Minnesota · Nonprofit
WAY TO GROW
WAY TO GROW (Minnesota) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,849,369 to it, the largest being WEM FOUNDATION ($5,650,000). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.8M
- Funders on record
- 89
- Grants received
- $23M
- Net assets
- $13M
What Way to Grow does
Mission
Working closely with parents and communities, we ensure that children within the most isolated families are born healthy, stay healthy and are prepared for school.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
History: Way to Grow has been a leading model for early learning, health and education programming in the twin cities since 1989. We believe that parents are their children's primary educators, and structure our programs to effectively engage parents in their children's education. Way to Grow's second-generation approach has reached approximately 60,000 people over the course of the last 36 years. Since our founding in 1989, we have sought to reverse negative educational trends by building trusted, community-based support for the parents and children who are among the most isolated families in our community. In 2005, we formalized our health education program, and in 2006, launched a formal teen parent program. In 2007, we opened our nationally accredited, 4-star parent aware rated preschool pals program, and in 2009, launched great by eight, which is now the cornerstone of our work. Great by eight expanded our effective and statistically proven home visiting model to include children from kindergarten through third grade, in partnership with public, charter and private schools throughout minneapolis and beyond. In 2016, we launched an onsite hub for early childhood, elementary,…
$3,244,246 spent$330,091 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,244,246.
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 2022 to 2023, from $6.2M to $13M (+107%).
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: 2020 27% · 2021 27% · 2022 19% · 2023 7% · 2024 17% · 2025 22%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
74% of WAY TO GROW’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 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
Juan Du
CEO
Board chair
Michael Garrett
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2024 and FY2025 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 53 funders, grant income rose $820k → $8.7M.
20 of 89 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 WAY TO GROW’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 89 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
WAY TO GROW has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 25% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
39% 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 WAY TO GROW.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 35% · 2018 29% · 2019 16% · 2020 14% · 2021 14% · 2022 16% · 2023 54% — growing more concentrated.
“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
74% of WAY TO GROW's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 72% 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
90% of WAY TO GROW's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $5.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 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
WAY TO GROW holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 7,349 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,349 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like WAY TO GROW
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 WAY TO GROW: 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 WAY TO GROW?
- WAY TO GROW (Minnesota) receives grants from 89 organizations whose IRS filings report $22,849,369 to it, the largest being WEM FOUNDATION ($5,650,000). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does WAY TO GROW have?
- IRS filings report 89 organizations giving $22,849,369 in grants to WAY TO GROW, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WAY TO GROW?
- WEM FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $5,650,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WAY TO GROW 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 Way to Grow →
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 89 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