North Dakota · Nonprofit
The Great North Pole
The Great North Pole (North Dakota) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $491,080 to it, the largest being Impact Foundation ($167,242). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 16
- Grants received
- $491k
- Net assets
- $440k
What The Great North Pole does
Mission
The Great North Pole's mission is to work with local non-profits and community partnerships to help children and families in need in the counties of Cass & Clay. We believe that every child should have the opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas and the holiday season.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024 The Great North Pole offered Helpful Holiday Boxes to 856 families living in Cass County, ND and Clay County, MN.The Great North Pole provides information on their program to local schools and other non-profits within their area. For example, children that are part of the free or reduced meal program would be provided information on the program. There is then an application process to "opt-in" to the receipt of the Helpful Holiday Boxes.By creating invaluable local and national corporate relationships and strong community partnerships the Great North Pole multiplies many times over the original monetary donations made and turning those funds into retail goods. By stretching every dollar further, it allows us to help more families in need and provide not only basic needs to our community members, but also winter wear and gifts to the children of these families.
$1,261,561 spentof which $1,184,697 as grants100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,261,561.
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 2021 to 2022, from $279k to $467k (+68%).
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.
104% of The Great North Pole’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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.
Chief executive
Shannon Thornton
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income fell $146k → $36k.
7 of 16 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 63% 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 The Great North Pole’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 15 of 16 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
The Great North Pole leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 65%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
96% 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 The Great North Pole.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 93% · 2019 43% · 2020 65% · 2021 66% · 2022 33% · 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
86% of The Great North Pole's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 69% 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
63% of The Great North Pole'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 $184k that is directly attributable, 52% of it comes from North Dakota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $307k 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 Great North Pole has grown faster than half of the 11,263 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,263 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like The Great North Pole
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 North Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
59%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Great North Pole: 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 Great North Pole?
- The Great North Pole (North Dakota) receives grants from 16 organizations whose IRS filings report $491,080 to it, the largest being Impact Foundation ($167,242). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 63% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does The Great North Pole have?
- IRS filings report 16 organizations giving $491,080 in grants to The Great North Pole, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Great North Pole?
- Impact Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $167,242 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Great North Pole find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Dakota. 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 16 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