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Minnesota · Nonprofit

Ely Folk School

Ely Folk School (Minnesota) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $186,418 to it, the largest being ARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL ($69,093). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$306k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$186k
Net assets
$213k
5/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 16%
01What it does

What Ely Folk School does

Mission

Building community by providing learning experiences that celebrate the wilderness heritage art history culture and craft of the people of northern Minnesota.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Ely Folk School classes offer intergenerational non-competitive learning for life opportunities to people of all backgrounds and abilities. Our organization holds firm to an early philosophical premise that education embrace heart mind and body. Our mission is to build community by providing learning experiences that celebrate the wilderness heritage art history culture and craft of the people of northern Minnesota. The Folk School movement is growing as is EFS with a desire to increase mutually beneficial connection between people and their places for a sense of belonging. EFS focuses most on arts programming with opportunities in ceramics; fiber arts; folk arts; humanities; metalworking; Northwoods crafting; nourishment; and music and writing all designed around EFS values of freedom intergenerational stewardship joy resilience wellness and connection. EFS fosters a culture of inclusion to serve as a welcoming and safe space for folks of all opinions beliefs cultures races gender expressions sexual orientations ages and abilities. EFS serves a broad rural community with 400 programs annually serving 1,700 students from across the state learning from 75 individual instructors.…

    $144,081 spent$82,792 earned by the program
    80% of program spending
  2. The Ely Folk School Mercantile promotes area artists by offering a downtown store front with consignment and wholesale options. The Ely Folk School Mercantile celebrates the rich history and inspiration found in the Northwoods by uplifting local teaching artists. Artwork is displayed attractively with information about how visitors can learn to make something similar themselves through classes with the Ely Folk School. Also found in the Mercantile are tools and resources for beginning or continuing a craft journey and education. The Mercantile seeks to promote and preserve exploration of craft as an essential and accessible piece of life.

    $16,714 spent$16,029 earned by the program
    9% of program spending
  3. Ely Folk School Community Events bring people together. Community Events often occur in conjunction with holidays as the culmination of a class series or in partnership with other active Ely area organizations. Our annual Thanksgiving Potluck seats over 100 people annually emphasizing the importance of sharing recognition and food in a healthy community. Our weekly Makers Morning offers coffee company and cookies as area artists bring their project to life at the Ely Folk School while receiving feedback and critique and developing new class ideas for the Ely Folk School. These events encourage well-being and connection while furthering the EFS mission of building community.

    $5,714 spent$4,483 earned by the program
    3% of program spending
  4. The Ely Folk School Ceramics Studio offers monthly memberships to a full-service ceramics studio. It was created to provide the space and equipment to allow clay artists and potters of all levels to explore their creativity and work in a supportive environment. Members receive 24 7 access to the space as well as monthly Studio Manager Office Hours. Many studio members have had success starting small businesses and selling their pottery. Our local studio managers manage the firing of the kiln and cleanliness safety of the space.

    $13,715 spent$12,954 earned by the program
    8% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $180,224.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($96k) Expenses 100 ($101k) Net assets 100 ($28k)2018 Revenue 108 ($104k) Expenses 96 ($97k) Net assets 125 ($35k)2019 Revenue 103 ($99k) Expenses 95 ($95k) Net assets 125 ($35k)2020 Revenue 80 ($77k) Expenses 81 ($82k) Net assets 109 ($30k)2021 Revenue 144 ($139k) Expenses 116 ($117k) Net assets 186 ($52k)2022 Revenue 179 ($172k) Expenses 137 ($138k) Net assets 308 ($86k)2023 Revenue 278 ($268k) Expenses 217 ($219k) Net assets 491 ($136k)2024 Revenue 276 ($266k) Expenses 232 ($234k) Net assets 607 ($169k)2025 Revenue 318 ($306k) Expenses 276 ($278k) Net assets 767 ($213k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (318)Expenses (276)Net assets (767)Peer revenue range

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 $110k to $158k (+44%).

$28k
$35k
$37k
$55k
$76k
$110k
$158k
$189k
$232k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

60% of Ely Folk School’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$4k
’17
$7k
’18
$4k
’19
−$4k
’20
$22k
’21
$34k
’22
$49k
’23
$33k
’24
$29k
’25
3.5
months of
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

Lucy Soderstrom

Executive Director

Board chair

Lacey Squier

Board Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202320242025
Listed9911
Joined·+2+4
No longer listed·22
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $10k → $44k.

3 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 Ely Folk School’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 8 of 9 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

Ely Folk School leans on a few funders — its largest provides 37% of grant income and the top three 84%; 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 Ely Folk School.

37%
largest funder
84%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 62% · 2023 45% — 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

50% of Ely Folk School's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 56% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y

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

85% of Ely Folk School's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.

MN
DE
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’20
’22
’23
Minnesota out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $47k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Ely Folk School runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin9% · above the median
Months of reserve3.5mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)16% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Ely Folk School

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

65% of spending goes to programs.

Program 65%Management 29%Fundraising 6%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Ely Folk School: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 Ely Folk School?
Ely Folk School (Minnesota) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $186,418 to it, the largest being ARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL ($69,093). 5 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Ely Folk School have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $186,418 in grants to Ely Folk School, 5 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Ely Folk School?
ARROWHEAD REGIONAL ARTS COUNCIL is the largest funder on record, with $69,093 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Ely Folk School 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 Ely Folk School →

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 9 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