Total Assets:
$3,199,348,023
From 2020 to 2021, the Foundation’s assets increased to more than 300%.
Total Giving:
$200,034,350
Minnesota focus: 70% of grants stay in Minnesota.
Four other Midwest states receive a large number of grants: Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
National scope: The other 30% of grants are distributed across the U.S.
International funding: 5% of grants target programs outside the U.S. Targeted countries include Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi
Arts & Culture
Education
Environment
International Giving
Social & Human Services
The Arts & Culture program supports organizations, programs, and projects in Minnesota that provide support structures for working artists and culture bearers to develop and share their work, and to lead in movements and communities.
The Global Collaboration for Resilient Food Systems works to ensure a world where all people have access to nutritious food that is produced locally and sustainably. The program supports participatory, collaborative research for agroecological food systems transformation in 10 countries in Africa and South America.
The Midwest Climate & Energy (Caple) program strives to take bold and urgent action on the climate crisis by dramatically cutting greenhouse gas emissions and advancing an equitable clean energy transition. Grantmaking is directed toward work that shifts mental models, changes power dynamics, engages communities, and advances transformative policies, practices, and resource flows.
The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience is an independent charitable organization that funds research on diseases of the brain and behavior. The Endowment Fund supports innovative research through three competitive annual awards for individual scientists in the United States: Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Award, Scholar Awards, and Technology Awards.
The Vibrant & Equitable Communities program fosters shared power, prosperity, and participation across Minnesota to craft solutions that meet community-defined needs, address local context, and shift policies, practices, and institutions in lasting ways.
McKnight has ended four program areas: Education, Region & Communities, Mississippi River, and Southeast Asia.
History shows that almost 25% of their giving goes to Community Development, 19% goes to organizations in the Social and Human Services Category, and 18% supports Education.
Grants in recent years include:
$250,000 for Congregations Caring for Creation;
$5,000 to Faith and Community Empowerment to support the Saigu Campaign;
$50,000 for Plymouth Christian Youth Center to support art programs at the Capri Theater in North Minneapolis.
$25,000 for Faith Crusade Ministries to support the Mothers of Gynecology campus tours;
$100,000 for Kwanzaa Community Church PCA to support the Liberty Northside Healing Space; and
$150,000 for Holy Trinity Lutheran Church to support revitalization work along Minneapolis’s Lake Street Corridor.
The McKnight Foundation provides only planning, operating, and project grants.
Minnesota is the geographic focus for the Arts & Culture and Vibrant & Equitable Communities programs.
The McKnight Foundation’s mission and vision statements reinforce the purpose of its five funded programs: “a world that recognizes the dignity of every human being, a world where we celebrate the creativity of the arts and sciences and come together to protect our one and only Earth.” It is a good match for Christian ministries located in Minnesota that prioritize inclusion and equity in their approach to social issues. Two of the programs – Arts & Culture and Vibrant & Equitable Communities – offer the greatest potential for grant funding.
Agriculture-focused ministries that operate in one of the 10 select African or South American countries can apply under the CRFS program.
William L. McKnight was one of the early leaders of 3M in a career that spanned 59 years, from 1907 to 1966. He and his wife, Maude L. McKnight, established the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis in 1953. Today, 4th-generation members of this private family foundation continue to be active on the board of trustees. It awards 1,000 to 2,000 grants every year, valued at more than $100 million.
Phone #:
6123334220
Email:
[email protected]
Application Address:
The McKnight Foundation
710 South 2nd Street, Suite 400
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
Procedures:
Start with familiarizing yourself with the varied Programs including specific strategies and grantmaking criteria.
The Foundation prefers a phone call as the initial contact. Ask for a program director or program officer in your funding area to discuss your inquiry.
If McKnight’s program staff determines that the Foundation may consider funding, they will provide instructions for submitting a proposal.
There are no deadlines.
Donors:
William L. McKnight; Maude L. McKnight; Virginia M. Binger; James H. Binger
Directors:
David Crosby, Treasurer & Director
Deborah Landesman, Director
Erika Binger, Director
Kate Wolford, President
Meghan Brown, Board Chair
Perry Moriearty, Director
Phyllis Goff, Director
Richard Scott, Secretary Vice President Finance & Compliance
Robert Bruininks, Director
Roger Sit, Director
Theodore Staryk, Director
William Gregg, Assistant Treasurer & Director
