Minnesota · Nonprofit
MICROGRANTS
MICROGRANTS (Minnesota) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,267,547 to it, the largest being THE JAMES M STANTON FOUNDATION ($3,986,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $779k
- Funders on record
- 72
- Grants received
- $9.3M
- Net assets
- $477k
What Microgrants does
Mission
To spur economic self-sufficiency by giving strategic grants to low-income people of potential through partner agencies.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Microgrants provides timely grants up to $1,500 to people of potential seeking to improve their economic stability through education, workforce training, and entrepreneurship. The program is designed to fill funding gaps where traditional financial resources are unavailable, helping individuals overcome barriers to employment and break cycles of poverty.grant recipients are identified and supported by a network of partner agencies that assist applicants throughout the grant process and provide coaching and mentorship to help them achieve their goals. In 2025, Microgrants distributed 64 grants totaling $63,302. Of those served, 82.8% identified as bipoc, 100% reported an improved quality of life and 91.7% reported increased income.
$131,630 spentof which $187,741 as grants23% of program spendingLights on! Is an award-winning program that replaces equipment violation tickets with repair vouchers, helping low-income drivers address safety-related vehicle repairs without incurring fines and fees they cannot afford. Through partnerships with law enforcement agencies and local repair shops, the program improves public safety by keeping safe vehicles on the road while fostering positive community-police relationships.in 2025, lights on! Funded $118,790 in repairs via 100+ law enforcement agencies. In addition, the program expanded its sidewalks and streets initiative, a community-based model that distributes repair vouchers through block party-style events without requiring a traffic stop. Sidewalks and streets hosted 6 events and that distributed 175 vouchers and gave way 90 bikes, scooters and helmets, and provided 348 meals. One in four voucher recipients reported they would not have been able to afford the repair without the voucher, demonstrating the program's impact in reducing financial barriers and supporting pathways toward greater economic stability.
$435,683 spent77% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $567,313.
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 $2.7M to $1.2M (−54%).
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: 2025 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of MICROGRANTS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% 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.
Chief executive
John Harrington
CEO
Board chair
Clarence D Castile
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $210k → $1.1M.
13 of 72 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 15% 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 MICROGRANTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 72 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
MICROGRANTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 53%; half comes from just 3 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 14% · 2018 28% · 2019 23% · 2020 65% · 2021 57% · 2022 45% · 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
54% of MICROGRANTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
88% of MICROGRANTS'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 9 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
MICROGRANTS's funding base is broadening — from 14 funders to 30 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like MICROGRANTS
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
54%
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 MICROGRANTS: 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 MICROGRANTS?
- MICROGRANTS (Minnesota) receives grants from 72 organizations whose IRS filings report $9,267,547 to it, the largest being THE JAMES M STANTON FOUNDATION ($3,986,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MICROGRANTS have?
- IRS filings report 72 organizations giving $9,267,547 in grants to MICROGRANTS, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MICROGRANTS?
- THE JAMES M STANTON FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,986,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MICROGRANTS 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 Microgrants →
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 72 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