GrantmakersMinnesota

Lovin' Lake County

Two Harbors, MN · EIN 83-3336356. Reported 70 grants totalling $1,463,835 to 38 organizations across tax years 2022-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

38organizations funded
$10,000median reported grant
$1,463,835granted, 2022-2024
74%of grantees funded again the next year
25%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 Lovin' Lake County, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S99) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 38 distinct organizations, with 25% 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. 74% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 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 $10,000. Half of what it reported fell between $7,100 and $20,000; the smallest was $5,225 and the largest $130,006. 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
31 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
27 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
5 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
3 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
Fall Lake TownshipEly, MN$370,006332024
Lake County Chamber of CommerceTwo Harbors, MN$253,494332024
Bay DaysSilver Bay, MN$90,000332024
Green Doorcity of Beaver BayBeaver Bay, MN$72,398432024
Rocky Wall ProductionsSilver Bay, MN$71,964332024
City of Two HarborsTwo Harbors, MN$67,737332024
Knife River Recreation Council IncKnife River, MN$57,576332024
Friends of the Finland CommunityFinland, MN$44,965332024
Lake County Agricultural SocietyTwo Harbors, MN$33,000222024
City of Silver BaySilver Bay, MN$31,475332024
Mike and Marty Party LLCNashville, TN$30,000222023
Djh Capital LLCTwo Harbors, MN$28,335332024
Chrissy Scandin LLCTwo Harbors, MN$25,895222024
Silver Bay Blue Line ClubSilver Bay, MN$25,300332024
Duluth & North Shore Railway IncDuluth, MN$25,000222024
Burlington StationTwo Harbors, MN$23,700222023
Finland Minnesota Historical SocietyFinland, MN$16,500222024
Scott Young DistributionDallas, TX$16,121112022
Two Harbors Farmer's MarketTwo Harbors, MN$14,000112024
Lake County Historical SocietyTwo Harbors, MN$13,500222024
John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon IncDuluth, MN$12,725222023
Timber Ghost ToursSilver Bay, MN$12,480222024
Tracks N RacksBeaver Bay, MN$11,000112022
Dueces Wild LLCSartell, MN$10,000112023
Veterans on the Lake ResortEly, MN$10,000112024
Two Harbors Community RadioTwo Harbors, MN$9,525112024
Four Seasons RestaurantSilver Bay, MN$9,500112024
Moose Lodge 1463Two Harbors, MN$8,900112024
Two Harbors Area Arts & EventsTwo Harbors, MN$8,804112022
Isaac Gironzenviva LLCSilver Bay, MN$7,485112023
Ballet MagnificatJackson, MS$7,100112024
Lou's FishTwo Harbors, MN$7,000112024
Minnesota Historical SocietySaint Paul, MN$7,000112023
Odyssey Operating Company LLCDuluth, MN$7,000112023
Finland Fire Fighters Relief AssociationSilver Bay, MN$6,500112024
Larsmont Trading PostTwo Harbors, MN$6,000112024
North Shore Camping Co LlpPillager, MN$6,000112023
Silver Bay Shuttle ServiceSilver Bay, MN$5,850112023

20 of 38 (53%) received money in more than one year over the 3 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 2 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 7 of 38 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.

Arts & Culture
5 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202217$454,104$16,121
202327$486,508$9,275
202426$523,223$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

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
$1.4M
Tennessee
$30K
Texas
$16K
Mississippi
$7K

Down to the city

Two Harbors, MN
$500K
Ely, MN
$380K
Silver Bay, MN
$261K
Beaver Bay, MN
$83K
Finland, MN
$61K
Knife River, MN
$58K

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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.

Northland Foundation4 shared recipientsLloyd K Johnson Foundation4 shared recipientsDuluth-Superior Area Community4 shared recipientsC K Blandin Foundation3 shared recipientsThe Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation3 shared recipientsSaint Paul & Minnesota Foundation2 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 $10,000 -- 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 Lovin' Lake County's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 3 returns (tax years 2022-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 11 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 15 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: 1328 Highway 61, Two Harbors, MN, 55616.

EIN 83-3336356 · 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 [email protected] and we will correct it.