Minnesota · Nonprofit
BIG IDEAS INC
BIG IDEAS INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $438,976 to it, the largest being HARDENBERGH FOUNDATION ($190,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $662k
- Funders on record
- 10
- Grants received
- $439k
- Net assets
- $426k
What Big Ideas Inc does
Program
Semi-trailer with trades career simulators that travels around the state. Trades professionals teach a trades class (2-4 hrs total) to students 13+.
$532,996 spent
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
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 2017 to 2018, from $5k to $184k (+3429%).
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
Ryan Ott
Executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-PF.
Who funds it, year by year
2021 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $35k → $118k.
1 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 BIG IDEAS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 9 of 10 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
BIG IDEAS INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 82%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2021 43% · 2022 44% · 2023 76% — 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.
Where its funders are
92% of BIG IDEAS INC's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. 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
BIG IDEAS INC has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,971 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,971 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like BIG IDEAS INC
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.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for BIG IDEAS INC: 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 BIG IDEAS INC?
- BIG IDEAS INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $438,976 to it, the largest being HARDENBERGH FOUNDATION ($190,000). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does BIG IDEAS INC have?
- IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $438,976 in grants to BIG IDEAS INC, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of BIG IDEAS INC?
- HARDENBERGH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $190,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like BIG IDEAS INC 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 10 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing