Minnesota · Nonprofit
GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY
GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY (Minnesota) receives grants from 216 organizations whose IRS filings report $97,594,760 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($13,926,039). 147 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $45M
- Funders on record
- 216
- Grants received
- $98M
- Net assets
- $131M
What Greater Twin Cities United Way does
Mission
For 110 years, Greater Twin Cities United Way (united way), a nonprofit, has demonstrated that whenever there's a community need in the greater twin cities region, united way is there. United way's efforts continually evolve to respond to (continued on schedule o)
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Educational success: united way's vision | all young children and their families enter kindergarten ready to learn and thrive, and all youth have the skills, relationships and mindsets to choose and direct their future success. United way meets urgent needs by supporting nonprofits doing impactful work in early childhood education and career and future readiness, and by connecting callers to education resources via its 211 resource helpline. United way also makes lasting change to improve the education system through its 80x3: resilient from the start initiative, which is focused on expanding the trauma-sensitive care that makes a difference in early childhood development, and advocacy efforts that support quality childcare and young people's career readiness. In 2025, united way and its partners provided high-quality early childhood and family education programming that supported 4,129 children. In 2025, united way and its partners in career and future readiness supported 9,103 young people in youth programs and activities more than 90 percent of which reported growth in critical life skills. Additionally, united way's 80x3 initiative supported more than 100 early childhood…
$10,974,208 spentof which $5,570,601 as grants27% of program spendingStable housing: united way's vision | episodes of homelessness are rare, brief and nonrecurring. United way meets urgent needs by supporting nonprofits doing impactful work in housing and by connecting callers to housing and shelter resources via its 211 resource helpline. Housing is by far the greatest reason people in our region reach out to 211. United way also makes lasting change to improve housing by leading the pathways home initiative focused on preventing homelessness by connecting young people exiting foster care or incarceration to critical support, and by leading advocacy efforts that support housing stability. United way and its 27 partners meeting urgent housing needs supported over 19,319 people through outreach, shelter and permanent housing programs. Volunteers with united way's annual home for good initiative provided 1,535 welcome home bins to individuals and families to help ensure people obtaining and maintaining stable housing have essentials like towels, kitchen utensils and blankets to thrive in their new home. At the legislature, united way successfully advocated in 2025 to maintain state funds for homelessness prevention.
$6,745,064 spentof which $5,776,402 as grants16% of program spendingEconomic opportunity: united way's vision | all adults enter the workforce prepared for skilled employment and increased wealth. United way meets urgent needs by supporting nonprofits doing impactful work to provide job training and entrepreneurship support, and by connecting callers to employment resources via its 211 resource helpline. United way also makes lasting change to improve systems by building educator-employer partnerships through its career academies initiative, focused on expanding access to wealth-building careers for youth; and advocating for policies that mitigate the impacts of the "benefits cliff." in 2025, united way and its partners supported 3,559 entrepreneurs, 86% of whom achieved business stability or growth; 13,800 adults engaged in job training and placement programs; and 297 adults enrolled in financial accessibility programs. Additionally, 2,985 people secured a job through united way-supported employment and training programs, and 74 percent maintained their employment for at least a year. And united way's career academies initiative supported 10 organizations to deliver effective work experiences for youth with average wages over $15 hourly,…
$3,590,196 spentof which $3,590,196 as grants9% of program spendingFood security: united way's vision | people have food that is nutritious, culturally relevant and affordable, toward long-term food security. United way meets urgent needs by supporting nonprofits doing impactful work in establishing food justice and security in our region, and by connecting callers to food resources via its 211 resource helpline. United way also makes lasting change to improve the region's food system through its full lives initiative, which is focused on increasing access to healthy food and creating jobs to promote healthy communities throughout the greater twin cities. In 2025, united way and its 21 partners meeting urgent food needs served more than 700,000 people through short-term food assistance programs such as food shelves and meal programs. United way supported four cross-sector collaboratives among 20 organizations through full lives, including a responsive produce-rescue collaboration that brought farmers and nonprofits together to ease the impacts of the federal government shutdown and avoid late-season food waste. Also in 2025, united way's flavors of our community volunteers created 22,703 food packs for local food shelves, equating to more than…
$20,073,137 spentof which $7,499,521 as grants$1,286,923 earned by the program49% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $41,382,605.
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 2017 to 2018, from $146M to $128M (−12%).
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 1% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 5% · 2021 7% · 2022 5% · 2023 6% · 2024 13% · 2025 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (80% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Board chair
Al Mcfarlane
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 58 funders to 101 funders, grant income rose $4.0M → $17M.
35 of 216 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $33M from 30 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation); $1.3M from one payer (an institutional transfer, not a grant programme, largest The Wurtele Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY raised.
From the IRS filings of GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 216 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
GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
61% 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 GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 19% · 2018 18% · 2019 15% · 2020 11% · 2021 20% · 2022 19% · 2023 22% — growing more concentrated.
“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
55% of GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
53% of GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY'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 $46M that is directly attributable, 74% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $51M arriving through sponsors registered in 17 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
GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY's revenue fell 41% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 490 philanthropy nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY
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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
85%
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 GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY: 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 GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY?
- GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY (Minnesota) receives grants from 216 organizations whose IRS filings report $97,594,760 to it, the largest being CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ($13,926,039). 147 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY have?
- IRS filings report 216 organizations giving $97,594,760 in grants to GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY, 147 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY?
- CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA is the largest funder on record, with $13,926,039 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREATER TWIN CITIES UNITED WAY 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 216 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