Minnesota · Nonprofit
The Why You Initiative
The Why You Initiative (Minnesota) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $95,079 to it, the largest being JOHN AND DENISE GRAVES FOUNDATION ($80,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $21k
- Funders on record
- 4
- Grants received
- $95k
- Net assets
- $75k
What The Why You Initiative does
Mission
Charitable i.e. mentorship
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Biannual spring confab conference where we host 120 students in Minneapolis, MN for professional developmen
$43,773 spent87% of program spendingWe provided programming for 20 summer interns as part of partnership with the mayo clinic ENT department
$5,300 spent10% of program spendingWe sent our directors for mentorship to the national mentoing summit for professional development
$1,434 spent3% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $50,507.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2024, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2024, 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 at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $80k to $75k (−7%).
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.
100% of The Why You Initiative’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (99% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 2 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Board chair
Dr Renaldo Blocker
Board Chair/ Treasurer
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income fell $10k → $27.
2 of 4 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 11% 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 Why You Initiative’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 Why You Initiative leans on a few funders — its largest provides 84% of grant income and the top three 100%; 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 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
94% of The Why You Initiative's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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 Why You Initiative's revenue fell 66% between 2024 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,200 youth development nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like The Why You Initiative
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.
Public support
100%
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 Why You Initiative: 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 Why You Initiative?
- The Why You Initiative (Minnesota) receives grants from 4 organizations whose IRS filings report $95,079 to it, the largest being JOHN AND DENISE GRAVES FOUNDATION ($80,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Why You Initiative have?
- IRS filings report 4 organizations giving $95,079 in grants to The Why You Initiative, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Why You Initiative?
- JOHN AND DENISE GRAVES FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $80,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Why You Initiative 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 Why You Initiative →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2024–2025), and the filings of 4 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