Minnesota · Nonprofit
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $610,290 to it, the largest being SCHWAN'S CORPORATE GIVING FOUNDATION ($291,430). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $410k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $610k
- Net assets
- $563k
What United Way of Southwest Minnesota does
Mission
The United Way of Southwest Minnesota invests donations into our communities primarily through community impact grants. We focus on four key areas: youth opportunity, healthy communities, financial security, and community resilience. Programs that receive funding are carefully selected based on their significant impact on the lives of residents in lincoln, lyon, murray, yellow medicine, and parts of cottonwood, lac qui parle, nobles, and redwood counties in minnesota.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Community impact: United Way of Southwest Minnesota is a minnesota nonprofit organization. It is a local autonomous 501(c)(3) organization working to create lasting changes in people's lives and the communities in lincoln, lyon, murray, yellow medicine and portions of cottonwood, lac qui parle, nobles and redwood counties of minnesota. We accomplish this by partnering with non-profit agencies, schools or local units of government that serve people in this area of the state of minnesota and by targeting grants for specific programs that produce outcomes within the areas of yourth opportunity, healthy communities, financial stability, and community resilience. Annually, the United Way of Southwest Minnesota board of directors determines the overall funding level for community impact grants based upon resources gathered during the preceding fund-raising campaign. Qualifying organizations that serve local people are invited to prepare grant proposals that address strategies within the above listed priority areas. Grant applications undergo review through an organized citizen review process (outlined in part iv, schedule I, part 1, line 2). Recommendations are then presented to the…
$302,789 spentof which $213,489 as grants75% of program spendingInternal programs: United Way of Southwest Minnesota focuses on health, education, financial stability, hunger, and safety & well-being. The united way success by 6 initiative strives to make sure that all children are ready to succeed when they enter kindergarten. Children who start behind, stay behind. Key strategies include sponsorship of the dolly parton imagination library program which puts quality, age appropriate books into the hands of children (birth - age 5) each month at no cost to their families; preparation and distribution of school readiness kits for all children prior to entering kindergarten; and planning and implementation of literacy building and enhancement programs. Other initiative examples: annual back-to-school supply drives where United Way of Southwest Minnesota provides staff support, volunteers, publicity, and serves as fiscal agent; and united way staff organize and recruit volunteers for targeted community projects, I.e. Days of action, food collection, and volunteer reading efforts. Initiatives are developed or supported when United Way of Southwest Minnesota identifies a gap or need that is significant enough to take action.
$100,742 spentof which $100,742 as grants$1,000 earned by the program25% of program spendingSmall grants program: is to provide aupport for community projects, programs, or initiatives in need of a small, one-time grant for work that aligns with uwswmn goals for the common good. Uwswmn small grants can be used for projects such as: program work including planning, training and/or development; organizational capacity building including strategic planning, governance and other types of organizational planning and/or development activities; community and/or human service work that includes volunteer participation or emerging or unmet needs; and/or to support innovative solutions to local issues.
$2,074 spentof which $2,074 as grants1% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $405,605.
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 2018 to 2019, from $687k to $796k (+16%).
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 13%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
94% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Meg Louwagie
CEO
Board chair
Al Castor
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $6k → $105k.
5 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 38% 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: $644k from one payer (the same organization on both sides, largest United Way of Southwest Minnesota). These are real filings, and they are not money UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA raised.
From the IRS filings of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA’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 SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 48% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
44% 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 SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 86% · 2019 99% · 2020 74% · 2021 60% · 2022 43% · 2023 47% — 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
75% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
89% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $232k 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
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA is better cushioned than half of the 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA
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
78% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
55%
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 SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA: 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 SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA?
- UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA (Minnesota) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $610,290 to it, the largest being SCHWAN'S CORPORATE GIVING FOUNDATION ($291,430). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $610,290 in grants to UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA?
- SCHWAN'S CORPORATE GIVING FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $291,430 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MINNESOTA 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 14 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