GrantmakersMinnesota

Miller-Dwan Foundation and Subsidiaries

Duluth, MN · EIN 23-7396466. Reported 33 grants totalling $3,589,197 to 22 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$17,520median reported grant
$3,589,197granted, 2021-2024
33%of grantees funded again the next year
81%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Miller-Dwan Foundation and Subsidiaries, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for health care (NTEE E12).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 81% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.
  3. How much its list changes. 33% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $17,520. Half of what it reported fell between $15,000 and $47,980; the smallest was $5,175 and the largest $1,013,687. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
$5,000 - $10,000
3 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
16 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
3 grants
$250,000 Or More
4 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Essentia HealthDuluth, MN$2,890,483442024
College of St Scholastica IncDuluth, MN$96,400222024
Essentia Institute of Rural HealthDuluth, MN$84,854222022
Lake Superior Community Health CenterDuluth, MN$65,500222022
George Washington UniversityAshburn, VA$62,266112024
Program to Aid for Victims of Sexual AssaultDuluth, MN$60,000332023
The Lakes Community Health Center IncIron River, WI$48,370112021
Lighthouse Center for Vital LivingDuluth, MN$30,000112022
Regents of the University of MnMinneapolis, MN$30,000112023
Minnesota Masonic Childrens Clinic for Communication DisordersDuluth, MN$29,000222024
Duluth Ballet IncDuluth, MN$26,940332024
North Lakes Community ClinicIron River, MN$24,634112024
HgaMinneapolis, MN$16,650112024
American Indian Community Housing OrganizationDuluth, MN$15,000112023
First Community Health FoundationDuluth, MN$15,000112023
Indigo EducationSaint Paul, MN$15,000112023
Lake Superior YMCADuluth, MN$15,000112023
St Louis County Public Health & Human ServicesDuluth, MN$15,000112023
Trans NorthlandDuluth, MN$15,000112024
University of Wisconsin-Superior Alumni and Friends Foundation IncSuperior, WI$15,000112021
Courage Kenny NorthlandDuluth, MN$10,000112021
University of Minnesota FoundationMinneapolis, MN$9,100112022

7 of 22 (32%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 5 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 14 of 22 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Health Care
4 orgs
Education
4 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Medical Research
1 org
Diseases & Disorders
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Housing & Shelter
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20217$827,006$25,000
20229$1,231,800$30,000
20239$876,786$15,000
20248$653,605$20,642

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

96% of its giving went to organizations in Minnesota. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.

Minnesota
$3.5M
Wisconsin
$63K
Virginia
$62K

Down to the city

Duluth, MN
$3.4M
Ashburn, VA
$62K
Minneapolis, MN
$56K
Iron River, WI
$48K
Iron River, MN
$25K
Saint Paul, MN
$15K

Find more funders like Miller-Dwan Foundation and Subsidiaries

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Duluth-Superior Area Community7 shared recipientsOrdean Foundation7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsOtto Bremer Trust5 shared recipientsLloyd K Johnson Foundation5 shared recipientsSmdc Medical Center4 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $17,520 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Minnesota.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Miller-Dwan Foundation and Subsidiaries's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 7 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 1 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 225 W Superior St Holiday Ctr 110, Duluth, MN, 55802.

EIN 23-7396466 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.