Trillium Family Foundation

Trillium Family Foundation is a small, family-governed private foundation (EIN 41-2009698, NTEE T22 Philanthropy & Grantmaking) based in Saint Paul, MN, with roughly $7.7M-$9.1M in assets and a board dominated by the Andersen family (Amy Andersen serves as President; the foundation's IRS contact is listed as 'Anthony L Andersen'). It is not a high-volume grantmaker: annual grants have run between $370,000 and $653,000 over the last decade, funded almost entirely by investment income rather than new contributions (contributions received have been $0 in every filed year reviewed). Historically the foundation supported general community development, arts and culture, education, and recreation causes concentrated in Minnesota. Since 2022, however, it has consolidated its giving into a single named initiative, the Climate and Racial Justice Grants program, serving only Minnesota and Wyoming and prioritizing organizations whose majority leadership - both staff and board - is BIPOC and/or rural. Critically, this program is currently closed to new applications, with the website stating plainly it is 'not currently accepting additional applications' and no publicized reopening date. First-time applicants should treat this as a relationship-building phase rather than an application phase: sign up for the foundation's email notifications and reach out directly to the program leads (Kate Lawson, Executive Director, handles Minnesota; Amy Andersen, President, handles Wyoming) to ask about the reopening timeline before investing in a full proposal. When the program was last open (2022), the arc ran from an information call, to an invited full proposal, to a proposal deadline, to award notification - a single annual cycle, not a rolling one. Given the modest annual grants pool (roughly $430,000-$650,000 split across two states) and reported individual award sizes in the $20,000-$50,000 range, this is a boutique, high-touch funder best suited to smaller, mission-aligned nonprofits rather than large-scale capital campaigns.

Total grants paid have ranged from a low of $370,000 (FY2012) to a high of $653,000 (FY2020), with FY2023 (the most recent filed year in the data) at $430,000 and total giving (including grants plus related expenses) of $566,714. The decade-long pattern is essentially flat to modestly declining after the FY2020 spike: FY2019 $486,500, FY2020 $653,000 (+34% year-over-year, likely pandemic-response giving), FY2021 $498,500, FY2022 $471,750, FY2023 $430,000. Going back further, FY2011-FY2015 grants paid clustered tightly between $370,000 and $450,000, showing this is a foundation that has held a steady, disciplined payout rather than scaling with asset growth. Total assets have stayed in a narrow $7.4M-$8.3M band from 2011 through 2023 in the financial filings, while the current foundation record shows assets closer to $9.14M, reflecting market appreciation rather than new contributions - none have been received in any year reviewed. Net investment income is the sole funding source and is volatile: $945,963 in FY2021 versus $143,324 in FY2022, which likely explains why grant payout doesn't move in lockstep with any single year's returns (the foundation appears to smooth payout using accumulated assets). Officer and staff compensation is minimal: the Executive Director role (Kate Lawson) has been paid between roughly $18,000 and $30,000 depending on the year, and board members typically receive small per-meeting stipends of $0-$2,500 (the President, Treasurer, and Secretary in the most recent year all show $0 compensation), consistent with an unstaffed, volunteer-governed family foundation. The underlying 990 grant schedule for this foundation references 'See Attachment 3' rather than itemizing recipients, so a program-area or per-grantee dollar breakdown cannot be derived from the data on file - the aggregate figures ($2,026,500 total across grants attributed to Minnesota recipients, averaging $506,625) reflect an attachment-level rollup, not confirmed individual awards, and should be treated as directional only. Externally reported figures put typical individual awards at $20,000-$50,000, and other sources have cited a wider historical range as low as $1,250, suggesting the foundation makes a mix of small discretionary gifts and larger program grants within the same cycle.

Trillium sits in a cluster of similarly small private foundations, all classified under the same Philanthropy & Grantmaking NTEE category and matched on asset size (roughly $9.13M-$9.14M each):

What distinguishes Trillium from this peer set is transparency: none of the five peer foundations in this asset tier have a listed website in the data on file, meaning grant seekers cannot easily research their priorities, contacts, or application process the way they can with Trillium's public site and named program staff. That transparency is itself a competitive signal - Trillium is more accessible to cold outreach than most of its true asset-tier peers, even while its program is temporarily closed, because it publishes named contacts (Kate Lawson, Amy Andersen) and clear eligibility criteria rather than operating as a silent, invitation-only vehicle.

No foundation-specific news, leadership changes, or new grant announcements were found dated in 2025 or 2026. The last identifiable strategic move is the 2022 launch of the Climate and Racial Justice Grants program, which followed a collaborative planning process with community leaders working on racial equity and environmental issues in Minnesota and Wyoming. As of this research, that program remains closed to new applicants with no publicized timeline for reopening - the website's current instruction to prospective applicants is simply to register for email updates about 'future open grant opportunities.' Search results for this foundation are heavily crowded out by two unrelated organizations that grant seekers should not confuse it with: the government-affiliated Ontario Trillium Foundation in Canada (which publishes frequent grant-deadline and community-impact news, most recently 2026 grant deadlines announced in late 2025) and a brand-new, unaffiliated 'Trillium Foundation' that launched its website in Wisconsin in October 2025. Given the lack of any public signal of a reopening, applicants should treat direct email contact with Kate Lawson (Minnesota) or Amy Andersen (Wyoming) as the most reliable way to learn whether or when the program will accept proposals again, rather than relying on search results or third-party grant databases, several of which appear to carry outdated or generic 990-derived summaries rather than current programmatic status.

The single most important tip for this funder right now is timing: the foundation's Climate and Racial Justice Grants program is explicitly closed, so submitting an unsolicited application via its grantinterface.com portal will not be reviewed. The productive move is to join the foundation's email list on trilliumfamilyfoundation.org and, in parallel, send a brief, specific email directly to the relevant program contact - kate@trilliumfamilyfoundation.org for Minnesota-based organizations, amy@trilliumfamilyfoundation.org for Wyoming-based organizations - asking about the anticipated reopening timeline and whether the foundation is doing any informal relationship-building in the interim. When the program does reopen, expect the process to mirror its 2022 structure: an initial information call window, an invitation to submit a full proposal for organizations that pass that screen, a hard proposal deadline, and award notification roughly 4-5 months later. Eligibility is specific and non-negotiable: the applicant must be a 501(c)(3) (or have a fiscal sponsor), and must be located in or actively operating programs in Minnesota or Wyoming. The foundation has stated an explicit preference for organizations where the majority of both staff and board leadership is BIPOC and/or represents rural communities - proposals should foreground this leadership composition rather than treating it as a footnote. Because typical awards fall in the $20,000-$50,000 range (with some smaller grants reported as low as roughly $1,250), request amounts should be scaled to project-level or program-level asks rather than large capital or multi-year operating requests this foundation's payout history (never exceeding roughly $653,000 in total annual grants) cannot support. A common mistake to avoid: assuming this is the same organization as the Ontario Trillium Foundation (a much larger, unrelated Canadian government funder) or the newly launched Wisconsin 'Trillium Foundation' - both dominate generic search results and have entirely different eligibility rules, portals, and deadlines. Given the foundation's small, all-volunteer board (most directors are compensated $0-$2,500 per year) and single part-time Executive Director, this is a low-bureaucracy, high-trust funder where a warm, direct introduction is likely to carry more weight than a purely transactional portal submission once the program reopens.