· Public charity
Michigan Colleges Alliance
Michigan Colleges Alliance is a collective of excellent independent colleges and universities located throughout Michigan.
What you funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year — across FY2017–2025.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
By grant size · FY2025
- $10k–50k2 grants · $84k
- $50k–250k9 grants · $995k
- $250k+4 grants · $2.4M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Kalamazoo College | $1,068,691 |
| Hope College | $683,785 |
| Olivet College | $314,761 |
| Aquinas College | $305,808 |
| Albion College | $242,826 |
| Adrian College | $152,752 |
| University of Detroit Mercy | $126,461 |
| Spring Arbor University | $118,311 |
| Madonna University | $91,032 |
| Calvin University | $70,888 |
| Siena Heights | $67,475 |
| College for Creative Studies | $62,767 |
| Alma College | $62,331 |
| Andrews University | $46,704 |
| Hillsdale College | $37,280 |
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.
Dollar for dollar, your grants (FY17–25) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 13%. 27% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Your grants skew toward lower-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.
13 repeat relationships — 13 still active in FY2025, 0 since wound down.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2025, 100% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $0 went to new ones.
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
- KCKALAMAZOO COLLEGE9× · 2017–2025 · $11M · revenue +41%
- HCHOPE COLLEGE9× · 2017–2025 · $3.8M · revenue +37%
OLIVET COLLEGE9× · 2017–2025 · $2.7M · revenue +25%
Funded once
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.
Saint xavier university, a catholic institution inspired by the heritage of the sisters of mercy, educates persons to search for truth, think critically, communicate effectively and serve wisely and compassionately in support of human…
Inspired by lutheran scholarly tradition and the liberal arts, augustana provides an education of enduring worth that challenges the intellect, fosters integrity and integrates faith with learning and service in a diverse world.
Xavier is a jesuit catholic university rooted in the liberal arts tradition. our mission is to educate each student intellectually, morally, and spiritually. we create learning opportunities through rigorous academic and professional…
Lyon college offers a liberal arts education of superior quality in a personalized setting. a selective, independent, undergraduate, residential teaching and learning community affiliated with the presbyterian church (usa). lyon encourages…
Wilson college empowers students to be confident and critical thinkers, creative visionaries, effective communicators, honorable leaders, and agents of justice.
Education - lagrange college challenges the minds and inspires the souls of its students. founded in 1831 and committed to its relationship with the united methodist church and its wesleyan and liberal arts traditions, the college supports…
Hilbert college is an independent institution of higher learning that embraces its catholic franciscan heritage and values. students from diverse backgrounds are educated in liberal arts and professional programs to become informed…
Rooted in the liberal arts & sciences & lutheran expression of the christian faith, & is committed to offering a challenging education that develops qualities of mind, spirit, & body necessary for a rewarding life of leadership & service…
The bac is committed to provide excellence in design education grounded in practice and accessible to diverse communities.
Excelsior University provides educational opportunity to adult learners with an emphasis on those historically underrepresented in higher education. The University meets students where they are - academically and geographically, offering…
Through innovative learning opportunities, individual student attention, and an unwavering commitment to inclusive educational access, simpson college cultivates a diverse community of learners to lead lives of meaning and purpose.
Defiance College graduates students to lead distinctive lives in their chosen professions through a spirit of service by preparing them to Know, To Understand, To Lead, and To Serve.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Madonna University and the most unlike its peers is Hillsdale College. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
15 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.
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 KALAMAZOO COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds HOPE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds OLIVET COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds ALBION COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds Aquinas College ↗
- Who funds ADRIAN COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds ALMA COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds UNIVERSITY OF DETROIT MERCY ↗
- Who funds CALVIN UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds Madonna University ↗
- Who funds Spring Arbor University ↗
- Who funds ANDREWS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds SIENA HEIGHTS UNIVERSITY ↗
- Who funds HILLSDALE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds COLLEGE FOR CREATIVE STUDIES ↗
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: Myer & Lois Franklin Charitable Tr · The VombergTrumley Foundation · Robert B Westfall Foundation · The Gerber Foundation · Community Foundation for Muskegon County · Consumers Energy Foundation · Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · National Philanthropic Trust · Raymond James Charitable Endowment Fund · Charities Aid Foundation America · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc
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 Michigan Colleges Alliance 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.