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Detroit Future City at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Detroit Future City

Detroit Future City (DFC) was founded in 2015 to catalyze implementation of the Detroit Strategic Framework, a 50-year vision for the City of Detroit developed with input from over 100,000 Detroiters.

$220k
Granted FY2024still arriving
3
Grants FY2024still arriving
—
States reached
$30k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Environment$464kCommunity Improvement$95kArts & Culture$70kRecreation & Sports$42kYouth Development$13kHuman Services$9kPublic Benefit$8kHousing & Shelter$7kOther$0
02FY2024 · 3 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 3 grants below total $65,383, the rows itemized in this filing. The $220,483 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $155,100 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.
$20,383
Median grant
—
States reached
$1.5M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Allied Media Project$30,000
Arboretum$20,383
Bailey Park Nieghborhood Developmen$15,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY19–19, $19k) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%CANFIELD CONSORTIUM: $10k → 21%URBAN NEIGHBORHOOD INITIATIVES INC: $9k → 21%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

72%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$511k · 13 repeat orgs$203k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +84% since the first grant, against +74% for those funded once.

13 repeat relationships: 3 still active in FY2024, 10 since wound down.

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

13
26

Total granted

$511k
$203k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+84%
+74%

Still filing today

85%
58%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.

50%100%’17’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’19’20’21’22’23’24
EnvironmentArts & CultureCommunity ImprovementHousing & ShelterRecreation & SportsHuman ServicesOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • FO
    FRIENDS OF THE ROUGE
    3× · 2019–2021 · $81k · revenue +161%
  • TG
    THE GREENING OF DETROIT
    3× · 2019–2021 · $72k · revenue +84%
  • BP
    Bailey Park Project
    4× · 2019–2024 · $36k · revenue ×12

Funded once

  • TO
    TASTE OF DIASPORA
    one grant, 2022 · $18k
  • JW
    JEFFERSON-CHALMERS WATER PROJECT
    one grant, 2023 · $14k
  • DB
    DOWNTOWN BOXING GYM YOUTH PROGRAMgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $13k · revenue +118%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
Detroit Parks Coalition

The detroit parks coalition ("the coalition") is an alliance of community members and parks leaders working to support healthy, equitable, and vibrant parks in detroit. the coalition develops and facilitates city-wide parks programming,…

Recreation & Sports
2
Dream of Detroit

Dream of Detroit is combining community organizing with strategic housing and land development to build a healthy community and empower a marginalized neighborhood on the Westside of Detroit.

Human Services
3
About Face Detroit
—
4
Detroit Cultivator Community Land Trust

The maintenance and beautification of vacant land inside of a community

Food & Nutrition
5
Mack Alive

The nbsp;mission nbsp;of nbsp;mack nbsp;alive nbsp;is nbsp;to nbsp;enhance nbsp;the nbsp;growth nbsp;and nbsp;development nbsp;on nbsp;the nbsp;eastside nbsp;of nbsp;detroit

Health
6
Rescue Mi Nature Now Inc

Rescue MI Nature Now, Inc. is a Michigan Nonprofit Organization committed to cultivating green zones within the communities and empowering neighborhoods through nature-centric educational programs. Through hands-on initiatives, we empower…

Environment
7
Cinema Detroit

Motion picture exhibition

Arts & Culture
8
Connect Detroit

To strategically solve problems through collaboratives with City of Detroit Departments, nonprofit organizations and local grant makers in order to secure the maximum federal, state, and national foundation dollars for the city Detroit.

Community Improvement
9
Detroit Food Policy Council

The organization was founded by a group of concerned citizens, working in cooperation with the detroit city council, to shape food policy and to work for a more localized, more just, and environmentally friendly food system. the…

Food & Nutrition
10
Detroit Future City

Detroit Future City (DFC) was founded in 2015 to catalyze implementation of the Detroit Strategic Framework, a 50-year vision for the City of Detroit developed with input from over 100,000 Detroiters. See Schedule O.

Community Improvement
11
Detroit Economic Growth Corporation

Promotion of activities to spur economic growth and revitalization in the city of detroit

—
12
Detroit Land Bank Community Development Corporation

The detroit land bank community development corporation's mission is to serve the people of the city of detroit, michigan through the advancement of economic welfare, the promotion of community development, and the provision of affordable…

Community Improvement
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is 360 Detroit Inc; the most unlike its peers is Detroit Puppet Company. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

27 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 27 of the 39 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
14
Early backer (in before they grew)
26/27
Grantees still filing
19/27
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

SIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $114,002 · EnvironmentSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATIONFRIENDS OF THE ROUGE: $80,952 · EnvironmentFRIENDS OF THE ROUGETHE GREENING OF DETROIT: $71,822 · EnvironmentTHE GREENING OF DETROITARBORETUM DETROIT: $30,602 · EnvironmentARBORETUM DETROITSOUTHWEST DETROIT ENVIRONMENTAL VISION: $20,451 · EnvironmentSOUTHWEST DETROIT ENVIRONMENTAL VISION+1 more: $5,000 · EnvironmentTASTE OF DIASPORA: $17,800 · OtherTASTE OF DIASPORAMECCA: $15,000 · OtherMECCAJEFFERSON-CHALMERS WATER PROJECT: $13,500 · OtherJEFFERSON-CHALMERS WATE…EASTSIDE COMMUNITY NETWORK: $13,151 · OtherEASTSIDE COMMUNITY NETW…OAK GROVE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH: $9,666 · OtherOAK GROVE AFRICAN METHO…NORWEST COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE: $8,500 · OtherNORWEST COMMUNITY COLLA…SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FARMS: $7,500 · OtherFIELD TEMPLE: $6,800 · OtherCREEKSIDE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $6,500 · OtherFAMILYHOOD INC: $6,500 · OtherO Hair Park Community Association: $6,500 · OtherSouthWest Detroit Business Association: $6,500 · OtherEMERALD ISLES COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: $6,300 · OtherMOHICAN REGENT HOME OWNERS ASSOC: $5,000 · OtherMICHIGAN INTERFAITH POWER & LIGHT INC: $7,230 · OtherDETROIT HIVES INC: $6,224 · OtherWALDORF SCHOOL ASSOCIATION OF MICH: $6,200 · OtherALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC: $37,500 · Arts & CultureALLIED MEDI…MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: $14,250 · Arts & CultureMUSEUM OF A…POPPS PACKING: $6,500 · Arts & CulturePOPPS PACKI…DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY: $6,500 · Arts & CultureDETROIT PUP…NW GOLDBERG CARES INC: $5,595 · Arts & CultureNW GOLDBERG…EcoWorks: $49,722 · Housing & ShelterGRANDMONT ROSEDALE DEVELOPMENT CORP: $6,500 · Housing & ShelterBailey Park Project: $35,500 · Recreation & SportsDOWNTOWN BOXING GYM YOUTH PROGRAM: $13,000 · Recreation & SportsKEEP GROWING DETROIT: $15,767 · Community ImprovementGENESIS HARBOR OF OPPORTUNITIES PROMOTING EXCELLENCE: $11,834 · Community Improvement360 DETROIT INC: $7,500 · Community ImprovementMACK AVENUE COMMUNITY CHURCH COMM DEVE CORP: $6,500 · Community ImprovementMotor City Grounds Crew: $6,500 · Community ImprovementCANFIELD CONSORTIUM: $9,678 · Human ServicesUrban Neighborhood Initiatives Inc: $9,082 · Human Services
Environment$322,829Other$148,871Arts & Culture$70,345Housing & Shelter$56,222Recreation & Sports$48,500Community Improvement$48,101Human Services$18,760

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetSIERRA CLUB FOUNDATION: $114,002 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetFRIENDS OF THE ROUGE: $80,952 over 3y, 5.1% of budgetTHE GREENING OF DETROIT: $71,822 over 3y, 2.8% of budgetEcoWorks: $49,722 over 3y, 2.1% of budgetALLIED MEDIA PROJECTS INC: $37,500 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetBailey Park Project: $35,500 over 4y, 9.3% of budgetARBORETUM DETROIT: $30,602 over 2y, 13% of budgetSOUTHWEST DETROIT ENVIRONMENTAL VISION: $20,451 over 2y, 0.5% of budgetKEEP GROWING DETROIT: $15,767 over 2y, 1.2% of budgetMUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: $14,250 over 2y, 0.1% of budgetDOWNTOWN BOXING GYM YOUTH PROGRAM: $13,000 over 1y, 0.4% of budgetGENESIS HARBOR OF OPPORTUNITIES PROMOTING EXCELLENCE: $11,834 over 2y, 15% of budgetUrban Neighborhood Initiatives Inc: $9,082 over 1y, 0.5% of budget360 DETROIT INC: $7,500 over 1y, 2.9% of budgetMICHIGAN INTERFAITH POWER & LIGHT INC: $7,230 over 1y, 3.5% of budgetDETROIT PUPPET COMPANY: $6,500 over 1y, 3.4% of budgetMotor City Grounds Crew: $6,500 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetDETROIT HIVES INC: $6,224 over 1y, 2.7% of budgetWALDORF SCHOOL ASSOCIATION OF MICH: $6,200 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetCHANDLER PARK CONSERVANCY: $5,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Wayne-Metropolitan Co…Community Foundation …The Kresge FoundationThe Skillman Foundati…United Way for Southe…DTE Energy FoundationEnterprise Community …The Fred & Barbara Er…The Gilbert Family Fo…Detroit Regional Cham…Wayne State Universit…The Ralph C Wilson Jr…
Wayne-Metropolitan Community Action Agency IncMI44.5× affinity19 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Wayne-Metropolitan Community Action Agency Inc · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · The Kresge Foundation · The Skillman Foundation · United Way for Southeastern Michigan · DTE Energy Foundation · Enterprise Community Partners Inc · The Fred & Barbara Erb Family Foundation · The Gilbert Family Foundation · Detroit Regional Chamber Foundation Inc · Wayne State University Research and Technology Park in the City of Detroit · The Ralph C Wilson Jr Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Detroit Future City funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Detroit Future City. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%4%8%15%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    typical government reliance, FY20–25
    How this is measured
    Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.

    On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 39 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

    How this is measured
    Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

    Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports $55k of grant expense, but none of it to a named recipient. On a Form 990 that can mean grants abroad, filed by region only (Schedule F), grants under $5,000, which are not itemized, or a schedule referenced as an attachment the e-file does not carry. The figures above are therefore from FY2024, the most recent year this funder named its grantees.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Detroit Future City’s filings →

    More from the funding graph

    The unnamed billions
    grants reported with no recipient in the public record
    The regranting layer
    51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
    The DAF merry-go-round
    $9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
    The endowment market
    who holds foundation money, and what just moved
    The camps
    funders cluster by geography, not ideology
    By state
    where grant money is based, and what stays home