Minnesota · Nonprofit
Minnesota Humanities Center
Minnesota Humanities Center (Minnesota) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,011,620 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($18,191,599). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $31M
- Funders on record
- 20
- Grants received
- $20M
- Net assets
- $43M
What Minnesota Humanities Center does
Mission
To spark positive change by increasing collective understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our histories through shared experiences.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Minnesota Humanities Center Educational Programs: The humanities help us understand ourselves, our communities, and our histories. By increasing collective understanding, we can spark positive change and create a more just society.MHC curates stories, co-creates engagement opportunities, increases knowledge, and produces resources in the areas of education, civic renewal, immersive experiences, and public programming to catalyze ideas. Their grantmaking enables them to strengthen the bonds between us, celebrate our past and traditions, tap into the best within ourselves, and educate the next generation of leaders. For fiscal year 2025, MHC curated over 145 programs with over 17,000 attendees. MHC provides programming across the state, including the Sketches of Minnesota program, as well as educational programs with local schools. In addition, we observed our history and how intertwined it is with our present with programs around Juneteenth and Bdote. We also celebrated the people that make up Minnesota, sharing stories from our veterans, women, and the cultures that make up Minnesota and its history. In addition, our organization granted over 16 million dollars over the biennium.
$13,053,581 spentof which $8,341,544 as grants$1,241,366 earned by the program97% of program spendingEvent Center: In addition to its Educational programming, MHC operates a full-service event center, as created by the State Legislature in 1996. In addition to housing programs of MHC, this restored architectural landmark serves educators, social service providers, other nonprofits, state colleges and universities, and state agencies and community groups seeking to improve both their individual work and the quality of life for all Minnesotans, by providing high quality, cost effective meeting and event space for educational and public programs, and staff education and development. MHC held over 270 events at the event center with over 10,000 people in the facility, with around 80% of those events related to the organization's mission.
$342,242 spent$345,114 earned by the program3% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $13,395,823.
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 $28M to $44M (+59%).
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 93% · 2018 7% · 2019 87% · 2020 75% · 2021 84% · 2022 83% · 2023 95% · 2024 81% · 2025 93%. 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
Kevin Lindsey
CEO
Board chair
Johua Ney
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $3.7M → $383k.
4 of 20 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 Minnesota Humanities Center’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 Humanities Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 99% · 2018 97% · 2019 99% · 2020 92% · 2021 93% · 2022 65% · 2023 78% — 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
42% of Minnesota Humanities Center'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
Minnesota Humanities Center draws 98% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 7 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $476k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 Minnesota Humanities Center receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10.7M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$10.7M
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 Minnesota Humanities Center
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
92% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 Minnesota Humanities Center: 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 Humanities Center?
- Minnesota Humanities Center (Minnesota) receives grants from 20 organizations whose IRS filings report $20,011,620 to it, the largest being THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION ($18,191,599). 12 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Minnesota Humanities Center have?
- IRS filings report 20 organizations giving $20,011,620 in grants to Minnesota Humanities Center, 12 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Minnesota Humanities Center?
- THE SHERWOOD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $18,191,599 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Minnesota Humanities Center 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 20 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