· Private foundation
Margaret Dunning Foundation
Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2018 to 2025.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k25 grants · $687k
- $50k–250k8 grants · $425k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| HARTLAND CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS | $70,000 |
| SOUTH REDFORD SCHOOL DISTRICT | $55,000 |
| MI WORK MATTERS | $50,000 |
| VISION TO LEARN | $50,000 |
| FIRST STEP | $50,000 |
| LIVING AND LEARNING ENRICHMENT CENTER | $50,000 |
| METHODIST CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY | $50,000 |
| ARC OF NORTHWEST WAYNE COUNTY | $50,000 |
| FITZGERALD PUBLIC SCHOOLS | $48,000 |
| FRIENDS OF THE PENN | $45,000 |
| PLYMOUTH-CANTON COMMUNITY SCHOOLS | $45,000 |
| UTICA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS | $43,000 |
| NEW HAVEN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS | $36,000 |
| NEW HOPE CENTER FOR GRIEF SUPPORT | $30,000 |
| SOUTH LAKE SCHOOLS | $30,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY18–25, $926k) land where the poverty rate runs at 15%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 82% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 10% of Margaret Dunning Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 90% of the giving stays in MI; by stated purpose, 81%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +26% since the first grant, against +14% for those funded once.
46 repeat relationships: 20 still active in FY2025, 26 since wound down; 7 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (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 FY2025, 76% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $239k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES7× · 2018–2024 · $1.0M · revenue +26%- PPPLYMOUTH PARC INC4× · 2018–2022 · $305k · revenue +24%
- PHPLYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY6× · 2018–2025 · $285k · revenue +3% · 31% of their budget
Funded once
- GAGENEVIEVE AND DONALD S GILMORE FDNone grant, 2018 · $115k · revenue +12%
THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTSone grant, 2020 · $100k · revenue +14%- OSOAKLAND SCHOOL EDUCATION FOUNDATIONgraduatedone grant, 2018 · $86k · revenue +38%
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.
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.
Informing and educating the public and decision makers about environmental issues.
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
Business leaders for michigan is a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide organization driven by ceos from the state's leading employers, all working toward a shared goal: making michigan a top 10 state for jobs, talent and a thriving economy.…
To promote conditions favorable to job creation and business success in michigan.
The nmu foundation will establish and foster relationships to generate resources that benefit the strategic goals of northern michigan university.
The mission of the michigan science center is to inspire curious minds of all ages to discover, explore and appreciate science, technology, engineering and math in a creative, dynamic learning environment.
The corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively for charitable, educational and scientific purposes by conducting or supporting activites exclusively for the benefit of, to perform the functions of, or to carry out the…
Assisting the community mental health boards of michigan in developing methods for mental health planning, care and treatment.
For all state residents, diverse civic stakeholders and philanthropy, the center for michigan (the center) and its nonprofit newsrooms - bridge michigan and bridgedetroit - make michigan better through high-quality, nonpartisan journalism…
Cooperatively empowering credit unions to increase financial well-being by supporting community enrichment, financial education, and credit union development initiatives
Henry ford health macomb hospital (hfmh) is an affiliate of henry ford health system dba henry ford health ("hf health") serving the northeastern metropolitan detroit michigan communities. as an integrated component of one of the nation's…
To encourage and support its members as professionals responsible for the delivery of patient-focused care.
How this is measured
48 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. 48 of the 86 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.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
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.
- Who funds COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES ↗
- Who funds COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ↗
- Who funds VEHICLES FOR CHANGE INC ↗
- Who funds PLYMOUTH PARC INC ↗
- Who funds PLYMOUTH HISTORICAL SOCIETY ↗
- Who funds Flint Cultural Center Corporation ↗
- Who funds GULF COAST COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF SARASOTA-MANATEE INC ↗
- Who funds THE ARC OF NORTHWEST WAYNE COUNTY ↗
- Who funds LIVING & LEARNING ENRICHMENT CENTER ↗
- Who funds PLYMOUTH COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL ↗
- Who funds EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds First Step The Western Wayne County Project Domestic Assault ↗
- Who funds GENEVIEVE AND DONALD S GILMORE FDN ↗
- Who funds VISTA MARIA ↗
- Who funds GROWTH WORKS INC ↗
- Who funds NEW HOPE CENTER FOR GRIEF SUPPORT INC ↗
- Who funds VISION TO LEARN ↗
- Who funds THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS ↗
- Who funds Kettering University ↗
- Who funds OAKWOOD HEALTHCARE INC ↗
- Who funds OAKLAND SCHOOL EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MACOMB COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds FRIENDS OF THE PENN INC ↗
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.
Open a dossier: Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · DTE Energy Foundation · Ford Philanthropy · United Way for Southeastern Michigan · The Wilcox Foundation · Orsa Foundation · Consumers Energy Foundation · Canton Community Foundation Inc · The Kresge Foundation · Community Financial Credit Union · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Margaret Dunning Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Margaret Dunning Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Vehicles for Change Inc: 16% of income from government
How this is measured
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