Minnesota · Nonprofit
GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE
GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $171,550 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $287k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $172k
- Net assets
- $3k
What Great Lakes Lifeways Institute does
Mission
Great Lakes Lifeways Institute partners with communities to revitalize living land-based knowledge through practice. For nearly fifteen years, our work; canoes, lodges, food systems, harvest camps, and intergenerational learning, has strengthened identity, restored connection, and supported resilient futures. We lead with humility, reciprocity, and deep respect for land, ancestors, and community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Giiwekii Flint Corn Restoration Project. This program works to engage community and partnering tribal nations in restoring 8 row northern flint corns on Madeline Island, Wisconsin and the surrounding Chequamegon Bay Area as a sustainable, healthy and regionally climate adapted food source. In 2025 the program engaged over 200 people in the area with programs and education at 5 grow sites about growing, harvesting and processing.
$31,159 spentof which $30,000 as grants45% of program spendingCanoe Journeys Program. This program serves to promote the reconnection to knowledge and practice of traditional watercraft and waterways within our region. This includes community projects to build and restore traditional bark canoes and dugout canoes, create educational resources and get community on local waterways. During 2025 major program accomplishments included: building a canoe lodge on Madeline Island in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society, a community restoration of a 1907 birch bark canoe, supporting Master Canoe Builder Marvin Defoe, from Red Cliff, in building a birch bark canoe and construction of a Dakota style white pine canoe with Dakota Community at Prairie Island in Minnesota.
$21,827 spentof which $20,000 as grants31% of program spendingReestablishing Indigenous Spaces. This program is focused on assisting Tribal Communities and First Nations in revitalizing land based indigenous architectural traditions and in maintaining traditional structures used for education and community wellbeing. In 2025 major accomplishments include: Construction of a 26 foot birch bark lodge as a living classroom space on Madeline Island and direct support for upkeep on traditional community lodges at Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Walpole Island First Nation
$16,437 spentof which $16,000 as grants24% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $69,423.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2023, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2023, 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 2024 to 2025, from $12k to $3k (−79%).
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.
44% of GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 3 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.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
2 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 93% 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 GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE’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
GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 58% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE.
“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.
Where its funders are
93% of GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE'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 $12k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $160k 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.
Against its field
GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE has grown faster than three-quarters 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 GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE: 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 GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE?
- GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE (Minnesota) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $171,550 to it, the largest being NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 93% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $171,550 in grants to GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE?
- NATIONAL PHILANTHROPIC TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT LAKES LIFEWAYS INSTITUTE 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 Great Lakes Lifeways Institute →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2023–2025), and the filings of 3 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