Minnesota · Nonprofit
EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY
EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY (Minnesota) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,147,207 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($411,500). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $579k
- Funders on record
- 39
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $334k
What East Side Freedom Library does
Mission
The East Side Freedom Library's mission is to inspire solidarity, advocate for justice and work toward equity for all. The library houses non-circulating research collections that appeal to interested general learners as well as scholars, with innovative databases and finding aids that make using the collections fun and vital. Story is a major theme of the ESFL, and the telling and gathering of stories, through formal interviews, workshops, and small-scale public performances, will allow local residents and interested publics to learn more about the work and residential histories of the East Side.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Arts and Culture: East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) leverages the arts to promote solidarity, justice, and equity, prioritizing artist activists to shift narratives and empower community storytelling. Through diverse programming in poetry, visual art, theater, dance, music, and storytelling, ESFL amplifies marginalized voices and preserves histories. Programs such as "Music Between the Stacks," literary events, cinema, theater, workshops, and art-making opportunities highlight the intersection of arts, humanities, and storytelling, fostering community expression and cultural knowledge.
$154,716 spent$104,175 earned by the program39% of program spendingLabor and Equity: ESFL's Labor and Equity programs unite community members, organizations, and allies to address housing inequity, environmental injustice, and social harms in St. Paul. Key initiatives include: Labor: The ESFL Labor Advisory Group fosters collaboration with the labor movement, supporting local labor issues, education, and engagement through panel discussions, the Annual Labor Solidarity Picnic, and Solidarity Awards. East Side Housing Justice: Advocates for housing equity via coalition work, public education, and advocacy. East Side Environmental Justice Group: Focuses on improving environmental health through advocacy on clean air, water, food, and green jobs. East Side Unified: A journal highlighting community developments, organizing efforts, and social justice work, connecting past and present.
$71,366 spent$56,021 earned by the program18% of program spendingHousing Justice: The Housing Justice Program advances housing equity through: Community-Led Exhibits: Documenting housing activism history in St. Paul to inspire future advocacy. Educational Workshops: Exploring housing justice issues through racial equity and related struggles. Collaborative Spaces: Hosting the Housing Justice Coalition to support advocacy, grassroots organizing, and community education. Equitable Development: Promoting policies that prevent displacement and reduce disparities. Cooperatives and Community Ownership: Supporting neighborhood self-determination through the East Side Community Investment Cooperative.
$97,228 spent$68,750 earned by the program25% of program spendingTeaching and Learning: ESFL combines education with community scholarship, offering access to its extensive collections, artifacts, and programs. Through mentoring for National History Day, classroom visits, tours, special presentations, and author events, ESFL supports students, educators, and researchers. It manages over 35,000 books and materials and provides a digital repository for research.
$70,971 spent$40,542 earned by the program18% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $394,281.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 $1.8M to $792k (−57%).
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: 2019 5% · 2021 24% · 2022 13% · 2023 11% · 2024 12% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 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
Saengmany Ratsabout
Executive Director
Board chair
Andrea M Satter
Board President
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 14 funders, grant income rose $150k → $263k.
6 of 39 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% 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 EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 39 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
EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 19% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
48% 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 EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 80% · 2019 38% · 2020 17% · 2021 20% · 2022 18% · 2023 29% — 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
36% of EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
87% of EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $581k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY has grown faster than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY
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
69% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
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 EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY: 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 EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY?
- EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY (Minnesota) receives grants from 39 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,147,207 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($411,500). 22 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY have?
- IRS filings report 39 organizations giving $2,147,207 in grants to EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY, 22 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY?
- SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $411,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like EAST SIDE FREEDOM LIBRARY 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 2019–2025), and the filings of 39 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