Housing, Shelter

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless

Give where the need is greatest.

aka Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless   |   Minneapolis, MN   |  http://www.oyh.org

Mission

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless believes that every Minnesotan should be free from hunger and homelessness. We make an impact by partnering with those who serve people in need, growing donor engagement and increasing awareness in Minnesota.

Ruling year info

1986

Executive Director

Mrs. Jessica Mathias

Main address

122 W Franklin Ave Ste 610

Minneapolis, MN 55404-2426 USA

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EIN

36-3488089

Cause area (NTEE code) info

Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution (L12)

Fund Raising Organizations That Cross Categories includes Community Funds/Trusts and Federated Giving Programs) e.g. United Way (T70)

Human Services - Multipurpose and Other N.E.C. (P99)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

15,000 people are homeless and 9,000 visit a food shelf on any given day in Minnesota. We believe that no Minnesota should be hungry or homeless.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Hunger and Homeless Grants

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless provides grant funding for food and shelter providers for items such as mattresses, freezers and roof repairs that enable them to serve more people in need. Open Your Heart responds quickly to these needs, which are not typically funded by other organizations. Open Your Heart also provides vital financial support to stock Minnesota’s food shelves in the summer through our Summer Challenge grant. This funding is especially important to food shelves in the summer when food supplies are low and the needs are greater because children are home from school.

Population(s) Served
Homeless people
Economically disadvantaged, low-income, and poor people

Open Your Heart meets the often overlooked needs of homeless school children through its Education Fund. This special grant funding is awarded each school year to homeless shelters and housing programs working with children and youth in grades K-12. The funding helps provide items such as backpacks, school supplies, gym uniforms and activity fees, giving students who are homeless the tools they need to stay engaged and succeed in school.

Population(s) Served
Homeless people
Economically disadvantaged, low-income, and poor people

Where we work

Photos

Videos

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Number of organizations applying for grants

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Decreasing

Context Notes

These numbers reflect requests for Open Your Heart's Hunger and Homeless Grants and Education Grants.

Average grant amount

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Holding steady

Total dollar amount of grants awarded

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Hunger and Homeless Grants

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

These numbers reflect funding towards Open Your Heart's Hunger and Homeless Grants, Education Grants, Special Projects, Emergency Requests and our Summer Challenge.

Total number of grants awarded

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

These numbers do not reflect the dozens of Minnesota food shelves who receive matching grant funding from Open Your Heart through our Summer Challenge Program.

Charting impact

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Five powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

What is the organization aiming to accomplish?

Open Your Heart believes that every Minnesotan should be free from hunger and homelessness. We provide emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, and food shelfs in Minnesota with the tangible things they need to serve more people in crisis and serve them better.

Our small staff and dedicated volunteer board of directors accepts grant requests from any shelter or food shelf in Minnesota and vets each agency for impact before carefully awarding funds.

Open Your Heart has been directing funds to where they are needed most for hungry and homeless people in Minnesota for over 30 years. We are lucky to have a very dedicated and experienced staff, an amazing board of directors, and very generous donors.

We believe that any time someone has a safe bed to sleep in or nutritious food to eat because of our work, we have achieved success.

We have helped, and will continue to help, hundreds of emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters and food shelves serve more people and serve them better. We also create special programs as needs arise. For example, when hearing that over 40% of homeless people in Greater Minnesota were unsheltered, we created a special program that added over 200 beds to shelters across the state.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is the organization collecting feedback?

    We regularly collect feedback through: electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.), community meetings/town halls, suggestion box/email.

  • How is the organization using feedback?

    We use feedback to: to identify and remedy poor client service experiences, to identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, to make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, to inform the development of new programs/projects, to identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, to strengthen relationships with the people we serve.

  • With whom is the organization sharing feedback?

    We share feedback with: the people we serve, our staff, our board, our funders, our community partners.

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to: we don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback.

Financials

Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

This organization has no recorded board members.

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes

Keywords

hunger, homelessness, poverty, basic needs, human services, food, shelter, housing, education, grant making