Minnesota · Nonprofit
LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT
LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,863,135 to it, the largest being THE BUSH FOUNDATION ($3,090,595). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.1M
- Funders on record
- 58
- Grants received
- $12M
- Net assets
- $14M
What Lower Phalen Creek Project does
Mission
Engaging people to honor and care for our natural places and the sacred sites and cultural value within them.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Wta's land and environment program co-manages the 27-acre wakan tipi (formerly, bruce vento nature sanctuary) with the city of saint paul. In 2025, wta engaged nearly 500 volunteers through 20 volunteer events and more than 400 participants in 13 environmental education events. Land and environment is also leading a major restoration project to daylight phalen creek- in 2025, the project accomplished 60% design development for phase 1 of the project, a mile stretch of creek at the south end of lake phalen. Please see schedule o for additional program languagewta's exhibits and interpretive program completed development and began installation of the permanent indoor and outdoor exhibits for wakan tipi center, a 7,500 sq ft. Cultural and environmental interpretive center located at the entrance to wakan tipi cultural site. Wta also hosted 11 interpretive site tours with a total of 183 participants.wta's cultural and community programs hosted 16 events and engaged more than 600 participants. Events included dakota language tables, winter storytelling, and a community canoe build.
$1,445,919 spent$128,093 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,445,919.
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 2023 to 2024, from $8.6M to $14M (+68%).
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 7% · 2020 11% · 2021 5% · 2022 1% · 2023 15% · 2024 40% · 2025 36%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
84% of LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Maggie Lorenz
Executive director
Board chair
Katherine Beane
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $80k → $1.4M.
14 of 58 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 28% 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 LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 58 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
LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
35% 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 LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 97% · 2018 83% · 2019 35% · 2020 34% · 2021 34% · 2022 35% · 2023 21% — 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
69% of LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
83% of LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 10 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
LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $839k on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$520k
- Department of the Interior$139k
- Department of Agriculture$75k
- Environmental Protection Agency$66k
- National Endowment for the Arts$40k
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 LOWER PHALEN CREEK 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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
75%
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 LOWER PHALEN CREEK 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 LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT?
- LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 58 organizations whose IRS filings report $11,863,135 to it, the largest being THE BUSH FOUNDATION ($3,090,595). 33 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 58 organizations giving $11,863,135 in grants to LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT, 33 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LOWER PHALEN CREEK PROJECT?
- THE BUSH FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,090,595 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LOWER PHALEN CREEK 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 Lower Phalen Creek 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 58 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