Nicholson Family Foundation
ActiveMutual & Membership BenefitFunds Individuals
ST PAUL, MN6512900549
About Nicholson Family Foundation
To champion organizations that create opportunities for local underserved youth in arts, education, and social services.
Focus Areas
ArtsEducationSocial servicesYouth developmentGeneral operating support
Who They Fund
nonprofit organizations / institutions (grant recipients receiving general operations support)individual students/scholars (scholarship recipients)environmental programs or initiatives (Planet Forward Fund)
Funding Style
unrestricted/general operating supportcapital campaign/capital infrastructure fundingscholarship/individual financial aid
About Nicholson Family Foundation
Nicholson Family Foundation’s recent giving shows a strong preference for long-term support to Minnesota institutions, including repeated capital campaign funding for Ramsey County Historical Society Inc across 2023, 2024, and 2025. That pattern sits alongside general operating grants to arts, education, and social service organizations, plus designated support for the Planet Forward Fund. The foundation also appears to fund individuals and scholarship-related work, which broadens its profile beyond institutional grants. In its recent grants, the foundation has backed organizations tied to Saint Paul civic life and cultural access, such as Park Square Theater Company, Friends of the St Paul Public Library, and Commonbond Communities. Other awards have gone to health, housing, historical, and educational institutions, suggesting a portfolio that includes both direct service and community infrastructure. Several grants are sized in the tens of thousands of dollars, while the foundation’s typical grant size is much smaller, indicating a mix of larger strategic awards and a broader base of smaller grants. Its giving is local in scope and heavily concentrated in Minnesota, where 82% of grants land.
What Nicholson Family Foundation Funds
Arts, education, and social services are the clearest recurring themes in the foundation’s grantmaking. In arts, Nicholson Family Foundation awarded $61,687 to Park Square Theater Company for general operations in 2025 and $18,000 to Ordway Center for the Performing Art for general operations in 2025. Education-related support appears through grants such as $30,000 to Metro State University Foundation for general operations in 2024 and $26,909 to St Paul Academy and Summit School for a capital campaign in 2023. In social services, the foundation gave $25,000 to Listening House of St Paul for general operations in both 2024 and 2025, showing sustained support for the same organization. The foundation also made an environmental grant through the Planet Forward Fund, with $25,000 to George Washington University in 2025.
How Nicholson Family Foundation Gives
The foundation’s typical grant size is $1,000 at the 25th percentile, $2,000 at the median, and $5,000 at the 75th percentile. Recent records also include larger awards in the $17,600 to $64,606 range, showing that the small-grants pattern coexists with a set of materially larger institutional grants. The grantmaking structure includes both general operating support and restricted support, including capital campaign and endowment funding. It also uses invitation-only multi-year grants alongside Letter of Inquiry cycles, so recipients can be both recurring partners and unsolicited applicants. The foundation funds individuals as well as organizations.
Financial Snapshot
Annual Giving
$902K
Total Assets
$15.4M
Total Revenue
$1.9M
Total Expenses
$1.1M
Typical Grant Size
Most grants fall between $1K and $5K, with a median of $2K.
25th Percentile
$1K
Median
$2K
75th Percentile
$5K
Geographic Reach
Local18 states funded
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Headquarters
Funding intensity
LowHigh
Where Nicholson Family Foundation Funds
Top 4 recipient countries by grant volume for Nicholson Family Foundation.
| Rank | Country | Grants | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United StatesDomestic | 482 | $2.5M | 99.4% |
| 2 | South Korea |
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