Minnesota · Nonprofit
MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP
MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP (Minnesota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,142,953 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($197,500). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $643k
- Funders on record
- 42
- Grants received
- $2.1M
- Net assets
- $1.1M
What Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop does
Mission
Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop (mpww) provides creative writing education and other arts services to individuals incarcerated in minnesota state prisons.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Taught creative writing courses in 8 Minnesota state correctional facilities. 29 full 10-15 week long courses taught in 2023 plus guest teachers and shorter courses. Estimated 600 students taught in 2023.
$200,082 spent$51,000 earned by the program54% of program spendingSupported writers' transition from prison to community through both material and immaterial means networking consultations etc.
$82,551 spent22% of program spendingProduced and published the art of incarcerated Minnesotans most notably by supporting American Precariat an anthology edited entirely by incarcerated people which was published by Coffee House Press in 2023.
$37,293 spent10% of program spending| Description:, Expense Amount:, Grants Amount:, Revenue Amount:| Hosted a number of public events at which the writing of incarcerated Minnesotans was featured and disseminated broadly. Events were both in person and virtual., $27674, $0, $0| Facilitated a one to one mail mentor program in which incarcerated writers received personalized feedback on their work from expert writers and mentors from around the country., $12025, $0, $0| Sponsored "Writers Collectives," self organized groups of incarcerated writers who meet regularly to share work discuss readings and plan literary events., $6879, $0, $0| Published letterpress broadsides featuring artistic adaptations of MPWW student work., $5887, $0, $0| Maintained multiple "gumball poetry" machines which are gumball machines filled with hand rolled poems curated by incarcerated writers at multiple local bookstores and other venues., $151, $0, $0|
$52,616 spent14% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $372,542.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 $758k to $1.1M (+45%).
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: 2020 4% · 2021 26% · 2022 35% · 2023 26% · 2024 27%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
86% of MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 21 funders, grant income rose $13k → $516k.
10 of 42 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 42 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
MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 9% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
58% 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 PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 60% · 2018 77% · 2019 29% · 2020 29% · 2021 14% · 2022 12% · 2023 16% — 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
67% of MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 62% 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
68% of MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $483k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP has grown faster than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $318k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$318k
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 PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP: 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 PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP?
- MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP (Minnesota) receives grants from 42 organizations whose IRS filings report $2,142,953 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($197,500). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP have?
- IRS filings report 42 organizations giving $2,142,953 in grants to MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP?
- Minnesota Humanities Center is the largest funder on record, with $197,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MINNESOTA PRISON WRITING WORKSHOP 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 2018–2024), and the filings of 42 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