Northwest Minnesota Arts Council
Warren, MN · EIN 80-0404694. Reported 87 grants totalling $976,130 to 63 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Northwest Minnesota Arts Council, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A26) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 63 distinct organizations, with 9% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
- 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 $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $6,990 and $11,000; the smallest was $5,000 and the largest $39,240. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thief River Falls Community Arts Council | Thief Rvr Fls, MN | $91,630 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Fosston Community Library & Arts Association | Fosston, MN | $58,525 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Aurora Center for the Arts | Fosston, MN | $47,720 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Summer Arts Stages | E Grand Forks, MN | $44,000 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Thief River Falls Area Community Theater | Thief River Falls, MN | $39,240 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Warroad Summer Theater | Warroad, MN | $37,335 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Middle River Community Theater Inc | Middle River, MN | $28,400 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Tri County School District | Karlstad, MN | $23,610 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| East Grand Forks Music Boosters Inc | East Grand Forks, MN | $22,540 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Associationofthe Frenchofthenorth | Red Lake Falls, MN | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| In Progress - Fresh Voices | St Paul, MN | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| East Grand Forks Campell Library | East Grand Forks, MN | $19,990 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Goodridge Veterans Memorial Park | Goodridge, MN | $19,040 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Roseau School District | Roseau, MN | $18,840 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| City of Warren | Warren, MN | $17,955 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| City of Hallock | Hallock, MN | $17,155 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Win-E-Mac Alumni Association | Mcintosh, MN | $16,480 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Warroad Summer Theater | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Kittson Central School District | Hallock, MN | $14,970 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Stephen Argyle School District | Stephen, MN | $14,100 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Warroad School District | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Kittson Central School District | $12,850 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| City of Roseau | Roseau, MN | $12,570 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Red Lake County Central School District | Oklee, MN | $12,455 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Summer Arts Stages | East Grand Forks, MN | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Polk County Agricultural Fair Assoc Iation | Fertile, MN | $11,800 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Stephen Arts Council | Stephen, MN | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Stephen Arts Council | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Warroad Community Partners | $11,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| City of Argyle | Argyle, MN | $10,810 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Ada Chamber of Commerce | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 | |
| Care and Share of Crookston Inc | Crookston, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Crookston Aquatics Boosters Inc | Crookston, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| First Lutheran Church | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 | |
| Gary Cares | Gary, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| In Progress | Saint Paul, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Marshall County Agriculture Association | Warren, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Norman County Agricultural Society | Ada, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Pennington County Fair Association | Thief Rvr Fls, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Red Lake County Agriculture Society | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 | |
| Roseau County Agricultural Society | Roseau, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Thief River Falls Chamber of Commerce | Thief Rvr Fls, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Warroad Community Partners | Warroad, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Grand Forks Campbell Libary | $9,600 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Roseau County Historical Society | Roseau, MN | $9,175 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Association of the French of the North | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Roseau School District | $8,700 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Fresh Voices | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| City of Hendrum | Hendrum, MN | $7,650 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Northland Community & Technical College | Thief River Falls, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Tri-County School District | Karlstad, MN | $7,380 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New Americans Integration Ceneter | $7,200 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| University of Minnesota Crookston | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 | |
| City of Halstad | Halstad, MN | $6,990 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Warroad School District | Warroad, MN | $6,975 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| City of Fosston Arts and Cultural Commission | Fosston, MN | $6,950 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| City of Fosston Arts and Culture Commission | Fosston, MN | $5,865 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| East Grand Forks School District | East Grand Forks, MN | $5,855 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| City of Hallock | $5,775 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Gfwc Zehlians | $5,725 | 1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| Ada-Borup School District | Ada, MN | $5,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Warren Alvarado Olso School District | Warren, MN | $5,100 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lancaster School District | Lancaster, MN | $5,075 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
18 of 63 (29%) 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.
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 4 of 63 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 21 | $207,550 | $10,000 |
| 2021 | 19 | $239,070 | $9,600 |
| 2022 | 24 | $257,095 | $9,670 |
| 2023 | 23 | $272,415 | $10,000 |
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
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $10,000 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Minnesota.
- 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 Northwest Minnesota Arts Council's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 0 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 23 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: 109 S Minnesota Street, Warren, MN, 56762.
EIN 80-0404694 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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