Minnesota · Nonprofit
The Cowles Center
The Cowles Center (Minnesota) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,790,335 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($2,956,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $759k
- Funders on record
- 25
- Grants received
- $3.8M
- Net assets
- $421k
What The Cowles Center does
Mission
To provide a home for the local dance company and work as an advocate for these artists by providing a professional environment with opportunities for them to refine and perform their work.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
The Performance and Facilities programs ceased operations at the end of March 2024. The operations of the Shubert Theater ended, and The Cowles Center exited the lease agreement with the City. The Education program ceased operations at the end of May 2024, marking the end of the season.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Performance Program - In 2024 we served three companies before closing the Goodale Theater. We also honored box office projections for the three companies we couldn't host on the stage.
$315,319 spent$141,325 earned by the program27% of program spendingEducation Program - In 2024, K-12 residency programs (Dance without Barriers, Creations, and First Moves) reached 1,941 students through 328 sessions. We ended education programming in May 2024, honoring all school commitments for the 23-24 school year and fulfilling all grant requirements.
$177,665 spent$32,929 earned by the program15% of program spendingFacilities Program: The facilities program at The Cowles Center supports the performing arts community by providing performance, rehearsal/studio, and administrative office space at 40% below market value for 20 area nonprofit dance and performing arts organizations, including two of Minnesota's leading dance schools, and a network of independent artists and choreographers.
$112,873 spent$76,714 earned by the program10% of program spendingMcKnight Fellowship Program: The Cowles Center is home to the prestigious McKnight Fellowships for Dance and Choreography, which annually awards three mid-career dancers and three mid-career choreographers to deepen their craft and develop new projects.
$566,428 spentof which $208,000 as grants48% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,172,285.
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 2023 to 2024, from $18M to $500k (−97%).
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: 2018 11% · 2019 8% · 2020 31% · 2021 21% · 2022 18% · 2023 5% · 2024 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
65% of The Cowles Center’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 11 funders, grant income rose $31k → $756k.
5 of 25 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 4% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $5.1M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Artspace Projects Inc). These are real filings, and they are not money The Cowles Center raised.
From the IRS filings of The Cowles Center’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
The Cowles Center leans on a few funders — its largest provides 78% of grant income and the top three 85%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 29% · 2018 79% · 2019 95% · 2020 83% · 2021 90% · 2022 80% · 2023 62% — 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
33% of The Cowles Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
92% of The Cowles Center's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $153k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
The Cowles Center's funding base is broadening — from 5 funders to 11 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding The Cowles Center receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $95k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$95k
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 The Cowles Center
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
91% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
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 1 related entity
- Artspace Projects Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Cowles Center: 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 The Cowles Center?
- The Cowles Center (Minnesota) receives grants from 25 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,790,335 to it, the largest being The McKnight Foundation ($2,956,000). 15 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Cowles Center have?
- IRS filings report 25 organizations giving $3,790,335 in grants to The Cowles Center, 15 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Cowles Center?
- The McKnight Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,956,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Cowles Center 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 Cowles Center →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 25 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