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Progress Michigan Inc at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Progress Michigan Inc

The organization's mission is to provide a strong, credible voice that holds public officials and government accountable; assists in the promotion of progressive ideas and uses state-of-the-art web-based news media to creatively build grassroots support for progressive ideas.

$3.4M
Granted FY2024still arriving
6
Grants FY2024still arriving
2
States reached
$825k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
0194% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2019 to 2024.

Public Benefit$3.1MCivil Rights$1.6MEducation$1.1MHealth$200kRecreation & Sports$147kEnvironment$140kEmployment$24kOther$0
02FY2024 · 6 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

How this is measured
The 6 grants below total $1,615,000, the rows itemized in this filing. The $3,387,980 headline is the total grant expense on the return; the other $1,772,980 is giving the schedule does not break out (grants under the $5,000 itemization floor, grants to individuals, grants on other schedules). Every figure below describes the itemized rows only.

By grant size · FY2024

  • $50k–250k4 grants · $390k
  • $250k+2 grants · $1.2M
$100,000
Median grant
2
States reached
$926k
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
Progress Michigan Education$825,000
Michigan Civic Action Fund$400,000
Planned Parenthood advocates of Mic$100,000
Detroit Action$100,000
Michigan Liberation$100,000
Forward Michigan$90,000
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 (FY19–24) land where the poverty rate runs at 16%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 80% of its dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 11%TIDES ADVOCACY: $567k → 10%WORKING AMERICA: $24k → 14%EMGAGE ACTION INC: $100k → 16%Michigan Civic Action Fund: $400k → 8%BLM LIBERATION PAC: $19k → 9%INMAN RECALL COMMITTEE: $10k → 10%PLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES: $100k → 14%CENTER FOR CHANGE: $100k → 14%PROGRESS MICHIGAN POLITICAL: $1.5M → 16%EMGAGE FOUNDATION INC: $50k → 21%PROGRESS NOW: $150k → 8%Detroit Action: $100k → 10%MICHIGAN LEAGUE OF: $100k → 14%Progress Michigan Education: $825k → 16%WE THE PEOPLE ACTION FUND: $840k → 21%DETROIT ACTION: $19k → 10%PROGRESS NOW: $313k → 16%MICHIGAN ACTION: $81k → 21%PROGRESS MICHIGAN EDUCATION: $189k → 16%Michigan Liberation: $100k → 21%MICHIGAN LEAGUE: $128k → 16%Forward Michigan: $90k → 21%ENGAGE MICHIGAN: $75k → 16%PONTIAC POLICY ACTION FUND: $50k → 21%PROGRESS MICHIGAN POLITICAL: $55k → 16%PONTIAC POLICY ACTION FUND: $19k → 21%CLEAN WATER ACTION: $40k → 16%MOTHERING JUSTICE: $19k → 21%LIBERATION PAC: $30k → 16%MICHIGAN UNITED: $19k → 21%MICHIGAN LIBERATION: $19k → 21%MI PODER: $100k → 21%LGBT DETROIT: $19k → 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.

61%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$3.9M · 5 repeat orgs$2.5M to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +76% since the first grant, against +10% for those funded once.

5 repeat relationships: 2 still active in FY2024, 3 since wound down; 4 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

5
18

Total granted

$3.9M
$1.8M

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+76%
+10%

Still filing today

60%
67%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 57% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $690k went to new ones.

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

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

’19’20’21’22’23’24
Civil RightsPublic BenefitHealthEnvironmentOther
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

  • PM
    PROGRESS MICHIGAN POLITICAL
    2× · 2021–2022 · $1.6M
  • PM
    Progress Michigan Education Inc
    3× · 2019–2024 · $1.1M · revenue +76%
  • TA
    TIDES ADVOCACY
    3× · 2020–2024 · $686k · revenue -40%

Funded once

  • WT
    We The People Action Fund
    one grant, 2021 · $840k · revenue +9% · 41% of their budget
  • ML
    MICHIGAN LEAGUE
    one grant, 2021 · $128k
  • MP
    MI PODERgraduated
    one grant, 2023 · $100k · revenue ×85
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 Rising Action

Michigan Rising Action is focused on holding special interest networks accountable and advancing conservative principles. We're fighting for limited government, lowering taxes, fighting government over-regulation that stifles freedom, free…

—
2
Michigan Advocacy Program

To advance the safety, independence, and economic stability of those most affected by poverty, racism, and other structurally oppressive systems by increasing access to justice and working for systemic solutions.

Crime & Legal
3
Elevated Voices Inc

Voter education around policy

—
4
Michigan Center of Accountability for Republicans

Social welfare and issue advocacy

Civil Rights
5
Progress Michigan Inc
Public Benefit
6
Michigan League for Public Policy

The league's mission is to promote racial equity, economic security, health, and well being for all people in michigan through policy change.

Human Services
7
Accountability for Government Fund Inc

To operate exclusively for the promotion of civic action and social welfare by promoting the common good and general welfare of the residents of and visitors to the State of Michigan; to support public policies on the Federal State and…

—
8
Prosperity Michigan Inc

Prosperity michigan is the nonpartisan voice advocating for economic growth and opportunity for all michiganders, we make a pro-opportunity agenda front and center with elected officials, candidates, and voters by mobilizing citizens as a…

—
9
For Michigan

To empower students in Michigan's higher education institutions to take leadership in their community and increase their participation in the democratic process. We strengthen students' voices in developing and advocating for legislation…

Civil Rights
10
Put Progress First

To operate exclusively for the promotion of civic action and social welfare by promoting the common good and general welfare of the residents of, and visitors to, the State of Michigan; To support public policies on the federal, state, and…

—
11
Arab Americans for Progress

Arab Americans for Progress is a Michigan-based 501c4 organization working to build a just, equitable and democratic society where the highest purpose of government is to serve the needs of all its people.

Civil Rights
12
We the People Mi

To organize, train, and educate communities throughout Michigan to promote racial and economic justice; facilitate relationships between community leaders from rural, suburban, and urban communities across Michigan and strengthen…

Education
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Michigan Civic Action Fund; the most unlike its peers is Liberation Policy Action Cente. 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

20 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. 20 of the 27 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.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
5
Early backer (in before they grew)
19/20
Grantees still filing
9/20
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

PROGRESS MICHIGAN POLITICAL: $1,555,000 · OtherPROGRESS MICHIGAN POLITICALTIDES ADVOCACY: $685,683 · OtherTIDES ADVOCACYMICHIGAN LEAGUE: $127,500 · OtherCenter for Change A Northern MI Adv: $100,000 · OtherEmgage Action Inc: $100,000 · Other+10 more: $400,992 · Other+10 moreWe The People Action Fund: $840,243 · Civil RightsWe The People Action FundPROGRESS NOW INC: $463,000 · Civil RightsPROGRESS NOW INCMICHIGAN CIVIC ACTION FUND: $400,000 · Civil RightsMICHIGAN CIVIC ACTION FUNDACTION FOR LIBERATION: $100,000 · Civil RightsMI PODER: $100,000 · Civil RightsPLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES OF MI: $100,000 · Civil Rights+2 more: $38,000 · Civil RightsProgress Michigan Education Inc: $1,089,121 · Public BenefitProgress Michigan Ed…Emgage Foundation Inc: $50,000 · Public BenefitPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $100,000 · HealthMICHIGAN LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND: $100,000 · Environment
Other$2,969,175Civil Rights$2,041,243Public Benefit$1,139,121Health$100,000Environment$100,000

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 budgetProgress Michigan Education Inc: $1,089,121 over 3y, 21% of budgetWe The People Action Fund: $840,243 over 1y, 41% of budgetTIDES ADVOCACY: $685,683 over 3y, 0.7% of budgetPROGRESS NOW INC: $463,000 over 2y, 7.4% of budgetMICHIGAN CIVIC ACTION FUND: $400,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetACTION FOR LIBERATION: $100,000 over 1y, 6.3% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA INC: $100,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetPLANNED PARENTHOOD ADVOCATES OF MI: $100,000 over 1y, 5.5% of budgetCenter for Change A Northern MI Adv: $100,000 over 1y, 32% of budgetMICHIGAN LEAGUE OF CONSERVATION VOTERS EDUCATION FUND: $100,000 over 1y, 4.1% of budgetEmgage Action Inc: $100,000 over 1y, 6.1% of budgetFORWARD MICHIGAN: $90,000 over 1y, 1.4% of budgetEmgage Foundation Inc: $50,000 over 1y, 2.8% of budgetCLEAN WATER ACTION: $40,000 over 1y, 0.6% of budgetLIBERATION POLICY ACTION CENTE: $30,000 over 1y, 89% of budgetWORKING AMERICA: $24,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetMOTHERING JUSTICE: $19,000 over 1y, 0.5% of budgetLGBT Detroit: $19,000 over 1y, 3.1% 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.

Michigan Civic Action…Tides AdvocacyAmerica VotesSixteen Thirty FundTides FoundationState Engagement FundFor Our Future Action…All Hands on Deck Net…Open Society Action F…Michigan VoicesPro-Democracy CampaignNEO Philanthropy Acti…
Michigan Civic Action FundMI30.6× affinity12 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Michigan Civic Action Fund · Tides Advocacy · America Votes · Sixteen Thirty Fund · Tides Foundation · State Engagement Fund · For Our Future Action Fund · All Hands on Deck Network Inc · Open Society Action Fund Inc · Michigan Voices · Pro-Democracy Campaign · NEO Philanthropy Action Fund Inc

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 Progress Michigan Inc funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Progress Michigan Inc. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 20%6%25%56%100%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
    2get 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.
    05Through Plinth

    Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

    How do I get to Progress Michigan Inc?

    Find your warmest path to Progress Michigan Inc through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

    Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

    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 27 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 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Progress Michigan’s 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