The Five Wings Arts Council
Staples, MN · EIN 41-1994039. Reported 123 grants totalling $2,068,720 to 39 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 The Five Wings 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. 39 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. 82% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $14,270. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $20,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $49,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lakes Area Music Festival | Brainerd, MN | $177,500 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Central Lakes College Foundation | Brainerd, MN | $142,500 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Crossing Arts Alliance | Brainerd, MN | $129,435 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Legacy Chorale of Greater Minnesota | Brainerd, MN | $123,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Great River Arts Association | Little Falls, MN | $118,207 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Madhatters Inc | Wadena, MN | $115,500 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Heartland Symphony Orchestra | Little Falls, MN | $110,500 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Walker Bay Theater Inc | Walker, MN | $106,998 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Greater Lakes Performing Arts & Pequot Lakes Comm Ed | Pequot Lakes, MN | $96,400 | 6 | 5 | 2024 |
| St Francis Music Center | Little Falls, MN | $93,834 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Northwoods Arts Council Inc | Hackensack, MN | $79,698 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Long Prairie Chamber Orchestra | Long Prairie, MN | $71,560 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| North Central Economic Development Association Inc | Staples, MN | $66,450 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Staples Area Mens Chorus Inc | Staples, MN | $63,850 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Cass Lake Bena Isd 115 | Cass Lake, MN | $62,025 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Lamplighter Community Theatre Inc | Staples, MN | $61,900 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Staples Area Womens Chorus | Staples, MN | $53,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Wadena County Historical Society | Wadena, MN | $49,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Stage North Theater Company | Brainerd, MN | $47,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Wadena Concert Association | Wadena, MN | $36,900 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center | Brainerd, MN | $36,325 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| New York Mills Arts Retreat | New York Mls, MN | $28,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Actors Repertory Theatre | Brainerd, MN | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| City of Crosby | Crosby, MN | $25,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Pine River Area Foundation Inc | Pine River, MN | $21,300 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Sprout Mn | Little Falls, MN | $20,998 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Little Falls Theatre Company | Little Falls, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Partners for a Healthy Wadena Region | Wadena, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Colla Voce Choir Inc | Staples, MN | $9,100 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Little Falls Summer Musical | Little Falls, MN | $8,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| City of Little Falls Lf Convention & Visitors Bureau | Little Falls, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Leap Inc | Staples, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Oasis Central Minnesota Inc | Little Falls, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Paul Bunyan Arboretum | Brainerd, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Region Five Development Commission | Staples, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Independent Sch District 482 Little Falls Community Service | Little Falls, MN | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Staples All Veterans and Community Park Association | Staples, MN | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Brainerd Public School | Brainerd, MN | $6,740 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
26 of 39 (67%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 25 of 39 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 | 24 | $318,989 | $11,450 |
| 2021 | 23 | $308,329 | $11,000 |
| 2022 | 26 | $433,894 | $13,885 |
| 2023 | 23 | $472,300 | $19,500 |
| 2024 | 27 | $535,208 | $15,000 |
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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $14,270 -- 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 The Five Wings Arts Council's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 32 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 7 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: 121 4TH St Ne Po Box 118, Staples, MN, 56479.
EIN 41-1994039 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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