Minnesota · Nonprofit
COMO FRIENDS
COMO FRIENDS (Minnesota) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,162,796 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($4,008,120). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $5.4M
- Funders on record
- 74
- Grants received
- $11M
- Net assets
- $18M
What Como Friends does
Mission
We inspire community generosity in support of como park zoo & conservatory so it thrives for generations to come.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Como Friends secures donations and generates retail revenues to invest in como park zoo & conservatory. Investments support new capital projects such as como harbor and the ordway gardens, annual improvements to animal exhibits and gardens, conservation partnerships around the world, progressive education programs and free and equitable access for all visitors. The past decade of transformative improvements championed by Como Friends have made it possible for como to meet and exceed best practice standards for animal care, grow and curate world-class horticultural collections, and to provide free admission for all.
$4,287,284 spentof which $4,146,063 as grants82% of program spendingComo Friends operates garden safari gifts in the visitor center. Three satellite locations are open during the spring, summer and fall months. Proceeds are invested at como park zoo & conservatory to help como thrive today and for generations to come.
$942,776 spent$1,712,882 earned by the program18% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,230,060.
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 $16M to $18M (+17%).
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 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
67% of COMO FRIENDS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (74% 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.
Board chair
Andy Davis
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 36 funders, grant income rose $996k → $1.0M.
17 of 74 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 69% 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 COMO FRIENDS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 74 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
COMO FRIENDS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 36% of grant income and the top three 61%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
77% 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 COMO FRIENDS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 37% · 2018 54% · 2019 37% · 2020 26% · 2021 44% · 2022 35% · 2023 44% — 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
60% of COMO FRIENDS'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
69% of COMO FRIENDS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $3.5M that is directly attributable, 75% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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
COMO FRIENDS's revenue grew 31% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 813 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like COMO FRIENDS
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
75% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
87%
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 COMO FRIENDS: 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 COMO FRIENDS?
- COMO FRIENDS (Minnesota) receives grants from 74 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,162,796 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($4,008,120). 49 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 69% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does COMO FRIENDS have?
- IRS filings report 74 organizations giving $11,162,796 in grants to COMO FRIENDS, 49 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of COMO FRIENDS?
- SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $4,008,120 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like COMO FRIENDS 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 74 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