About Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation
This foundation appears to use The Minneapolis Foundation as a primary giving vehicle, with the vast majority of its dollars flowing through that intermediary rather than directly to nonprofits. Its direct grants show a strong Minnesota civic-progressive orientation, supporting immigrant rights, democracy and voter engagement, climate and environmental advocacy, women’s safety and reproductive health, and community-based arts and cultural organizations. The pattern suggests a donor with broad interest in social justice and public-interest causes, especially in Minnesota, with some attention to Indigenous and neighborhood-based efforts.
Focus Areas
Minnesota civic engagement and democracy workImmigrant rights and DACA/TPS advocacyClimate action and environmental advocacy in MinnesotaWomen’s advocacy, safety, and reproductive healthIndigenous youth and cultural programmingCommunity arts and local heritage organizations
Giving Approach
Highly concentrated giving, with one dominant grant to The Minneapolis Foundation and a smaller set of direct grants to mostly local Minnesota nonprofits. The direct grants are relatively modest, often repeated to a few organizations, and skew toward mission-aligned, movement-building, or community-rooted groups rather than large institutional gifts.
About Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation
A single five-million-dollar grant to The Minneapolis Foundation defines the Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation’s recent giving. That 2025 award, paired with a small set of other Minnesota grants, shows a funder that channels substantial resources through local institutions rather than spreading gifts broadly. The foundation’s active programs point to a blend of legacy support and trustee-directed philanthropy: one program is unsolicited and tied to arts, humanities, education, environment, human services, and libraries in Minnesota and the Twin Cities, while another is directed by family trustees for community-based work across the country. The recent record also indicates a strong local orientation. All reported grants go to U.S. recipients, and the foundation’s Minnesota work includes awards in Saint Paul as well as Minneapolis. Its legacy-oriented grantmaking appears to favor general operating or project support rather than capital campaigns or endowments, which helps explain the mix of large institutional funding and smaller discretionary awards. For researchers, the Andersen Foundation looks like a place-based family foundation with a structured set of grant programs and a clear preference for established community channels.
What Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation Funds
The foundation supports social change work in Minnesota through a proactive program focused on political power and process, environmental justice, and civil/human rights. It also maintains a legacy grant program for Minnesota and the Twin Cities metropolitan area that covers arts and humanities, communications, education, environment, human services, and libraries. In the latest grant record, one Minnesota award went to a Saint Paul recipient through an attachment-based grant of $350,000. Another Saint Paul grant of $334,000 appears in the prior year’s record, suggesting that some of the foundation’s funding is repeated through internal or trustee-directed channels rather than a one-time award. The program descriptions also show that legacy grants are intended for general support or projects, not capital campaigns or endowments. A trustee-directed stream extends the foundation’s traditional program areas to community-based work across the country, while still following foundation guidelines.
How Elmer L & Eleanor J Andersen Foundation Gives
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$5.5M
Total Assets
$0
Total Revenue
$995K
Total Expenses
$6M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $2K and $3K, with a median of $2K.
25th Percentile
$2K
Median
$2K
75th Percentile
$3K
Geographic Reach
Local1 state funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
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