Women's Foundation of Minnesota

What it reported doing in 2024

Grantmaking: In FY25 (Apr. 1, 2024 - Mar. 31, 2025), the Foundation awarded $2.5 million in grants to support safety, leadership, holistic well-being, and economic justice for women, girls, and gender-expansive people in Minnesota. Because inequity looks different in every community, we use our Intersectional Equity Framework to look at how gender, race, place (geography), and additional identities (ethnicity, sovereignty, socioeconomic class, age, disability, LGBTQ+, immigration status) intersect to understand barriers and opportunities so we can invest in transformational change with communities who face the greatest barriers and disparities. All Women's Foundation grants support general operating expenses, which provide greater flexibility for organizations. Funding general operations over multiple years is crucial for organizations to build stability around community-sustaining programs.The Foundation's $5.2 million in community investments across Minnesota in FY25 included:* 270 grants to 194 nonprofit organizations* Over 5.8 million people impacted through competitive grantmaking The Women's Foundation of Minnesota makes grants through the following funds: Community Response Fund, Fund for Safety, girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together), We Thrive, and the Young Women's Initiative of Minnesota (YWI MN). A commitment to communities in Greater Minnesota and a value of inclusivity are reflected in the demographics of all the funds. 1. Community Response FundThrough the Community Response Fund, the Women's Foundation invests in organizations and programs that ensure women and their families are safer and healthier. This year, Community Response funding continues to support reproductive justice, healing justice, and emergent community needs, in response to limitations on reproductive rights and access to health care in Greater Minnesota and the increased demand faced by Minnesota health care providers. In the last year, WFM awarded $50,000 to seven organizations across the state to support reproductive justice, healing justice, and emergent community needs.2. Fund for SafetySafety is the underpinning for equity and justice; it improves health outcomes for women, girls, and gender-expansive people; impacts their leadership; and increases their economic opportunity. WFM invests in the organizations, leaders, and the movement so that women, girls, and gender-expansive people in Minnesota are free from every form of violence and can experience their homes, schools, and communities as safe places. The Fund for Safety resources organizations and programs are working to keep our communities safer by addressing gender-based violence, trafficking, harassment, and other forms of systemic violence. During our last fiscal year, WFM made grants to 22 organizations totaling $425,000. In this cohort of Fund for Safety partners, 27 percent are in rural and Greater Minnesota, and 68 percent are led by Black, Indigenous, and women of color. Evaluation of the 2023-2025 Fund for Safety program shows that grantee-partners during this period served more than 35,000 individuals across Minnesota. Grantee-partners embraced a holistic support approach for women, girls, and gender-expansive people. They provided individualized services and wellness and healing workshops; conducted research; and engaged in leadership development, community organizing, cultural narrative shift efforts, and systems change advocacy. WFM support provided the opportunity for grantee-partners to leverage additional funding, collaborate with other Fund for Safety organizations, strengthen and expand community work, research support, and capacity building.3. girlsBEST (girls Building Economic Success Together)Shaped by research and listening in 14 communities around the state, girlsBEST was created to invest in girls as the best way to build opportunities and boost their future economic success. Launched in 2002, girlsBEST awards multi-year grants to programs that

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 82.4%; rating input score 82
• Program expense ratio: 84.6%; rating input score 85
• Fundraising efficiency: $178.08 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 88.9%; rating input score 89; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
  • Compensation committee: Missing
  • Independent consultant: Missing
  • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
  • Written employment contract: Missing
  • Compensation survey or study: Pass
  • Board or committee approval: Pass
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 47.2%; rating input score 47; 15th percentile among comparable filings
• 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • 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: 5.9%; rating input score 53; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.6; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.02; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 15%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 7.4% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings