Minnesota · Nonprofit
Center For Rural Policy & Development
Center For Rural Policy & Development (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,367,134 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($650,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $706k
- Funders on record
- 6
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $507k
What Center For Rural Policy & Development does
Mission
The Center for Rural Policy and Development provides high quality, objective and non-partisan research to examine and advance policy and decision-making, rural advocacy, and civic engagement for greater Minnesota's development.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
The Center for Rural Policy & Development served as a statewide resource for nonpartisan research and analysis on public policy issues affecting rural Minnesota. In FY2025, the Center produced and disseminated original research, data tools, and educational resources to inform policymakers, local leaders, and residents about critical rural challenges and opportunities.Key publications included Barriers & Bridges: Access to Mental Healthcare for Rural Minnesota; Time to Work Together: Our Roles in Keeping and Attracting Residents; Rural Minnesota Business Succession and Planning: Barriers and Opportunities; The Declining Capacity of Nursing Facility Care in Rural Minnesota; and Youth Mental Health: Where Rural Families Can Find Help Now. The Center also released updated editions of the annual State of Rural Minnesota report and the Atlas of Rural Minnesota. In addition, the organization maintained a regular schedule of policy-focused blog posts and podcasts and hosted webinars on workforce challenges and opportunities for local government entities, accessing youth mental health services in rural Minnesota, declining nursing facility capacity, migration trends, and business…
$562,699 spentof which $4,000 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $562,699.
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 $724k to $533k (−26%).
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 64% · 2018 97% · 2019 68% · 2020 75% · 2021 71% · 2022 51% · 2023 48% · 2024 45% · 2025 72%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Center For Rural Policy & Development’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (62% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 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
Julie Tesch
President and CEO
Board chair
Sue Grafstrom
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $75k → $382k.
2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 Center For Rural Policy & Development’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Center For Rural Policy & Development leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 97%; 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: 2019 100% · 2020 65% · 2021 68% · 2022 60% · 2023 41% — diversifying over time.
“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
100% of Center For Rural Policy & Development's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $38k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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
Center For Rural Policy & Development has grown faster than half of the 7,175 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,175 community improvement nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like Center For Rural Policy & Development
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
62% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Center For Rural Policy & Development: 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 Center For Rural Policy & Development?
- Center For Rural Policy & Development (Minnesota) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,367,134 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($650,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Center For Rural Policy & Development have?
- IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $1,367,134 in grants to Center For Rural Policy & Development, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Center For Rural Policy & Development?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Center For Rural Policy & Development 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.
Play a game about who funds Center For Rural Policy & Development →
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 6 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