Minnesota State Bar Foundation
Minneapolis, MN · EIN 41-6023581. Reported 57 grants totalling $901,739 to 35 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 Minnesota State Bar Foundation, by its IRS classification it raises and distributes funds for crime & legal (NTEE I128).
- How spread out its giving is. 35 distinct organizations, with 8% 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. 39% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 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 $7,500 and $21,500; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $61,746. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loan Repayment Assistance Program of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | $68,000 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Minnesota State Bar Association Msba | Minneapolis, MN | $61,746 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance Incorporated | Minneapolis, MN | $53,998 | 3 | 3 | 2022 |
| Childrens Law Center of Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $53,010 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Legal Assistance of Olmsted County | Rochester, MN | $47,500 | 4 | 4 | 2023 |
| Legal Aid Service of Northeastern Minnesota | Duluth, MN | $43,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota | Moorhead, MN | $41,043 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Inc | Saint Paul, MN | $40,500 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| The Advocates for Human Rights | Minneapolis, MN | $40,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Minnesota Justice Foundation Inc | Minneapolis, MN | $38,800 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Cancer Legal Care | Oakdale, MN | $33,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Hispanic Outreach Program of Goodhue County | Red Wing, MN | $32,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Anishinabe Legal Service Inc | Cass Lake, MN | $30,000 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Volunteer Lawyers Network | Minneapolis, MN | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Home Line | Bloomington, MN | $28,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Farmers Legal Action Group Inc | Saint Paul, MN | $23,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Tubman | Minneapolis, MN | $21,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers | Saint Paul, MN | $21,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Alexandra House Inc | Blaine, MN | $18,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Battered Womens Legal Advocacy Project | St Paul, MN | $18,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Judicare of Anoka County | Blaine, MN | $17,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Housing Justice Center | Saint Paul, MN | $16,000 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Civil Society | St Paul, MN | $14,490 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| International Institute of Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans | Saint Paul, MN | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul | Saint Paul, MN | $10,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Anna Maries Alliance | Saint Cloud, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Community Mediation Services Inc | New Hope, MN | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| All Parks Alliance for Change | Minneapolis, MN | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Minnesota Elder Justice Center | Minneapolis, MN | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Violence Free Minnesota | Saint Paul, MN | $8,152 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Indian Child Welfare Law Center | Minneapolis, MN | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Justus Health (formerly Minnesota AIDS Project) | St Paul, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Legalcorps | Minneapolis, MN | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| All Square | Minneapolis, MN | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
12 of 35 (34%) 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 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.
- Minnesota State Bar Association
PROGRAM SUPPORT FOR ACCESS TO JUSTICE PROGRAM AND MOCK TRIAL PROGRAM
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 20 of 35 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 | 34 | $612,993 | $14,766 |
| 2021 | 9 | $130,000 | $10,000 |
| 2022 | 4 | $29,500 | $6,750 |
| 2023 | 6 | $45,000 | $7,500 |
| 2024 | 4 | $84,246 | $8,250 |
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 Minnesota State Bar Foundation's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 3 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: 33 South 6TH Street 4540, Minneapolis, MN, 55402.
EIN 41-6023581 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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