How much does First Steps Kent give?

First Steps Kent reported 20 grants totaling $9,755,324 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 23 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.

What does First Steps Kent fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (33%), Education (22%), Crime & Legal (15%).

Who are First Steps Kent's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Family Futures ($5.1M), Kent Intermediate School District ($4.1M), Kent County ($3.8M).

Does First Steps Kent fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 5% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Which funders back the same organizations as First Steps Kent?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Corewell Health Group Return, Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

Where is First Steps Kent based?

First Steps Kent is based in MI.

Foundation Dossiers Also receives grants: funding profile →

Michigan · Public charity

First Steps Kent

To create a coordinated, integrated system of early childhood services that supports all families in kent county so every young child in kent county will enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and in life. The organization's most significant activity was obtaining grants and donations to implement, increase, strengthen, and…

$9.8M
Granted FY2025(still arriving): 20
Grants FY2025: 22
Organizations funded FY2024: 5%
First-time grantees FY2024

Read the full brief

Median grant, FY2025: $321,125
Largest grant, FY2025: $1,430,417
Organizations funded a year: 1 to 23; FY2017 to FY2024
States reached, FY2025: 4
Total assets, FY2025: $3.9M

How open it is to new grantees

In FY2024, 5% of the organizations First Steps Kent funded were first-time grantees, receiving 2% of its grant dollars.

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $152k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

Human ServicesHealthHousing & ShelterCrime & LegalEducationCivil RightsOther

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.

The numbers by year

Fiscal year	Organizations funded	To those organizations	First-time grantees
FY2025still arriving	20	$9.8M	5%
FY2024	22	$10.0M	5%
FY2023	23	$9.4M	9%
FY2021	22	$4.4M	18%
FY2020	18	$2.3M	89%
FY2019	1	$89k	0%
FY2018	2	$225k	0%
FY2017	2	$105k	n/a

100% classified

What it funded, over time

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

Health$8.8MEducation$5.7MCrime & Legal$4.0MHuman Services$2.7MPublic Benefit$2.1MHousing & Shelter$1.7MYouth Development$1.0MSocial Science$329kOther$0

Top grantees

Largest recipients by total granted, FY2017 to FY2025, and the share of each one’s budget the grants supplied at peak.

Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Family Futures	$5,147,473	6	32%
Kent Intermediate School District	$4,148,690	6	n/a
Kent County	$3,754,709	6	n/a
Health Net of West Michigan	$3,625,355	8	26%
Corewell Health	$3,478,379	6	0%
The Arbor Circle Corporation	$2,825,305	6	4%
Grand Rapids Community College	$2,028,174	9	n/a
Cherry Street Services Inc	$1,531,728	6	1%
Vibrant Futures	$1,353,181	6	7%
Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan Inc	$1,289,250	6	61%

Show all 26 grantees

All grantees of First Steps Kent by total granted
Grantee	Total granted	Years	Share of their budget
Family Futures	$5,147,473	6	32%
Kent Intermediate School District	$4,148,690	6	n/a
Kent County	$3,754,709	6	n/a
Health Net of West Michigan	$3,625,355	8	26%
Corewell Health	$3,478,379	6	0%
The Arbor Circle Corporation	$2,825,305	6	4%
Grand Rapids Community College	$2,028,174	9	n/a
Cherry Street Services Inc	$1,531,728	6	1%
Vibrant Futures	$1,353,181	6	7%
Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan Inc	$1,289,250	6	61%
Family Promise of Grand Rapids	$1,120,955	6	7%
Ready for School	$977,179	5	30%
Momsbloom Inc	$827,300	6	54%
Bethany Christian Services	$742,171	5	1%
The Young Men's Christian Association of Greater Grand Rapids (3019)	$473,281	2	1%
Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative	$461,953	4	1%
Basis Policy Research LLC	$461,605	4	n/a
Hispanic Center of Western Michigan Inc	$429,475	5	4%
West Michigan Partnership for Children	$378,839	4	1%
Easterseals Morc Health Care Inc	$363,226	5	0%
Da Blodgett - St John's	$336,255	6	1%
Comprehensive Therapy Center	$176,271	6	6%
Advance Community for Equity	$153,800	4	n/a
Heart of West Michigan United Way	$89,788	2	0%
Liaison Linguistics	$44,511	3	n/a
The Playgroundgr	$29,502	1	13%

First Steps Kent supplied at least a quarter of the budget for 5 of its grantees at some point. The chart plots its 20 largest grantees; load-bearing ones sit top left.

Tap a dot to name the grantee.

How this is measured

Share of budget is the funder’s grant in a year over the grantee’s total revenue that year, at its highest across the years we hold; revenue is from all sources. Only grantees confirmed against their own filings, whose grants do not exceed their revenue, are plotted: the largest 20.

Nonprofits that may fit its grantmaking

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.

Grand Rapids Community FoundationMI41.9× affinity18 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Grand Rapids Community Foundation · Corewell Health Group Return · Michigan Health Endowment Fund · Heart of West Michigan United Way · Frey Foundation · The Wege Foundation · The Community Foundation of the Holland/Zeeland Area Inc · WK Kellogg Foundation · The Sebastian Foundation · Douglas & Maria Devos Foundation · Feeding America West Michigan · Health Net of West Michigan

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.

Compare First Steps Kent with peer funders

About First Steps Kent

How much does First Steps Kent give?: First Steps Kent reported 20 grants totaling $9,755,324 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 1 and 23 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2024.
What does First Steps Kent fund?: By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2025, its largest causes are Health (33%), Education (22%), Crime & Legal (15%).
Who are First Steps Kent's largest grantees?: By total granted over FY2017 to FY2025: Family Futures ($5.1M), Kent Intermediate School District ($4.1M), Kent County ($3.8M).
Does First Steps Kent fund new organizations?: In FY2024, 5% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.
Which funders back the same organizations as First Steps Kent?: Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Corewell Health Group Return, Michigan Health Endowment Fund.
Where is First Steps Kent based?: First Steps Kent is based in MI.