Minnesota · Nonprofit
GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT
GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,360,423 to it, the largest being LAKESHORE FOUNDATION DATED APRIL 5 2011 ($3,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 26
- Grants received
- $4.4M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Great North Innocence Project does
Mission
The Great North Innocence Project works to free the wrongfully convicted and prevent future wrongful convictions from occurring in minnesota, north dakota, and south dakota.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Each year our team works diligently to screen hundreds of requests for help, to give freedom back to people in prison for crimes they did not commit. Great North Innocence Project staff, law students, investigators, and volunteer attorneys spend thousands of hours carefully analyzing these cases to determine whether there is new evidence that could show actual innocence. We litigate cases where newly discovered evidence is identifiable and can provide clear and convincing proof of actual innocence. The Great North Innocence Project also works to improve the criminal legal system to prevent wrongful convictions and educates law students, the courts, lawyers, and law enforcement officers on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions and how to prevent them. We also provide support and services to our clients as they plan for their homecoming and as they move forward in their lives after freedom.
$861,614 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $861,614.
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 2019 to 2020, from $963k to $1.5M (+60%).
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 8% · 2022 18% · 2023 21% · 2024 27% · 2025 9%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
104% of GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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.
Chief executive
Sara Jones
Executive director
Board chair
James Volling
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $18k → $341k.
9 of 26 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT’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 NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 69% of grant income and the top three 81%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 73% · 2018 86% · 2019 92% · 2020 74% · 2021 83% · 2022 40% · 2023 73% — broadly stable.
“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
58% of GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT draws 94% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $837k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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 NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 852 crime & legal nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 852 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.4M on record.
- Department of Justice$1.4M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT
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
76%
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 NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT: 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 NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT?
- GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 26 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,360,423 to it, the largest being LAKESHORE FOUNDATION DATED APRIL 5 2011 ($3,000,000). 16 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 26 organizations giving $4,360,423 in grants to GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT, 16 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT?
- LAKESHORE FOUNDATION DATED APRIL 5 2011 is the largest funder on record, with $3,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT NORTH INNOCENCE PROJECT 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 North Innocence Project →
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 26 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