Minnesota · Nonprofit
GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC
GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,249,535 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($10,915,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $17M
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $51M
- Net assets
- $12M
What Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development Inc does
Mission
The great plains institute's (gpi) mission is to accelerate the transition to net-zero carbon emissions for the benefit of people, the economy, and the environment.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Industrial innovation and carbon managementfossil fuels today provide the vast majority of our electricity, heating/cooling and transportation fuel (87% globally) and will likely continue to play a significant role for decades. Yet burning coal, oil, and natural gas is also a primary cause of global warming and climate change, and a range of other unintended and negative outcomes. Gpi works to develop market-based strategies for reducing harmful fossil fuel emissions and effective transition strategies for industries and communities that depend on fossil fuels. Focus areas include: expanding education, dialogue and outreach on federal carbon regulation implementation by convening and facilitating the stakeholder groups of the midcontinent states environmental and energy regulators (mseer), pjm states group, and the midwestern power sector collaborative (mpsc); helping shape the national discourse surrounding the clean power plan by presenting to numerous groups and conferences around the us; and supporting the deployment of carbon capture and sequestration with enhanced oil recovery (ccs-eor) through incentives and education by convening of the national enhanced oil recovery…
$3,643,382 spent25% of program spendingEnergy systemsgpi envisions an economy that is increasingly electrified (including transportation and heating), and an energy system that relies heavily on renewable resources (wind, solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal) and a robust transmission system that can move clean electricity from one part of the country to another. An electric grid designed for central station power plants and a significant shortage of regional transmission lines that can move large amounts of remote renewable energy have become key barriers to meeting more of our energy needs with renewable resources (e.g., wind and solar). Gpi's focus areas include: 1) working with the midcontinent independent system operator to increase the deployment of renewable electricity, improve the market rules for demand response and integrate the full range of distributed energy resources; 2) working with utilities and other key interests to realign the utility business model and regulatory framework to more effectively achieve a low-carbon energy system and meet evolving consumer demands (this includes gpi's nation-leading e21 initiative and related work with madison gas and electric).
$6,625,218 spent$953,003 earned by the program46% of program spendingTransportation and fuelsgpi focuses on two main strategies for reducing our dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases in the transportation sector; less polluting, domestic fuels (electricity, biofuels, cng, biocng and hydrogen); and reducing the need for driving through better urban design. Priorities include: convening the bioeconomy coalition of minnesota making mn the best place in the world to site the development of advanced biofuel, renewable chemical, and biomass thermal industries; facilitating drive electric minnesota a statewide electric vehicle partnership working to expand electric vehicle ownership and public charging infrastructure (this may expand to a regional midwestern effort); and collaborating with argonne national lab to make the greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy use in transportation model (greet) more robust and user-friendly.
$1,513,570 spent11% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$2,539,225 spent18% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $14,321,395.
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 2022 to 2023, from $12M to $17M (+41%).
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: 2017 6% · 2018 11% · 2019 14% · 2020 8% · 2021 16% · 2022 13% · 2023 4% · 2024 8% · 2025 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
91% of GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% 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
Rolf Nordstrom
President & CEO
Board chair
Priti Patel
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $3.0M → $12M.
6 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% 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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
43% 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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 50% · 2018 31% · 2019 28% · 2020 38% · 2021 35% · 2022 31% · 2023 16% — 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
65% of GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 74% 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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC draws 88% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 11 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC is better cushioned than half of the 328 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 328 community improvement nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Government funding GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.7M on record.
- Department of Energy$1.7M
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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC: 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 PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC?
- GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,249,535 to it, the largest being THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION ($10,915,000). 31 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $51,249,535 in grants to GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC, 31 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC?
- THE WILLIAM & FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $10,915,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT PLAINS INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INC 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 Plains Institute for Sustainable Development →
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 42 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