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Detroit Public Schools Foundation at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Detroit Public Schools Foundation

DPSFs mission is to create and enhance educational opportunities for over 50,000 Detroit Public Schools Community Districts students, families and educators.

$4.8M
Granted FY2025still arriving
8
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$26M
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 2025.

Education$60MArts & Culture$53kYouth Development$43kCommunity Improvement$25kEmployment$23kRecreation & Sports$10kFood & Nutrition$5k
02FY2025 · 8 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k2 grants · $8k
  • $10k–50k3 grants · $47k
  • $50k–250k1 grant · $180k
  • $250k+2 grants · $27M
$22,500
Median grant
1
States reached
$31M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS$26,196,932
BREITHAUPT CAREER TECHNICAL CENTER$900,000
AMELIA EARHART MIDDLE SCHOOL$180,000
CAREER PATHWAYS$22,500
HENRY FORD HIGH SCHOOL$14,000
PALMER PARK PREPARATORY ACADEMY$10,000
SOUTHEASTERN HIGH SCHOOL$5,000
SPAIN ELEMENTARY MIDDLE SCHOOLS$2,500
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:

Dollar for dollar, its grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 21%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 12%WOMEN OF TOMORROW MENTORS: $5k → 8%MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY: $5k → 16%UNITED CHARITABLE - ATHLETES FOR CHARITY: $5k → 21%Special Olympics Michigan Inc: $5k → 8%JIVE TURKEY DETROIT: $5k → 21%JEROME BETTIS BUS STOPS HERE FOUNDATION: $18k → 8%PEWABIC SOCIETY INC: $5k → 21%SPHINX Organization Inc: $8k → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $26.2M → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT: $10.0M → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT: $7.6M → 21%Detroit Public Schools Community District: $3.5M → 21%Detroit Public Schools Community District: $2.8M → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $2.7M → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $2.4M → 21%Detroit Public Schools Community District: $819k → 21%Detroit College Promise Scholarship: $74k → 21%Detroit College Promise Scholarship: $67k → 21%Detroit College Promise Scholarship: $26k → 21%DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: $10k → 21%The Arts League of Michigan: $5k → 21%LIVING ARTS: $5k → 21%The Arts League of Michigan: $5k → 21%DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: $5k → 21%Rebel Nell L3C: $25k → 21%Living Arts: $10k → 21%DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $2.6M → 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.

54%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$33M · 5 repeat orgs$27M to everyone else

5 repeat relationships: 0 still active in FY2025, 5 since wound down; 8 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
9

Total granted

$33M
$101k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+14%
+72%

Still filing today

80%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 0% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $27M went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Arts & CultureYouth DevelopmentEducationCommunity ImprovementRecreation & SportsFood & NutritionOther
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

  • DP
    DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT
    8× · 2017–2024 · $32M
  • DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION
    3× · 2017–2019 · $167k · revenue ×19
  • THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS
    2× · 2020–2023 · $15k · revenue +14%

Funded once

  • RN
    Rebel Nell L3C
    one grant, 2018 · $25k
  • BC
    BUILDING COMMUNITY VALUEgraduated
    one grant, 2018 · $25k · revenue +344% · 29% of their budget
  • TJ
    THE JEROME BETTIS BUS STOPS HERE FOUNDATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2020 · $18k · revenue +230%
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
Michigan Legacy Art Park

Inspire awareness, appreciation and passion for michigan's history and stories, culture and environment through the arts.

Arts & Culture
2
Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit

Empowering young people to maximize their potential through professional performing arts training and the creation of theatrical and musical art that engages, transforms and inspires.

Arts & Culture
3
Detroit Historical Society

The Detroit Historical Society tells Detroit's stories and why they matter through its exhibits, programs, outreach, and the preservation and dissemination of its artifacts and collections.

Arts & Culture
4
Detroit Artists Market

Promoting and exhibiting work of southeastern michigan artists.

Arts & Culture
5
Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra Inc

To nuture a life-long love of music through imaginative and inspiring experiences for the listeners of today and tomorrow.

—
6
Detroit Puppet Company

Dpc uses awe-inspiring puppetry as a vehicle for a better tomorrow. dpc collaborates with the local commmunity to create inclusive spaces that bring together detroit and hamtramck residents with artists from around the country. the works…

Arts & Culture
7
Umoja Debate Team

Umoja Debate League is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that uses debate as our vehicle to teach Detroit youth ages 11-18 transferable life skills such as critical thinking confidence conflict resolution increased literacy and…

Arts & Culture
8
Northwest Michigan Arts & Culture Network

The mission of the northwest michigan arts & culture network ("the network") is to harness the collective power of the creative sector to cultivate vibrant communities by strengthening the regional ecosystem that supports arts and culture.…

Arts & Culture
9
The Chicago High School for the Arts

The chicago high school for the arts (chiarts) develops the next generation of diverse, artistically promising scholar-artists through intensive pre-professional training in the arts, combined with a comprehensive college preparatory…

Education
10
Urban League of Detroit and Southeastern Michigan

To enable african americans and people in need to reach their full human potential

—
11
Ann Arbor Art Association

To be a contemporary forum for thevisual arts through education, exploration, collaboration and exhibition, and to engage minds, expand perspectives and inspire growth in students of all ages, teachers, artists, and the community.

Arts & Culture
12
Women of Tomorrow Mentor & Scholarship Program Detroit Metro

To inspire, motivate and empower at-risk young women to live up to their full potential through a unique mentoring program with highly accomplished professional women.

—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Living Arts; the most unlike its peers is Jive Turkey Detroit. 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

12 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. 12 of the 23 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.

1
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
11/12
Grantees still filing
8/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICT: $32,367,691 · OtherDETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMMUNITY DISTRICTDETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: $26,196,932 · OtherDETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS+9 more: $1,164,000 · OtherDETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $166,541 · EducationTHE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: $15,000 · Arts & CultureLiving Arts: $15,000 · Arts & CultureTHE ARTS LEAGUE OF MICHIGAN: $10,000 · Arts & CultureSPHINX ORGANIZATION INC: $7,500 · Arts & CultureTHE PEWABIC SOCIETY INC: $5,000 · Arts & CultureBUILDING COMMUNITY VALUE: $25,000 · Community ImprovementTHE JEROME BETTIS BUS STOPS HERE FOUNDATION: $18,182 · Youth DevelopmentWOMEN OF TOMORROW MENTOR AND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM INC: $5,000 · Youth DevelopmentSPECIAL OLYMPICS MICHIGAN INC: $5,000 · Recreation & SportsUNITED CHARITABLE: $5,000 · PhilanthropyJive Turkey Detroit: $5,000 · Food & Nutrition
Other$59,728,623Education$166,541Arts & Culture$52,500Community Improvement$25,000Youth Development$23,182Recreation & Sports$5,000Philanthropy$5,000Food & Nutrition$5,000

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 budgetDETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOUNDATION: $166,541 over 3y, 1.7% of budgetBUILDING COMMUNITY VALUE: $25,000 over 1y, 29% of budgetTHE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS: $15,000 over 2y, 0.0% of budgetLiving Arts: $15,000 over 2y, 1.1% of budgetTHE ARTS LEAGUE OF MICHIGAN: $10,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetSPHINX ORGANIZATION INC: $7,500 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetUNITED CHARITABLE: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetTHE PEWABIC SOCIETY INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetWOMEN OF TOMORROW MENTOR AND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.4% 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.

Community Foundation …Fidelity Investments …Donor Advised Charita…Amazonsmile Foundation
Community Foundation for Southeast MichiganMI13.2× affinity4 shared granteesties to 3 of 3Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund · Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc · Amazonsmile 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 Public Schools Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Detroit Public Schools Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%0%1%3%5%funder's share of their income ↑0%1%3%4%5%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    3report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–5%
    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 23 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 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Detroit Public Schools’ 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