Minnesota · Nonprofit
UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA
UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,111,967 to it, the largest being SANFORD GROUP RETURN ($512,678). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.3M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $1.1M
- Net assets
- $953k
What United Way of Bemidji Area does
Mission
United Way of Bemidji Area's mission is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of the community. Our focus on advancing the common good creates a meaningful difference in the lives of area children, youth, aging adults and their caregivers, people in crisis and people with mental and physical disabilities by focusing on the building blocks for a good life: education - helping children, youth and adults achieve their full potential; income - promoting financial stability, increasing self- sufficiency and independence; and, health - improving people's health and social well-being, and providing emergency services. The united way's agenda for advancing the common good includes: investing in nonprofit health and human service programs and services that address the most critical needs and deliver the greatest impact possible; implementing community impact initiatives and support year round programs that address new and emerging needs; and, forming strategic partnerships and collabo
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
United Way of Bemidji Area strategically invests dollars in reputable, knowledgeable agencies that build a solid network of support around our community in the areas of education, income and health. The community investment process ensures that united way's investments in nonprofit programs and initiatives address the root cause of the most serious human needs in the community and create real, lasting change in people's lives in the areas of education, income and health. The community investment cabinet is the hallmark of united way's accountability to the community. Prior to making funding recommendations to the united way's board of directors, the community investment cabinet spends countless hours thoroughly reviewing applications for funding, including interviewing the agencies applying for funding, reviewing the agency's financials, the program's outcomes, the agency's collaborative efforts, the agency's ability to effectively meet community and client needs, and the alignment to united way's focus on advancing the common good. The board of directors is responsible for final investment decisions when they approve the total investments to partner agencies each year. Additional…
$377,800 spentof which $369,570 as grants37% of program spendingCommunity impact initiatives - united way identifies a limited number of critical issues (gaps in services or emerging needs) where action is required and develops impact strategies and programs in response. The United Way of Bemidji Area backpack buddies program is a food pack program that ensures bemidji area children experiencing food insecurity and hunger have access to nutritional, easy-to-prepare and non-perishable food on weekends and during school holidays and breaks. The United Way of Bemidji Area's holiday gifts for kids program collects chirstmas gifts and distributes them to area children in need. Other initiatives include: coats for the community, the earned income and child tax credit outreach and awareness campaign, familywize, a free prescription discount card for the uninsured, and the venture grant program which provides one-time funding to agencies and programs for the development of new or expansion of existing programs.
$630,399 spent63% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,008,199.
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 $1.1M to $2.2M (+102%).
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 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income rose $272 → $233k.
9 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA’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
UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 46% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
91% 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 UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 93% · 2020 46% · 2021 55% · 2022 74% · 2023 52% — 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
42% of UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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
UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA draws 77% of its grant income from funders outside Minnesota, across 5 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $439k arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,910 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA
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
98%
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 UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA: 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 UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA?
- UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA (Minnesota) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,111,967 to it, the largest being SANFORD GROUP RETURN ($512,678). 11 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $1,111,967 in grants to UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA, 11 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA?
- SANFORD GROUP RETURN is the largest funder on record, with $512,678 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNITED WAY OF BEMIDJI AREA 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 FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 19 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