Minnesota · Nonprofit
CITIZENS LEAGUE
CITIZENS LEAGUE (Minnesota) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,120,060 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($635,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $769k
- Funders on record
- 35
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $425k
What Citizens League does
Mission
The Citizens League is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that empowers people to engage in civic life and public policy, to make minnesota a better place to live and work for everyone.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, Citizens League engaged with people across minnesota to help them understand public policy issues, shape solutions, and be civically active. We accomplished this through several public educational events; working with organization partners to educate and engage their employees; and continuing the capitol pathways program, which completed its ninth year providing paid internships with host organizations for more than 40 bipoc college students at the state legislature, with the goal of making minnesota's government more representative of the state's population.
$709,805 spent$127,082 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $709,805.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $567k to $938k (+66%).
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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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
Jake Loesch
Executive director
Board chair
Breanna Schafer
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $26k → $419k.
7 of 35 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $661k from 3 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money CITIZENS LEAGUE raised.
From the IRS filings of CITIZENS LEAGUE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 35 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
CITIZENS LEAGUE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 30% of grant income and the top three 67%; 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: 2017 49% · 2018 61% · 2019 65% · 2020 35% · 2021 31% · 2022 38% · 2023 38% — 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.
How long its funders stay
55% of CITIZENS LEAGUE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
92% of CITIZENS LEAGUE's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $325k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Organizations like CITIZENS LEAGUE
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
73% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CITIZENS LEAGUE: 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 CITIZENS LEAGUE?
- CITIZENS LEAGUE (Minnesota) receives grants from 35 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,120,060 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($635,000). 25 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CITIZENS LEAGUE have?
- IRS filings report 35 organizations giving $2,120,060 in grants to CITIZENS LEAGUE, 25 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CITIZENS LEAGUE?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $635,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CITIZENS LEAGUE 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 Citizens League →
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 35 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