Minnesota · Nonprofit
MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION
MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $176,536 to it, the largest being Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc ($50,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $234k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $177k
- Net assets
- $1.9M
What Minnesota Architectural Foundation does
Mission
The purpose of the Minnesota Architectural Foundation (maf) is to invest in excellence, leadership, discovery and equity in the profession of architecture.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Architectural education program - provides scholarships and grants to qualified individuals and organizations whose emphasis is architecture, the purpose of which is the improvement of the architecture profession and the built environment.
$104,371 spentof which $84,500 as grants$1,770 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $104,371.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1.5M to $1.8M (+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.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 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
Mary-Margaret Zindren
EVP/executive director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $11k → $15k.
4 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $30k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Aia Minnesota). These are real filings, and they are not money MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION’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
MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 28% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
66% 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 MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 86% · 2019 50% · 2020 88% · 2021 57% · 2022 46% · 2023 41% — 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
17% of MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 36% 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
61% of MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION'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 $70k that is directly attributable, 70% of it comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $107k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Organizations like MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION
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
77% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Aia Minnesota · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION: 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 MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION?
- MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $176,536 to it, the largest being Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc ($50,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $176,536 in grants to MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION?
- Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $50,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MINNESOTA ARCHITECTURAL FOUNDATION 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 11 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