Minnesota · Nonprofit
MIZNA
MIZNA (Minnesota) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,449,067 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($700,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $323k
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $400k
What Mizna does
Mission
Mizna is a critical platform for contemporary literature, art, film, and cultural programming centering the work of southwest asian and north african artists. For twenty years, we have sought to reflect the depth and multiplicity of our community and have been committed to being a space for arab, muslim, and other artists from the region to reclaim our narratives and engage audiences in meaningful and artistically excellent art.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
JOURNAL:Mizna: SWANA Lit + Art is an acclaimed biannual print publication with a history of connecting established and emerging authors with an international readership. In 2024, Mizna published the forty-sixth and forty-seventh issues of the literary journal "Mizna: SWANA Literature + Art," featuring 62 contributors. In 2024, the journal reached more than 4000 readers through subscriptions, sales, and library checkouts. In publication since 1999, Mizna remains a rare journal of Arab and Southwest Asian/North African literature. Mizna is a critical space for authors, both emerging and established, in which they have the creative freedom to explore themes and ideas that are real and relevant to them, outside of the cultural assumptions made by the broader American landscape. In 2024, Mizna also continued the online literary platform "Mizna Online." Featuring commissioned poetry, prose, criticism, reviews, and experimental multidisciplinary work, Mizna Online complements our biannual print publication with regular content that is free to read. Work on Mizna Online reflects on the urgent and current realities of the SWANA region and beyond. In 2024, thirty urgent pieces were…
$245,695 spent$87,471 earned by the program62% of program spendingFILM PROGRAMS Established in 2003, the Twin Cities Arab Film Festival debuts independent films from more than fifteen Arabic-speaking countries and their diasporas. In 2024, we presented our 18th annual Twin Cities Arab Film Festival with special screenings and programming across the Twin Cities. The weekend included a post-screening discussions with actors and filmmakers and a free outdoor screening under the Third Avenue Bridge. The 2024 festival featured 35 films, more than two-thirds of which were directed by women. An offshoot of the festival, Mizna's Tulsa Arab Film Fest, continued for its fourth year. The Mizna Film Series is a quarterly selection of programs marking our first venture into year-round curated film programming. Our 2024 Mizna Film Series highlighted archival works directed by women.
$99,738 spent$34,919 earned by the program25% of program spendingEVENTS:Mizna had a robust presence at the AWP 2024 conference and bookfair in Kansas City, Kansas. Mizna presented and copresented readings across the US, including Los Angeles, New York, and St. Paul and had a presence at book fairs around the country.
$49,550 spent13% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $394,983.
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 2020 to 2021, from $322k to $732k (+127%).
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 27% · 2018 29% · 2019 29% · 2020 52% · 2021 13% · 2022 36% · 2023 30% · 2024 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
76% of MIZNA’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. 3 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
Lana Salah Barkawi
Executive Director
Board chair
Stephanie Haddad
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $4k → $127k.
5 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% 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 MIZNA’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
MIZNA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
72% 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 MIZNA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 93% · 2019 83% · 2020 44% · 2021 47% · 2022 84% · 2023 39% — 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
44% of MIZNA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% 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
59% of MIZNA'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 $600k that is directly attributable, 59% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 9 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $849k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
MIZNA is better cushioned than half 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 MIZNA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $165k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$165k
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 MIZNA
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
52%
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 MIZNA: 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 MIZNA?
- MIZNA (Minnesota) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,449,067 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($700,000). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does MIZNA have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,449,067 in grants to MIZNA, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of MIZNA?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $700,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like MIZNA 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 Mizna →
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 17 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