Minnesota · Nonprofit
CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT
CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT (Minnesota) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,510,632 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($1,750,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.6M
- Funders on record
- 33
- Grants received
- $5.5M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Clean Up the River Environment does
Mission
Cure protects and restores resilient communities and landscapes by harnessing the power of people who care about them. We do this because we believe that robust human communities can only be sustained by healthy ecosystems, and robust natural environments can only be regained through vigorous stewardship. Our work takes many forms, but always involves three core practices: awakening people's bonds with the natural world around them, inclusively and strategically exploring issues and actions, systematically building communities of change at critical intersections of ecological and social well-being.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Cure's energy democracy program is uniquely focused on strategies to impact climate, energy, and environmental justice decisions affecting rural residents. Energy democracy is about building power to address linkages between environmental challenges, inequities, and other systemic challenges facing our communities.you cannot talk about energy democracy in rural communities without talking about rural electric co-ops. One in three minnesotans gets their electricity from a rural electric co-op (rec). Recs are democratically owned and operated utilities that were created during the new deal to electrify rural america. However, the operations of minnesota's recs today lack transparency and good governance.cure is a national leader in the rec reform movement. In service to aligning the priorities of minnesota's rec's to their cooperative founding principles, cure has organized member-owners to change rec priorities: grow transparency in rec governance, build grassroots power, and fight against the rec's reliance on dirty electricity from coal instead transitioning their electricity generation to renewable, community-based energy sources that would be cheaper for their member-owners and…
$553,442 spentof which $93,485 as grants$82,250 earned by the program57% of program spendingCure's rural democracy program embraces democracy-driven solutions to rural issues and environmental justice. We work with people across minnesota to build power to create a more sustainable future and vibrant communities that benefit all who live here.the rural democracy project is helping people in rural communities build independent political power with a special focus on electoral politics. Starting at the local level is where real change will take root; this will set a precedent for the state and nation. Passionate groups of people meeting in cafes, living rooms, and churches across minnesota are where change is cultivated. This is the nursery of democracy.
$419,468 spent43% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $972,910.
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 2022 to 2023, from $1.4M to $2.0M (+42%).
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: 2021 12%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
93% of CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 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
Duane Ninneman
Executive director
Board chair
Margaret Kuchenreuther
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 10 funders, grant income rose $65k → $947k.
7 of 33 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 33 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
CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 32% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
56% 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 CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 43% · 2019 77% · 2020 76% · 2021 63% · 2022 38% · 2023 32% — 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
14% of CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 42% 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
CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 13 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $729k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT
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
79% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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
- Cure Action Fund · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT: 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 CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT?
- CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT (Minnesota) receives grants from 33 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,510,632 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($1,750,000). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT have?
- IRS filings report 33 organizations giving $5,510,632 in grants to CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $1,750,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLEAN UP THE RIVER ENVIRONMENT 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 33 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