Minnesota · Nonprofit
NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE
NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE (Minnesota) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $324,238 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($76,250). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $724k
- Funders on record
- 22
- Grants received
- $324k
- Net assets
- $45k
What North Country Food Alliance does
Mission
The mission of North Country Food Alliance is to strengthen food sovereignty in the Twin Cities Metro Area. We do this through two main program areas: foodshare and gardening. Our foodshare program rescues overstock food that would otherwise go to waste at farms, grocery stores, and distribution centers, and delivers it to community food shelves and kitchens. We also purchase produce from BIPOC-run farms to share for free with community groups. Our garden program increases access to land for food production and shares fresh, healthy produce with people in the neighborhood. We also educate the public on issues of food waste and food sovereignty.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The outreach and education program has approximately 12,500 conversations in the Twin Cities Metro raising awareness of commercial food waste. These conversations don't just affect people's view of the world but also drive fellow community members into action. Business owners, store managers, farmers, gardeners, and other people participate with the foodshare and community garden program because of their contact with canvassers. In addition we find and start communication with local nonprofit workers that guide the focus of our work. Our other programs are informed by the outreach program. We educate our neighbors and they return in kind.
$3,245 spent1% of program spendingFoodshare: We partner with businesses metro wide including but not limited to grocery stores, food coops, distributors, farmers markets, and food production facilities. We take the perishable food products such as fresh produce, meat, bread, and dairy that these businesses would ave to waste without our help. Our workers ensure rapid and safe transportation of the food to Twin Cities nonprofits every weekday. This fiscal year, we rescued 441,337lbs of rescued food from our grocery partners, 54,975lbs of food from farmers markets, and purchased $63,605 worth of food directly from local BIPOC farmers.
$638,671 spentof which $538,362 as grants99% of program spendingCommunity Gardens: We plant gardens in neighborhoods with restricted access to fresh produce. These gardens give people the opportunity to learn how to grow their own healthy food and provide free produce to folks in the neighborhood. In 2021, we worked with the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority to transfer management of this community garden to the Somali American Farmers Association (SAFA). Horn Towers is home to many Somali elders, and SAFA grows East African greens and crops like millet and okra in traditional ways that include regenerative practices. We also manage a garden in North Minneapolis, which has grown to house 24 circular raised beds and 16 rectangular ones. This is the largest it's been since its founding in 2017. In spring 2022, we also started managing the community garden at Walker Church and we also cultivate a plot at the Merriam Station Community Garden in St. Paul.
$6,376 spent1% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $648,292.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 2022 to 2023, from $163k to $60k (−63%).
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 8% · 2021 18% · 2022 12% · 2023 14% · 2024 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (94% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 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.
Board chair
Samuel Madrigal
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 5 funders, grant income rose $16k → $30k.
4 of 22 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 22% 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 NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE’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
NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
42% 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 NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 65% · 2019 50% · 2020 37% · 2021 35% · 2022 45% · 2023 50% — 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
33% of NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 41% 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
53% of NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $70k 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
NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE's funding base is broadening — from 4 funders to 5 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,974 food & nutrition nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE
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
88% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE: 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 NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE?
- NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE (Minnesota) receives grants from 22 organizations whose IRS filings report $324,238 to it, the largest being OTTO BREMER TRUST ($76,250). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE have?
- IRS filings report 22 organizations giving $324,238 in grants to NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE?
- OTTO BREMER TRUST is the largest funder on record, with $76,250 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTH COUNTRY FOOD ALLIANCE 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 2020–2024), and the filings of 22 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