· Public charity
Small Business Association of Michigan
The SMALL BUSINESS ASSOCIATION OF MICHIGAN's mission is to help michigan small businesses succeed by promoting entrepreneurship, leveraging buying power and engaging in political advocacy.
Where the money goes
Your grants by size, and where they go.
The 275 grants below total $2,566,348 — the rows itemised in this filing. The $2,895,382 headline is the total grant expense reported on the return, so the remaining $329,034 is giving the schedule does not break out: grants under the $5,000 itemisation floor, grants to individuals, and grants reported on other schedules. Every figure below describes the itemised rows only.
By grant size · FY2021
- Under $10k123 grants · $1.0M
- $10k–50k152 grants · $1.5M
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| RR HOLDINGS 1 LLC | $15,000 |
| ALEX & BECK LLC | $15,000 |
| TK FUND QOZB LLC | $15,000 |
| CITY OF TECUMSEH DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY | $13,793 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| BUTCHER BAR LLC DBA GREY GHOST DETROIT | $10,000 |
| KIMBERLY ALVERSON CRAFTEA LLC | $10,000 |
| LA CASA DE LA HABANA DETROIT INC | $10,000 |
| ALEXANDERS PREMIER BANQUET FACILITY & CATERING | $10,000 |
| ELLIOTTS BAKERY AND COFFEE SHOP LLC | $10,000 |
| Individual grant recipient | $10,000 |
| HUFFAKER GROUP LLC | $10,000 |
| YE OLDE TAP ROOM | $10,000 |
| TECUMSEH OPS LLC | $10,000 |
| NEOPAPALIS OF ANN ARBOR LLC | $10,000 |
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 (FY21–21) land where the poverty rate runs at 13%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 62% of your dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of your grants land in higher-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.
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.
Instruction on the safe use and operation of boats
To develop and encourage competitive and recreational boating, sportsmanship, and boating safety on lake michigan.
Group boating activities, sailing school, and classes for members
Operation of yacht club for members, and to provide goodwill between boat owners, property owners, and fishermen.
To promote the sport of rowing
Provide a location for the members' to persue their free association rights and further maritime education.
We are a historic, private yacht club dedicated to providing a variety of outstanding dining, social, recreational and boating programs for our members, families and guests.
A private membership country club providing golf, tennis, swimming, racquet sports, clubhouse and dining facilities for the social and recreational benefits of its members.
Allow members to golf and socialize
To own and operate a private club for the recreation, pleasure and benefit of club members, their families and guests.
Promote yachting, boating and social activities of club members.
To create and maintain an institution with a world class level of competitive sailing that is instructional at all levels and maintain one of the countrys finest sailing racing facilities.
For reference, the grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Sunseekers Boating Club Inc and the most unlike its peers is CharlotteRising. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
8 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. 8 of the 275 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile; the rest are funded organizations whose filings we could not track year by year.
Where your money sits — by cause, then by grantee
Showing your 200 largest grantees by grant value.
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.
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: Michigan Municipal League Foundation · The Right Place Inc · Ann Arbor Spark · Lakeshore Advantage Corporation · Detroit Economic Growth Association · Southwest Michigan First Corp · Lansing Economic Area Partnership
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 Small Business Association of Michigan 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.