The Skillman Foundation

The hardship those neighborhoods carry, beyond income:

• Adults without health insurance:reaches 36.7% in some neighborhoods (typically 6.4%)(CDC, modeled)
• Eviction pressure:up to 141.4 filings per 100 renter households in the hardest-hit areas(Eviction Lab, 2018)
• Food access:134 of 1519 neighborhoods are USDA-designated food deserts(USDA, 2019)

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, United Way ALICE — shown as context about the area, never attributed to your giving.

About 9% of The Skillman Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked, by their stated purpose, for a different county than the recipient’s own address — money that lands at a nonprofit in one place but is meant to do its work in another. Read by recipient address, 84% of the giving stays in MI; read by stated purpose it is 89% — more of the work is directed home than the recipients' locations suggest.

Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the foundation’s own 990 grant descriptions.

CENTER FOR SUCCESS NETWORK

Conviction

An early bet that kept compounding

Skillman backed Center for Success Network across five consecutive cycles from 2020 to 2024, committing $861,050 at a peak of 37% of the organization's budget — and alongside that sustained partnership, revenue grew 113% since the first grant. In 2024 alone, the Detroit-based nonprofit delivered over 25,000 hours of one-on-one literacy mentoring through more than 300 trained volunteers, certified teachers, and AmeriCorps members, with 84% of students demonstrating measurable reading growth and students gaining an average of four independent and four instructional reading levels in a single program year.

5× · 2020–2024

Funded

$861k

You committed

37%

Peak share of budget

+473%

Their revenue since

• 2013Center for Success Network was founded in Detroit, MI and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2013.
• 2014-10Center for Success Network received tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status in October 2014.
• 2024Provided over 25,000 hours of individualized literacy mentoring delivered by trained volunteers, certified teachers, and AmeriCorps members.
• 202484% of students demonstrated measurable reading growth, with the majority accelerating faster than grade-level expectations.
• 2024Students gained an average of 4 independent and 4 instructional reading levels in a single program year, narrowing achievement gaps in Michigan districts with low proficiency rates.
• 2024Trained and deployed more than 300 volunteer literacy mentors to provide one-on-one support, resulting in high program consistency and strong student retention.

CITIZENDETROIT ACTION GROUP

Funded once

Catalytic moment; financial base still narrow

Skillman made a single $150,000 grant to CitizenDetroit Action Group in 2020 — support that represented as much as 95% of the organization's peak budget at the time — as the Detroit civic-engagement nonprofit pivoted quickly to phone-based and virtual programming when COVID-19 shut down in-person events, reaching an average of 40 residents per event and providing unbiased candidate information ahead of both 2020 elections. Revenue has not grown since that first grant and recent filings are unavailable, leaving the organization's current financial footing unclear even as its civic mission remains active.

once (2020)

Funded

$150k

You committed

95%

Peak share of budget

-95%

Their revenue since

• 2012CitizenDetroit Action Group was founded in 2012 to prepare Detroit residents to engage in public policy debate, beginning amid the city's impending bankruptcy and state financial oversight.
• 2018-04CitizenDetroit Action Group was recognized as tax-exempt under 501(c)(3) by the IRS in April 2018.
• 2020Held three in-person events and five online events between February and August 2020, with an average of 40 people attending each event.
• 2020Created a phone-based training event to familiarize constituents with online technology when COVID-19 shut down programming.
• 2020Provided candidate videos for both 2020 elections and conducted one outdoor voter engagement event.
• 2020Conducted a virtual dinner and dialogue with candidates for the upcoming election, providing unbiased information to voters by October 2020.

Trajectories are each organization’s own subsequent IRS filings; milestones are from the public record, linked to source.

Through Plinth

Your grantmaking, live and operational

This dossier was generated cold from public filings. In Plinth it’s a working system — every applicant assessed and every grant monitored. Here’s a taste, run on one of your grantees: CITIZENDETROIT ACTION GROUP.

Preview generated from this grantee’s public IRS filings and independent reporting. Pillars marked “live in Plinth” require the applicant’s submitted documents. Shown as illustration, not a formal assessment.