Name

Wells Foundation

Legal name

Wells Memorial Foundation of Minneapolis

Website

https://wellsfound.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1908

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Charitable Foundation / Philanthropic Grant-Making

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (8132)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Community Foundations (BPAGAKAB)

Keywords

• Grant making foundation
• Charitable giving
• Nonprofit philanthropy
• Community grants
• Social innovation funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Others, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Donations and Contributions: Wells Foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization under the Internal Revenue Service code. The foundation receives donations from individuals, estates, and other donors. Donations can be made online, by mail (check), or through planned giving/wills.
2. Endowment Income: The foundation manages an endowment established from the sale of the Wells Memorial Settlement House in 1948 and augmented with generous gifts over the years. Investment returns from the endowment support ongoing grant-making activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Wells Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation that awards grants of up to $10,000 per organization per year to nonprofit organizations working to end homelessness, with emphasis on youth and veterans in the Minneapolis–Twin Cities area. It accepts charitable donations from individuals, estates, and other donors and manages an endowment that funds its ongoing grant-making.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Annual Grant Program for Homelessness Services
• Online Donation Acceptance

Quantifiable outcome

• Focus on ending homelessness among youth and veterans in the Twin Cities

Named customers25 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• St. Mark's Episcopal CathedralcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Wells Foundation is historically connected to St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis. The foundation's headquarters is located at St. Mark's, and the organization has deep historical ties dating back to the 1880s when Annie Wells (wife of St. Mark's Rector Thomas Bucklin Wells) started the settlement house movement.
• Minnesota Attorney General (Charitable Organizations)coreOthersAs a registered charitable organization in Minnesota, Wells Foundation files annual reports with the MN Attorney General's office and maintains charitable organization acceptance letters from the state.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Regional players

• Women's Foundation of Minnesota: Minnesota-based foundation funding economic opportunity, housing stability, and safety for women and girls, including homelessness. Thematically overlapping grantees but with a different demographic lens.
• Blandin Foundation: Rural Minnesota-focused foundation funding community vitality and self-sufficiency initiatives. Comparable philosophy around removing barriers to self-sufficiency, but with a geographically distinct rural rather than urban focus.

Broad incumbents

• Otto Bremer Trust: Minnesota and western Wisconsin-focused trust that funds basic needs, housing, and homelessness programs. Overlapping grantees and issue area, with significantly larger assets and broader regional mandate.
• Bush Foundation: Regional foundation investing in community and economic development across Minnesota and the Dakotas. Comparable mission framing around community self-sufficiency, but operates at much greater scale and geographic breadth.
• McKnight Foundation: Large Minnesota-based private foundation funding housing, economic development, and community initiatives. Substantially larger and broader portfolio, but overlapping grantee pool in Twin Cities homelessness services.

Others

• Greater Twin Cities United Way: Regional nonprofit that funds many of the same Twin Cities social-services and homelessness organizations Wells supports. Different funding model (workplace giving + competitive grants), but overlapping beneficiary ecosystem.

Direct peers

• The Minneapolis Foundation: Community foundation serving the Minneapolis metro area that distributes grants across a range of social-issue areas including housing and homelessness. Closest functional peer given the same city, similar grantmaking model, and overlapping beneficiary nonprofits.
• Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundations (formerly Saint Paul Foundation): Twin Cities community foundation pooling assets to support regional nonprofits across housing, education, and economic opportunity. Direct peer in geography and grantmaking structure, with somewhat larger asset base.
• F. R. Bigelow Foundation: Saint Paul-based grantmaking foundation with a long-standing focus on homelessness, affordable housing, and self-sufficiency in the Twin Cities. Comparable in size, scope, and explicit homelessness-services mandate.
• Headwaters Foundation for Justice: Minnesota-based foundation funding social justice and homelessness-related work through grants to community nonprofits. Direct peer in mission framing, regional focus, and grantee-driven grantmaking approach.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wells Foundation