Minnesota · Nonprofit
LITERACY MINNESOTA
LITERACY MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,975,104 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($800,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2023
- $6.1M
- Funders on record
- 50
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $2.7M
What Literacy Minnesota does
Mission
Literacy Minnesota is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to sharing the power of learning through education, community building and advocacy. As a leading partner in the literacy field, we are building a local, regional and national movement to put life-changing learning within everyone's reach.effective january 1, 2020, Literacy Minnesota changed their name from minnesota literacy council, inc. To Literacy Minnesota.Literacy Minnesota operates programs for adults, children and families in minnesota and provides training and resources to literacy programs and community partners across the state and country.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990.
Programs
See schedule oopen door learning centers: two twin cities campuses and satellite sites offering english, ged, computer, citizenship, job-readiness and other basic skills classes for adults. Early literacy & families: provides adults tools to navigate education, employment and social systems for themselves and their families and includes a free, literacy-enriched preschool for adult students' young children.summer reads: provides reading mentors for children entering grades k-5.adult literacy hotline: online and phone referral service to adult literacy programs statewide.tutor training: pre-service and in-service workshops for literacy volunteers and educators.technology services: professional development and technical assistance for adult education teachers and staff on effective use of technology to enhance and expand educational opportunities for all adult learners in minnesota.volunteer recruitment: recruits and places volunteers into service organizations across the state.
$3,827,676 spentof which $14,922 as grants$2,185,095 earned by the program88% of program spendingSee schedule onorthstar digital literacy: a leading-edge platform that assesses and builds digital skills through online modules, classroom curriculum and self-directed online learning. Establishes digital literacy standards and informs policy and funding opportunities across the country.national service: two tracks, literacy for all and digital literacy, that engage americorps vista members to design and carry out literacy initiatives in partnership with schools and community organizations.advocacy: mobilizes to influence policy and legislation around the literacy cause.curriculum & resources: searchable online library of literacy curriculum and teaching tools.journeys: an anthology of adult student writing with accompanying classroom resources for adult basic education instructors.literacy strategies: consulting services to help organizations launch and develop literacy programming.open door collective: combats poverty through literacy education, policy and research.
$515,909 spent$330,740 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,343,585.
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 2021 to 2022, from $3.1M to $3.6M (+17%).
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 64% · 2018 64% · 2019 65% · 2021 60% · 2022 56% · 2023 50%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
62% of LITERACY MINNESOTA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (48% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $258k → $635k.
16 of 50 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 35% 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 LITERACY MINNESOTA’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 50 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
LITERACY MINNESOTA has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
54% 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 LITERACY MINNESOTA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 21% · 2018 26% · 2019 40% · 2020 14% · 2021 35% · 2022 40% · 2023 32% — 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
51% of LITERACY MINNESOTA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
85% of LITERACY MINNESOTA's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
LITERACY MINNESOTA's funding base is broadening — from 17 funders to 25 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,412 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2023
Government funding LITERACY MINNESOTA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.0M on record — $4.6M federal, $317k state.
- Corporation for National and Community Service$4.6M
- CT$116k
- MA$111k
- DE$67k
- OR$22k
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 LITERACY MINNESOTA
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
76% 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 LITERACY MINNESOTA: 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 LITERACY MINNESOTA?
- LITERACY MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 50 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,975,104 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($800,000). 35 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LITERACY MINNESOTA have?
- IRS filings report 50 organizations giving $3,975,104 in grants to LITERACY MINNESOTA, 35 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LITERACY MINNESOTA?
- OTTO BREMER TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $800,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LITERACY MINNESOTA 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 FY2023 (financials across 2017–2023), and the filings of 50 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