Skip to content

Minnesota · Nonprofit

OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS

OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS (Minnesota) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $628,225 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($162,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$205k
Funders on record
9
Grants received
$628k
Net assets
$25k
7/9 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 54%
01What it does

What Open Access Connections does

Mission

Facilitating communication services to encourage self-determination and stronger community connections for people in need.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Open Access Connections provides the poorest Minnesotans with free communication tools, helping encourage self-determination and stronger community connections. Through grassroots outreach and partnerships with 320 community agencies, we provided free Community Voice Mail to 2,900 homeless and low income Minnesotans, enabling them to find jobs, housing, health care, social services, safety from domestic abuse, and economic stability. We also distributed 1,200 Lifeline supported cell phones to eligible consumers, as well as provided non-partisan voter engagement within the homeless community.

    $185,124 spentof which $177,529 as grants
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $185,124.

02The organization over time

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.

100 = 20202020 Revenue 100 ($212k) Expenses 100 ($192k) Net assets 100 ($13k)2021 Revenue 90 ($191k) Expenses 94 ($181k) Net assets 123 ($15k)2022 Revenue 106 ($224k) Expenses 98 ($188k) Net assets 412 ($52k)2023 Revenue 83 ($175k) Expenses 103 ($198k) Net assets 225 ($28k)2024 Revenue 97 ($205k) Expenses 110 ($211k) Net assets 202 ($25k)
20202021202220232024
Revenue (97)Expenses (110)Net assets (202)Peer revenue range

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 $24k to $61k (+151%).

$23k
$24k
$61k
$40k
$38k
20202021202220232024
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.

2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2020 32% · 2022 35% · 2024 67%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

98% of OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (91% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 23,870 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.

$19k
’20
$9k
’21
$36k
’22
−$23k
’23
−$6k
’24
2.2
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.

Board chair

Tim Gothmann

Chair

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

202020222024
Listed171816
Joined···
No longer listed···
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $12k → $82k.

2 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 47% 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 OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS’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

OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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

55% 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 OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS.

26%
largest funder
69%
top three
~5
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 35% · 2019 37% · 2020 34% · 2021 34% · 2022 32% · 2023 43% — 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

75% of OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% 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

99% of OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.

MN
OH

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. $295k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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

Against its field

OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS's funding base is broadening — from 2 funders to 3 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−3% · below the median
Months of reserve2.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−1% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 21,616 human services nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024

Organizations like OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS

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.

Where the money goes

92% of spending goes to programs.

Program 92%Management 8%Fundraising 0%

Governance

16
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

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

MN

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS: 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS?
OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS (Minnesota) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $628,225 to it, the largest being SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION ($162,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS have?
IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $628,225 in grants to OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS?
SAINT PAUL & MINNESOTA FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $162,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like OPEN ACCESS CONNECTIONS 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 Open Access Connections →

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 9 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