR YOUTH's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
85% of AVENUES FOR YOUTH's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
AVENUES FOR YOUTH runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,152 youth development nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding AVENUES FOR YOUTH receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.5M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$5.1M
- Department of Health and Human Services$3.4M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AVENUES FOR YOUTH
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Avenues Real Estate Holding Company · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AVENUES FOR YOUTH: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AVENUES FOR YOUTH?
- AVENUES FOR YOUTH (Minnesota) receives grants from 99 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,072,988 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($987,500). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AVENUES FOR YOUTH have?
- IRS filings report 99 organizations giving $8,072,988 in grants to AVENUES FOR YOUTH, 65 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AVENUES FOR YOUTH?
- OTTO BREMER TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $987,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AVENUES FOR YOUTH find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 99 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing