The Great Northern Winter Festival

What it reported doing in 2024

In fy25 the great northern (tgn) continued its mission to host an annual winter festival across the twin cities, inspiring conversations, fostering community, and bringing people together during the most isolating time of the year: Minnesota's long, cold winters. Tgn encourages our audience to get outdoors, build connections, stay active, and celebrate the perspectives, communities, cultures, and ecosystems that make this region special. Through multidisciplinary events, tgn highlights the urgency of climate change, encouraging awareness, action, and shared responsibility. By cultivating authentic, reciprocal relationships with our audience and partners, we contribute to a broader cultural shift toward environmental stewardship and collective care. Tgn's 2025 festival programming continued to celebrate what winter gives us, while exploring our changing climate through the lenses of culture/heritage, the economy, and social equity. Tgn hosted dozens of festival events including meaningful arts presentations, invigorating outdoor events, and unique dining experiences. More than 50% of these events were free and open to the public. The great northern produced and coproduced events that drew over 10,000 attendees into the cold to experience the festival. The way the great northern combines arts events with a climate focus is unique and transformative. Our attendees can experience the beauty of winter on a cellular level and be inspired and motivated to preserve it. The festival's climate solutions series featured a dozen in-person conversations that investigated climate action and advocacy from multiple perspectives. These conversations were attended by over 1,500 people. Our outdoor programming remains the most popular with more than 5,000 people in attendance. In 2025, in response to community feedback, we increased our family programming with family programming across the festival. Tgn's family programming drew over 1,500 attendees and will be a mainstay of the festival. Our dance performances, live music, and visual art experience drew nearly 2,000 attendees. In the lead-up to and during the great northern's 2025 festival, we secured dozens of pieces of coverage that garnered millions of estimated views.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 88.5%; rating input score 88
• Program expense ratio: 74.8%; rating input score 75
• Fundraising efficiency: $5.4 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: Limited
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Fail
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -18.2%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.19; rating input score 9; 9th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 1; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 21.4%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 23.7% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 21.6% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 8.2% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings