Minnesota · Nonprofit
MILKWEED EDITIONS INC
MILKWEED EDITIONS INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,102,487 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($813,703). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.8M
- Funders on record
- 34
- Grants received
- $3.1M
- Net assets
- $7.6M
What Milkweed Editions Inc does
Mission
To identify, nurture and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Book production, distribution, and promotion:founded in minneapolis in 1980, milkweed editions is one of the nation's leading independent publishers of literature. We currently publish some thirty titles each year in the categories of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and our list is acclaimed for its distinction and variety. We release every title simultaneously in print and ebook editions, we enhance the publication of all titles with original digital content, we license publication of many titles we originate to foreign and audiobook publishers, and, since 2018, we publish some of our titles as audiobooks. We currently have more than four hundred titles in print, nearly two hundred titles available as ebooks, and nearly five million copies of books we published originally in circulation around the world.
$2,077,742 spent$3,426,420 earned by the program56% of program spendingOutreach: - general -milkweed is motivated by the fact that literature is fundamentally transformative. Every year we sell hundreds of thousands of books, many of our authors and titles receive awards, and most titles receive glowing reviews and recommendations in a wide range of media. These are some of the ways we measure success, but in addition to our publishing program, we actively seek to build community around literature and to serve an expanding, increasingly diverse constituency of writers and readers. We serve writers by providing financial and editorial support and by building a broad audience for their work. We serve readers by connecting them to the authors and books we publish. - reaching readers -our goal to build community is ultimately achieved by sharing our work with the widest range of participants and communicating why it is relevant and how it can be transformative in their lives. We work to make our books available in a variety of formats print, ebook, and increasingly audiobook; we have a variety of distribution partners to help books reach as many markets as possible; we also cultivate strong relationships with librarians, ensuring that many readers borrow…
$1,052,416 spent29% of program spendingEditorial:we measure the success of our publishing program, how well we achieve our mission, in many ways, including book sales through our distributor, our website, and our bookstore. In 2025, revenue generated by sales of our books grossed more than $5 million. We also factor in awards, reviews, and other media attention garnered by our titles, authors, and organization. Our books saw reviews and media mentions in outlets ranging from the new york times, the wall street journal, the guardian, and the new yorker and recent titles were finalists for the pulitzer prize, the national book award, the national book critics circle award, pen/jean stein book award, the l.a. Times book prize, and the minnesota book award, among numerous other awards and prizes.
$562,043 spent15% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,692,201.
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 2019 to 2020, from $2.5M to $5.1M (+102%).
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 8% · 2019 4% · 2020 4% · 2021 0% · 2022 2% · 2023 1% · 2024 9% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
25% of MILKWEED EDITIONS INC’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (63% 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
Daniel Slager
Publisher and CEO
Board chair
Sheila Letscher
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 19 funders, grant income rose $116k → $482k.
9 of 34 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 51% 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 MILKWEED EDITIONS INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 34 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
MILKWEED EDITIONS INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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
52% 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 MILKWEED EDITIONS INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 45% · 2019 49% · 2020 31% · 2021 29% · 2022 28% · 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
57% of MILKWEED EDITIONS INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% 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
51% of MILKWEED EDITIONS 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 $1.5M that is directly attributable, 74% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.6M 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.
Against its field
MILKWEED EDITIONS INC holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,430 arts & culture nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding MILKWEED EDITIONS INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $470k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$470k
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 MILKWEED EDITIONS 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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
67%
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 MILKWEED EDITIONS 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 MILKWEED EDITIONS INC?
- MILKWEED EDITIONS INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 34 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,102,487 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($813,703). 24 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 51% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MILKWEED EDITIONS INC have?
- IRS filings report 34 organizations giving $3,102,487 in grants to MILKWEED EDITIONS INC, 24 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MILKWEED EDITIONS INC?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $813,703 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MILKWEED EDITIONS 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 Milkweed Editions →
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 34 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