Minnesota · Nonprofit
Foster Advocates
Foster Advocates (Minnesota) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,974,551 to it, the largest being THE SAUER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($622,560). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
Against its field
Foster Advocates has grown faster than three-quarters of the 21,584 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,584 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Three funders worth looking at
Grantmakers with no record of funding this organization, ranked by how strongly the co-funder graph and the mission embeddings agree. The evidence is in section 03.
- Minnesota Voicelocalportfolio match
- Minnesota Council on Foundationslocalportfolio match
- Cargill Foundationshared funderslocal
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2021, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2021, 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.
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: 2022 8% · 2023 9% · 2024 39%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of Foster Advocates’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $230k → $732k.
6 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 Foster Advocates’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
Foster Advocates has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
30% 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 Foster Advocates.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 89% · 2020 55% · 2021 33% · 2022 19% · 2023 20% — 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
67% of Foster Advocates's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
99% of Foster Advocates's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $271k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 statesis 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.
Funders to approach
Grantmakers that don’t fund you yet, surfaced two ways: they back organizations that share your funders, or their grantees resemble your mission. The ones both signals agree on come first. Your 26 funders put you under-funded among the 400 organizations that share them.
- Minnesota Voicelocalportfolio matchMN · funds 67 organizations near you · its grantees resemble your mission
- Minnesota Council on Foundationslocalportfolio matchMN · funds 65 organizations near you · its grantees resemble your mission
- Cargill Foundationshared funderslocalMN · backs 60 organizations that share your funders · funds 81 organizations near you
- Hennepin County Bar Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Still Ain'T Satisfied - a Foundation With Attitude (Sas)portfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Minnesota State Bar Foundationportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Lutheran Social Service of Minnesotaportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- Jockey Being Family Foundation Ltdportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- First Focus on Childrenportfolio matchits grantees resemble your mission
- The Sheltering Arms Foundationshared funderslocalMN · backs 70 organizations that share your funders · funds 96 organizations near you
- Target Foundationshared funderslocalMN · backs 145 organizations that share your funders · funds 261 organizations near you
- The Constellation Fundshared funderslocalMN · backs 48 organizations that share your funders · funds 64 organizations near you
From the co-funder graph (funders backing at least two comparable organizations, shrunk for grantee count, donor-advised and mega-funds excluded) and the universe embeddings. A research starting point; overlap is association, not a guarantee of fit.
Organizations like Foster Advocates
Nonprofits whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over the universe of 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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
74%
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 Foster Advocates: 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. How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Foster Advocates?
- Foster Advocates (Minnesota) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,974,551 to it, the largest being THE SAUER FAMILY FOUNDATION ($622,560). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Foster Advocates have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $2,974,551 in grants to Foster Advocates, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Foster Advocates?
- THE SAUER FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $622,560 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Foster Advocates 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 2021–2024), and the filings of 26funders 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 August 27, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing