GrantmakersMinnesota

United Way of Bemidji Area

Bemidji, MN · EIN 41-1567744. Reported 77 grants totalling $1,289,855 to 27 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

27organizations funded
$14,000median reported grant
$1,289,855granted, 2021-2024
80%of grantees funded again the next year
12%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 United Way of Bemidji Area, the IRS classifies it as a federated giving programme -- a United Way, Jewish federation, Community Chest or similar (NTEE T70Z).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 27 distinct organizations, with 12% 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.
  3. How much its list changes. 80% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and above the 67% private foundations manage. This list is close to settled, so a newcomer has to displace someone rather than fill a gap.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $14,000. Half of what it reported fell between $8,000 and $24,000; the smallest was $5,500 and the largest $43,000. 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
22 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
38 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
17 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
North Country Food Bank IncE Grand Forks, MN$154,000442024
Evergreen Youth & Family Serv IncBemidji, MN$140,250442024
Boys and Girls Club of the Bemidji AreaBemidji, MN$131,500442024
Community Support Systems IncBemidji, MN$108,000442024
Northwoods Battered Womens Shelter IncBemidji, MN$91,500442024
Ours to Serve House of Hospitality IncBemidji, MN$81,500442024
Bemidji Community Food ShelfBemidji, MN$63,770442024
Churches United IncBemidji, MN$61,000442024
Support Within ReachBemidji, MN$60,000442024
Adult Day Services IncBemidji, MN$55,500442024
Bemidji Community Soup Kitchen IncBemidji, MN$54,250442024
Northwoods Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers ProgramBemidji, MN$42,000332023
Community Resource Connection IncBemidji, MN$38,000442024
Bemidji Early Childhood CollabrativBemidji, MN$30,000222024
Peacemaker ResourcesBemidji, MN$21,500332023
Bemidji Senior CenterBemidji, MN$21,365332023
Special Olympics Minnesota IncMinneapolis, MN$17,500222024
ServeminnesotaMinneapolis, MN$16,000222023
Voyageurs Area Council - Boy ScoutsBemidji, MN$16,000222024
Youth Investment FoundationHamel, MN$16,000222022
Bemidji Early Childhood CollabrativBemidji, MN$15,500222022
Society of St Vincent De PaulMoorhead, MN$14,000222024
Opportunities in Science IncBemidji, MN$12,500222022
Legal Services of Northwest MnMoorhead, MN$8,000112021
Bi-County Community Action Programs IncBemidji, MN$7,220112024
Peoples ChurchBemidji, MN$7,000112024
Face It Together BemidjiBemidji, MN$6,000112022

23 of 27 (85%) 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 15 of 27 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.

Human Services
4 orgs
Mental Health
3 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Housing & Shelter
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Food & Nutrition
1 org
Religion
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202119$305,865$12,500
202220$321,500$13,375
202320$346,000$15,500
202418$316,490$14,000

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

Bemidji, MN
$1.1M
E Grand Forks, MN
$154K
Minneapolis, MN
$34K
Moorhead, MN
$22K
Hamel, MN
$16K

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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.

Northwest Minnesota Foundation15 shared recipientsOtto Bremer Trust9 shared recipientsAmerican Online Giving Foundation Inc9 shared recipientsVanguard Charitable Endowment Program9 shared recipientsAmerican Endowment Foundation8 shared recipientsMightycause Charitable Foundation7 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 $14,000 -- 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 United Way of Bemidji Area'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.

Address of record on the latest return: Po Box 27, Bemidji, MN, 56619.

EIN 41-1567744 · 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.