Minnesota · Nonprofit
ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION
ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,458,413 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($423,317). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $980k
- Funders on record
- 30
- Grants received
- $1.5M
- Net assets
- $2.8M
What Orono Foundation for Education does
Mission
The Orono Foundation for Education works to harness the community's time, talent and financial resources to ensure the orono school district has the resources to continue its tradition of excellence and to empower all students to achieve their highest potential.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Excellence funds other temporary restricted funds (I.e. Excellence funds), are for specific usess by the school and these donations are granted as requested by the district and approved by the foundation. Excellence funds include: academics/literacy, character, arts, athletics, building and grounds, leadership and ethics, educator excellence, and technology. Other excellence funds may be created from time to time as determined by the board. This year, the foundation granted the schools $630,000 through it's excelence funds. This amount includes $350,000 from building and grounds that went toward the new college & career center at orono high school and improvements to lighting in the ohs auditorium. In addition, $110,000 from educator excellence enhancing teacher and staff professional development opportunities across the district, $125,000 from academics/literacy to support k-8 literacy and reading intervention as well as the new mn state mandated arts & letters curriculum adoption, and $45,000 for character education resources and teacher/staff training across all grades - pre-k to 12th grade.
$630,000 spentof which $630,000 as grants71% of program spendingAnnual fund grant the foundation provides a general operating grant to the orono school district each year to support a wide variety of k-12 educational expenses. The orono school district then allocates these dollars to key strategic priorities and pressing budgetary needs. This year, the foundation granted the schools $209,000 through it's annual fund. In recent years, annual grants have been utilized by the schools to sustain exemplary programs that exponad on and enhance student academics and experiences. Examples of these programs are k-8 world languages and high school advanved placement (ap) courses. The annual grant also includes $6,000 in post-secondary scholarships for graduating seniors and $3,000 for the orono school district retirement and years of service breakfast.
$209,000 spentof which $209,000 as grants24% of program spendingThe orono alumni wall of fame was established at orono high school in 2024 to honor alumni who have contributed to their careers and communities in significant and meaningful ways. This project was primarily paid for through a grant submitted to orono schools in the 2024-2025 school year. The additional $181 grant requested in september 2024 covered costs accrued during the summer build that were beyond the original quote for the project.
$47,838 spentof which $181 as grants5% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $886,838.
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 2017 to 2018, from $1.7M to $3.0M (+78%).
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.
69% of ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (57% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 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.
Board chair
Katie Hollerman
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 10 funders, grant income rose $86k → $161k.
12 of 30 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION’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
ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 29% 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
62% 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 ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 30% · 2019 30% · 2020 47% · 2021 29% · 2022 33% · 2023 39% — broadly stable.
“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
50% of ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% 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
62% of ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION'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 $559k that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from funders outside Minnesota, across 5 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $899k arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1.5M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,450 education nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
71%
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 ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION: 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 ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION?
- ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION (Minnesota) receives grants from 30 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,458,413 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($423,317). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 30 organizations giving $1,458,413 in grants to ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $423,317 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ORONO FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION 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 30 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