Minnesota · Nonprofit
MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC
MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,130,348 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($229,990). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $7.3M
What Midwest Special Services Inc does
Mission
The mission of mss, inc. Is to support people with disabilities as vital and contributing members of the community. We envision a future where people are supported in living the life that they choose, rather than one chosen for them. We provide person-individualized day and employment services to make that vision a reality.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Mss provides day support services to people with a wide range of disabilities. These services help people develop and maintain critical life skills to ensure people with disabilities can lead fully engaged and connected community lives. A main goal of this service is to support people in connecting and engaging with the community, identifying resources and building natural, lasting supportive relationships.
$10,238,940 spent$10,969,228 earned by the program85% of program spendingMss employment services support approximately 100 people in reaching their potential in competitive integrated employment, with or without supports. These services provide a comprehensive range of opportunities, from gauging interest in employment, learning about basic work concepts all the way to providing needed short or long term supports. These services include employment exploration, employment development, employment support, co-collegiate mentorship program to help students with disabilities to succeed in post-secondary education, skill training, placement, long and short term retention supports and etrac.
$1,810,375 spent$1,990,867 earned by the program15% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $12,049,315.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $9.0M to $11M (+19%).
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 3% · 2018 1% · 2019 1% · 2020 30% · 2021 32% · 2022 19% · 2023 3% · 2024 6% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Julie Johnson
President/CEO
Board chair
Ken Rodgers
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $101k → $107k.
9 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 20% 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
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 MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 91% · 2019 56% · 2020 35% · 2021 23% · 2022 59% · 2023 35% — 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
31% of MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
54% of MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC'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 $520k that is directly attributable, 80% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $610k 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.
Government funding MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $16k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$16k
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 MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC: 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 MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC?
- MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,130,348 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($229,990). 18 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $1,130,348 in grants to MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC, 18 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC?
- SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $229,990 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MIDWEST SPECIAL SERVICES INC 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 Midwest Special Services →
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 30 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