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Minnesota · Nonprofit

NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC

NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $825,523 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($270,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$20k
Funders on record
10
Grants received
$826k
Net assets
$0
7/10 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 77%
01What it does

What Northern Lightsmn Inc does

Mission

Supporting artists in the creation and presentation of art in the public sphere, focusing on innovative uses of technology to imagine new interactions between audience, artwork and place and explore expanded possibilities for civic engagement.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.

Program

  1. Northern Lights.mn From Agency to Wonder is 328 page printed book featuring a glossary of terms, memories, and essays that commemorates and reflects on Northern Lights.mn's 17 years supporting artists' work in the public sphere, published on the occasion of our dissolution in June 2024. The book features writing by NL staff and 40+ artists and partners from our projects. A digital edition was published by the University of Minnesota Library Publishing Services.We also organized and transferred our organizational records to the University of Minnesota Performing Arts Archive to establish an archive and accessible online and at the U of M Library for future artists, arts organizers and researchers.

    $89,316 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $89,316.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($821k) Expenses 100 ($742k) Net assets 100 ($130k)2019 Revenue 75 ($615k) Expenses 84 ($621k) Net assets 95 ($125k)2020 Revenue 17 ($136k) Expenses 23 ($171k) Net assets 68 ($89k)2021 Revenue 49 ($401k) Expenses 43 ($318k) Net assets 132 ($172k)2022 Revenue 30 ($245k) Expenses 45 ($336k) Net assets 62 ($81k)2023 Revenue 23 ($189k) Expenses 22 ($162k) Net assets 83 ($108k)2024 Revenue 2 ($20k) Expenses 17 ($127k) Net assets 0 ($0)
2018201920202021202220232024
Revenue (2)Expenses (17)Net assets (0)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $116k to $0 (−100%).

$153k
$164k
$115k
$179k
$88k
$116k
$0
2018201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 19% · 2019 28% · 2021 32% · 2022 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$79k
’18
−$6k
’19
−$36k
’20
$83k
’21
−$91k
’22
$27k
’23
−$108k
’24
2.0
months of
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

Sarah Peters

Executive Director

Board chair

Sara Van Norman

Board Chair

As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.

2018201920212022
Listed9877
Joined·+1·+0
No longer listed·2·0
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income fell $115k → $90k.

4 of 10 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 19% 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 NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC’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

NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 33% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

35% 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 NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC.

33%
largest funder
69%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 44% · 2019 59% · 2020 43% · 2021 39% · 2022 56% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.

“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

29% of NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

98% of NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.

MN
NY

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Minnesota out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $156k 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.

04Its place in the field

Government funding NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $55k on record.

Federal$55k
grants $55kcontracts $0
21
22
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$55k

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 NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Public support

33%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC: 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.

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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 NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC?
NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC (Minnesota) receives grants from 10 organizations whose IRS filings report $825,523 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($270,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC have?
IRS filings report 10 organizations giving $825,523 in grants to NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC?
The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $270,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NORTHERN LIGHTSMN INC 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 Northern Lightsmn →

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 10 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