Minnesota · Nonprofit
NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS
NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS (Minnesota) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,542,878 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,080,271). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $4.5M
- Funders on record
- 102
- Grants received
- $6.5M
- Net assets
- $2.3M
What Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness does
Mission
See schedule o.Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness is the region-based advocacy group created by area residents to protect the bwcaw and other wild places. Nmw's mission is to unite people to advocate for the protection of wilderness and wild places, especially the boundary waters canoe area wilderness and the greater quetico-superior ecosystem.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
See schedule o.litigation:challenge government approvals for mining in the boundary waters canoe area wilderness (bwcaw) watershed. Activities - continued to support state mera case, which saw the mn dnr release court-remanded findings of fact in may 2023, challenging the conclusions of the dnr on the issue of water quality; contested case hearing took place november 2024.lease cancelation lawsuit brought by twin metals dismissed and twin metals' subsequently appealed in 2023. We continued to track the appeal, and oral arguments were heard in dc court of appeals in january 2025research project and policy proposals and their impact:monitor corporate and government websites and publications to identify projects related to mining in the watershed of the bwcaw; evaluate or use contract services as needed to assess potential impacts; develop fact sheets and maps on proposals and impacts.activities continued to implement field studies to establish baseline conditions in headwaters; provided expert opinion in lawsuits, legal, and administrative proceedings; provided over 90% of data used by minnesota pollution control agency to include birch lake on impaired waters list as impaired for…
$2,513,265 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,513,265.
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 2024 to 2025, from $1.2M to $2.5M (+102%).
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.
94% of NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Ingrid Lyons
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 13 funders to 31 funders, grant income rose $248k → $1.1M.
27 of 102 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 53% 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 NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 102 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
NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
71% 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 NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 54% · 2018 26% · 2019 33% · 2020 24% · 2021 25% · 2022 25% · 2023 33% — 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
31% of NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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 NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS'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 $3.1M that is directly attributable, 67% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 22 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 18 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
NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,209 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,209 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
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 2 related entities
- Boundary Waters Action Fund · exempt
- Campaign Fund to Save the Boundary Waters PAC · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS: 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 NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS?
- NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS (Minnesota) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $6,542,878 to it, the largest being MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION ($1,080,271). 53 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 53% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS have?
- IRS filings report 102 organizations giving $6,542,878 in grants to NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS, 53 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS?
- MIGHTYCAUSE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,080,271 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like NORTHEASTERN MINNESOTANS FOR WILDERNESS 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 102 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing