· Private foundation
First Federal of Northern Michigan Legacy Foundation
Its FY2023 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What you funded, over time
By grantee IRS cause code (NTEE).
A cause breakdown isn’t shown here: 87% of FIRST FEDERAL OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN LEGACY FOUNDATION’s grantee dollars fall outside its nine largest cause areas, whether because the recipient carries no IRS cause code or because its cause sits in the long tail. A chart would be mostly one residual band and misrepresent the portfolio.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2023
- Under $10k17 grants · $45k
- $10k–50k5 grants · $85k
- $50k–250k1 grant · $85k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Individual grant recipient | $85,366 |
| THUNDER BAY THEATRE | $35,000 |
| ALPENA YOUTH CENTER | $20,000 |
| THE SUNSET PROJECT | $10,000 |
| BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA | $10,000 |
| THUNDER BAY RIVER CENTER | $10,000 |
| UNITED WAY OF NE MICHIGAN | $5,830 |
| Individual grant recipient | $5,000 |
| THUNDER BAY BROWN TROUT | $5,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $4,315 |
| ROGERS CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT | $4,000 |
| HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY | $3,500 |
| COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR NE MI | $2,822 |
| IOSCO COUNTY COATS FOR KIDS | $2,000 |
| FRIENDS OF TB NATIONAL MARINE | $2,000 |
Do your dollars go where the need is?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, then read against the area’s typical level.
Your human-services grants (FY17–23, $27k) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 12%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty linein the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP; grantee ZIP can differ from where services are delivered.
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are actually delivered. Need from public data — U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.
Who you back again
Which organizations you funded more than once, and which you funded a single time. Each grantee is matched to its own filings.
41 repeat relationships — 12 still active in FY2023, 29 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2023 (too recent to call).
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2023, 38% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $133k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
First-time = a grantee’s first year in your filing window; renewed = funded in an earlier year too. As a portfolio matures the renewed share naturally climbs — once funded, an org stays “renewable” — so the signal is the years that buck it (a new-grantee intake wave). 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
- BABOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA3× · 2019–2023 · $87k · revenue +98%
- TBTHUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL5× · 2017–2021 · $15k · revenue +40%
- FTFRIENDS TOGETHER4× · 2019–2022 · $12k · revenue +56%
Funded once
- MMIDMICHIGANone grant, 2021 · $25k
- BMBESSER MUSEUM FOR NORTHEAST MICHIGAN INCgraduatedone grant, 2022 · $25k · revenue +150%
- UWUNITED WAY FOR NE MIone grant, 2020 · $6k
Repeat = funded in two or more distinct years; growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
The map has a center of gravity: the average direction from the rest of the sector toward the organizations the foundation funds — the shape of its giving. Scoring every nonprofit along that direction surfaces the ones that look most like the portfolio. These are the closest matchesthat aren’t grantees — a resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
To protect scenic and natural lands in northern Michigan.
To educate the public on the history of Manistee County
Fresh coast film festival is a film festival organization celebrating the outdoor lifestyle, water-rich environment and resilient spirit of the great lakes and upper midwest. the festival will gather the best in environmental and cultural…
Preservation and restoration of the upper black river area in northeast lower michigan.
The dark sky coast association is a non-profit organization supporting the development, protection and sustainability of michigans dark sky coast in northern emmet county.
Maintain historical museum
To promote the arts to educate, entertain, and enlighten in northern WI.
Maintain & improve pere marquette michigan area snowmobile trails.
The Mission of the Boyne Arts Center is to inspire, serve and strengthen community through the Arts.
Promote the cultural arts on beaver island, michigan
To preserve the history of bay county and develop facilities and programs for the enrichment and enjoyment for our community.
Increase awareness of the fine arts through films
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Thunder Bay River Center Inc and the most unlike its peers is Bay View Center Inc. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
Your grantees are a median of 34 years old; the field is 26. You back the established end — and your money leans older still.
The field is 16% startups (under 5 years old) — 3% of your grantees by number, and just 0% of your money.
The orgs you fund almost never close — 3% lost their exemption, against 5% of the field you don’t fund.
Age = years since IRS exemption (a founding proxy). “Closed” = auto-revocation for 3 years of non-filing — a floor on closure, not proof, and bigger established orgs lapse least. Association, not causation.
25 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each one resolved to its own IRS returns and tracked year by year — your grant beside their revenue from every source. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Counted here: distinct organizations you funded across 2017–2025, not grant rows in a single year — so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 25 of the 123 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Each org by its size and your share of it — top-left is where you’re load-bearing
Go grantee by grantee — a decade per org, and how each moved after you funded them
A decade per grantee — revenue shaded, your grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB OF ALPENA ↗
- Who funds THUNDER BAY THEATRE INC ↗
- Who funds BESSER MUSEUM FOR NORTHEAST MICHIGAN INC ↗
- Who funds ALPENA YOUTH CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS TOGETHER ↗
- Who funds THUNDER BAY RIVER CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HABITAT FOR HUMANITY ↗
- Who funds THE SUNSET PROJECT ↗
- Who funds HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY ↗
- Who funds MICHIGAN BROWN TROUT FESTIVAL INC ↗
- Who funds PRESQUE ISLE COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM ↗
The grantmakers whose grantees overlap with yours far more than size alone predicts. Each orbits closer the stronger the alignment; the arcs between them show where they also fund each other. Here it reads as a tightly interlocked camp — most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Besser Foundation · Consumers Energy Foundation · Edward Jones Foundation · Renaissance Charitable Foundation Inc · Natl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · Amazonsmile Foundation
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. A research starting point: overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.
Government reliance of your grantees
Every dot is one organization First Federal of Northern Michigan Legacy Foundation funds. Left–right is the share of its income from government; up–down is the share from you. Bigger dots raise more. Filter to federal or a single department — and drag the year to watch it move.
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 your grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first — a floor, not 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 12–24 months.
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