Minnesota · Nonprofit
TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN
TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN (Minnesota) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $417,500 to it, the largest being GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL INC ($226,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $18M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $418k
- Net assets
- $10M
What True North Goodwill Northern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin does
Mission
Goodwill's mission is inspiring personal transformation through the power of learning and career development. Our mission services programs and career navigation centers, provide people with the skills and training to overcome barriers to employment and gain stronger independence. Common barriers to employment include lack of childcare, past justice involvement, limited education, chemical dependency, and disability. Our vision is that all people have the opportunity to obtain meaningful employment, strengthening communities and transforming lives for generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Job training and career services:true north goodwill's job training and career services programs help individuals who face challenges to employment prepare for the workplace through case management, job skills and job readiness training, on-the-job training, job search, and job retention services.
$1,973,675 spent$357,957 earned by the program13% of program spendingRetail services:true north goodwill (tng) provides paid employment services both within tng's facilities and in the local community in combination with training as a pathway to individuals developing skills and overcoming challenges to employment. Employment is also provided through tng business service contracts with local businesses and organizational partners. These contracts include janitorial, lawncare, manufacturing, and more. True north goodwill's mission is supported financially through our retail stores and donation centers. With our mission services programs and career navigation centers, we provide people with the skills and training to overcome barriers to employment and gain stronger independence. Retail revenues are reinvested back into the 29-county territory we serve in northern minnesota and northwestern wisconsin. In addition, our retail stores provide customers with an affordable shopping experience for clothing and household items, while keeping millions of pounds of items out of the landfill each year.
$13,523,840 spent$8,931,426 earned by the program87% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $15,497,515.
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 2024 to 2025, from $12M to $17M (+44%).
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: 2021 14% · 2022 13% · 2023 3% · 2024 2% · 2025 5%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
45% of TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 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.
Chief executive
Dodie Brown
CEO
Board chair
Elise Popelka
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2022: the base broadened from 1 funder to 4 funders, grant income rose $9k → $41k.
1 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 0% 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 TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN’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
TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 77%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
87% 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 TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 78% · 2021 100% · 2022 61% — 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.
Where its funders are
TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN draws 54% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 2 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $49 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.
Against its field
TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN has grown faster than three-quarters of the 290 employment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 290 employment nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN
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
86% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
99%
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 TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN: 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 TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN?
- TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN (Minnesota) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $417,500 to it, the largest being GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL INC ($226,000). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $417,500 in grants to TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN?
- GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL INC is the largest funder on record, with $226,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like TRUE NORTH GOODWILL NORTHERN MINNESOTA AND NORTHWESTERN WISCONSIN 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 True North Goodwill Northern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin →
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 8 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