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Minnesota · Nonprofit

LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF

LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF (Minnesota) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $728,074 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($122,919). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$834k
Funders on record
31
Grants received
$728k
Net assets
$1.6M
18/31 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 24%
01What it does

What Lakes Area Food Shelf does

Mission

To serve as a trusted community resource by helping our friends and neighbors become hunger free and obtain a healthy lifestyle.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. The organization accepts contributions of money, food and personal care items from area individuals, businesses, clubs, grocery stores and more. The donated money is used to purchase food items which together with the donated items are distributed to households who are under 300% of the the federal guidelines for poverty or have other extenuating financial circumstances. The organization serves the area of central minnesota with shoppers traveling from many miles to receive food. During year 2024, there were 19,350 visits to the food shelf.the organization works with 13 local produce growers/farmers to grow nutrient-rich produce to distribute to households in need. This distribution of healthy, nutrient-rich food has led local physicians to send their low income patients to the food shelf.

    $492,759 spentof which $149,836 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $492,759.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($178k) Expenses 100 ($181k) Net assets 100 ($289k)2018 Revenue 109 ($194k) Expenses 104 ($188k) Net assets 102 ($295k)2019 Revenue 102 ($182k) Expenses 103 ($188k) Net assets 100 ($289k)2020 Revenue 215 ($383k) Expenses 107 ($194k) Net assets 165 ($479k)2021 Revenue 210 ($374k) Expenses 128 ($233k) Net assets 214 ($620k)2022 Revenue 345 ($615k) Expenses 200 ($362k) Net assets 302 ($872k)2023 Revenue 542 ($967k) Expenses 287 ($520k) Net assets 452 ($1.3M)2024 Revenue 468 ($834k) Expenses 310 ($562k) Net assets 550 ($1.6M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (468)Expenses (310)Net assets (550)Peer revenue range

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 $872k to $1.3M (+52%).

$289k
$295k
$290k
$479k
$621k
$872k
$1.3M
$1.6M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

98% of LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 23,870 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$3k
’17
$6k
’18
−$6k
’19
$189k
’20
$141k
’21
$252k
’22
$447k
’23
$272k
’24
6.4
months of
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

Tamara Larsen

Executive director

Board chair

Tim Moore

Chairman

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

20202021202220232024
Listed1211101413
Joined·+9+3+6+0
No longer listed·10421
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 15 funders, grant income rose $10k → $207k.

11 of 31 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% 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 LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 27 of 31 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

LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

59% 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 LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF.

17%
largest funder
46%
top three
~11
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 76% · 2018 79% · 2019 65% · 2020 55% · 2021 66% · 2022 61% · 2023 36% — 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

71% of LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y

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

50% of LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF'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 $364k that is directly attributable, 87% of it comes from Minnesota funders.

WA
MN
PA
CA
MO
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Minnesota out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $364k arriving through sponsors registered in 8 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 21,616 human services nonprofits its size.

Operating margin33% · top quartile
Months of reserve6.4mo · above the median
Revenue growth (annualized)25% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 9%Fundraising 3%

Governance

12
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

93%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF: 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.

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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 LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF?
LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF (Minnesota) receives grants from 31 organizations whose IRS filings report $728,074 to it, the largest being The Chicago Community Trust ($122,919). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF have?
IRS filings report 31 organizations giving $728,074 in grants to LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF?
The Chicago Community Trust is the largest funder on record, with $122,919 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like LAKES AREA FOOD SHELF 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 2017–2024), and the filings of 31 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