Minnesota · Nonprofit
VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT
VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $615,071 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($441,274). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $196k
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $615k
- Net assets
- $211k
What Veterans Defense Project does
Mission
The purpose of the Veterans Defense Project is to conduct & support educational training, research & informational activities to educate criminal justice stakeholders as well as raise public awareness of issues affecting veterans involved with the criminal justice system & to expand Veterans Treatment Courts (VTSs) & veterans sentencing statutes throughout the United States, working towards a model that will make VTCs more consistent across jurisdictions.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Veterans Defense Project (VDP) advocates point to Minnesota law as a pioneering model for treatment over penalties. Since August 2021, when Gov. Tim Walz signed the Veterans Restorative Justice Act, or VRJA, allowing veterans to avoid jail time for certain crimes by instead taking intensive steps to treat the underlying trauma related to their service.We became frustrated with the way the courts were dealing or failing to deal with them, said Brock Hunter, a criminal defense attorney in Minneapolis & co-founder of the Veterans Defense Project. Hunter has worked on cases involving veterans for decades.In 2023, VDP co-founders Brock Hunter & Ryan Else worked with the Veterans Justice Commission, a national project chaired by former U.S. Defense Secretary & U.S. Senator Charles Hagel & includes former Defense Secretary & White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to assess & make recommendations around policies that can improve outcomes for justice-involved veterans & their communities. That work led to the adoption of the Veterans Justice Act by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in August 2023. Nebraska became the first state to pass the Veterans Justice Act in early…
$162,685 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $162,685.
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 2020 to 2021, from $1k to $111k (+8567%).
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.
98% of VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (84% 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
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 5 funders, grant income fell $73k → $37k.
4 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 12 of 13 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
VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 72% of grant income and the top three 90%; 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 VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 100% · 2020 100% · 2021 41% · 2022 77% · 2023 68% — 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
40% of VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT's funders are still giving 2 years after their first grant; 46% 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
88% of VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $32k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT has grown faster than half of the 3,130 public benefit nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,130 public benefit nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $450 on record.
- PROP - BOOKS/LIBRARY RESOURCES $225
- SUPPLIES - GENERAL $200
- MAILING/DELIVERY SERVICES $25
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT
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
56%
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 VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT: 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 VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT?
- VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT (Minnesota) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $615,071 to it, the largest being Minnesota Humanities Center ($441,274). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $615,071 in grants to VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT?
- Minnesota Humanities Center is the largest funder on record, with $441,274 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VETERANS DEFENSE PROJECT 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 Veterans Defense Project →
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 13 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