How much does The Hougen Foundation give?

The Hougen Foundation reported 28 grants totaling $225,000 in its FY2024 IRS filing. It funded between 14 and 25 organizations a year over FY2017 to FY2023.

What does The Hougen Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2017 to FY2024, its largest causes are Health (41%), Education (30%), Human Services (13%).

Who are The Hougen Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2017 to FY2024: Kettering University ($120k), Hurley Foundation ($101k), McLaren Flint Foundation ($90k).

Does The Hougen Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2023, 4% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does The Hougen Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and does not take unsolicited requests. Check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

Which funders back the same organizations as The Hougen Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Community Foundation of Greater Flint, The Serra Foundation, Consumers Energy Foundation.

Where is The Hougen Foundation based?

The Hougen Foundation is based in MI.

The Hougen Foundation

The Hougen Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

The Hougen Foundation

Its FY2024 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$225k

Granted FY2024still arriving

Grants FY2024still arriving

States reached

$30k

Largest

01What it funds

0195% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Health$650kEducation$478kHuman Services$203kFood & Nutrition$83kPublic Safety & Disaster$45kHousing & Shelter$38kArts & Culture$25kReligion$14kOther$0

02FY2024 · 28 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

Under $10k17 grants · $77k
$10k–50k11 grants · $148k

$5,000

Median grant

States reached

$3.4M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
MCLAREN REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER	$30,000
FENTON AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS	$18,000
EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY	$15,000
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO	$15,000
FOOD BANK OF EASTERN MICHIGAN	$10,000
GENESYS HEALTH FOUNDATION	$10,000
KETTERING UNIVERSITY	$10,000
SALVATION ARMY	$10,000
ST JUDES CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL	$10,000
ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION INC	$10,000
FLINT POLICE FUND	$10,000
PEDIATRIC HEART TRANSPLANT STUDY FOUNDATION	$5,000
OPERATION ENDURING WARRIOR	$5,000
HURON PINES	$5,000
Individual grant recipient	$5,000

02The need

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:

Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $99k) land where the poverty rate runs at 14%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

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.

Which US states its grants reach

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.

95%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.5M · 32 repeat orgs$77k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +42% since the first grant, against -40% for those funded once.

32 repeat relationships: 25 still active in FY2024, 7 since wound down; 3 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.5M

$60k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+42%

-40%

Still filing today

56%

50%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 92% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $17k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

HealthEducationHuman ServicesArts & CultureCivil RightsFood & NutritionOther

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

KU
Kettering University
8× · 2017–2024 · $120k · revenue +42%
HF
HURLEY FOUNDATION
8× · 2017–2024 · $101k · revenue +74%
MF
MCLAREN FLINT FOUNDATION
4× · 2017–2020 · $90k · revenue +18%

Funded once

AS
AUTISM SPEAKS INC
one grant, 2018 · $30k · revenue -43%
WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT INCgraduated
one grant, 2018 · $10k · revenue +64%
OA
OFFERING ALTERNATIVE THERAPY WITH SMILES
one grant, 2018 · $7k · revenue -40%

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.

Henry Ford Health Genesys Hospital

As one of the nation's leading integrated health systems, it is the mission of henry ford health system, a related entity of the filing organization, to improve people's lives through the excellence of the science and art of health care…

Health

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health

Arbor research collaborative for health is committed to improving patient care through research that shapes medical policies and practice. in particular, arbor research conducts health outcomes research on chronic disease and end-stage…

Health

Henry Ford Macomb Hospital Corporation

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…

Health

Banner -University Medical Group

Assist banner health complete its mission to make health care easier so life can be better by providing integrated & coordinated care & population health management.

Health

Rush University Medical Center

The mission of Rush is to improve the health of the individuals and diverse communities we serve through the integration of outstanding patient care, education, research and community partnerships.

Health

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

To cure cf and provide all people with cf the opportunity to lead long, fulfilling lives by funding research and drug development, partnering with the cf community, and advancing high-quality, specialized care.

Health

Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation

OMRF is dedicated to developing a better understanding of more effective treatments for human disease.

Health

University of Minnesota Physicians

University of minnesota physicians serves as the integrated group practice for the university of minnesota medical school full-time faculty to provide the highest quality healthcare to patients and their families.university of minnesota…

Health

Henry Ford Health Rochester Hospital

Health

The Medical College of Wisconsin Inc

The medical college of wisconsin (mcw) is a distinguished leader and innovator in the education and development of the next generation of physicians, (continued in schedule o)

Education

Jaeb Center for Health Research Foundation Inc

Our mission is to expand scientific knowledge and improve public health by designing and conducting world-class clinical trials and epidemiologic research.

Unclassified

Henry Ford Health Macomb Oakland Hospital

Health

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Mclaren Flint Foundation; the most unlike its peers is Michigan Robotics Foundation. 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

23 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. 23 of the 41 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

23/23

Grantees still filing

15/23

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Other$655,300Health$372,500Education$208,000Civil Rights$101,000Human Services$99,000Food & Nutrition$83,000Arts & Culture$62,500

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.

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.

Community Foundation of Greater FlintMI17.6× affinity6 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Community Foundation of Greater Flint · The Serra Foundation · Consumers Energy Foundation · Charles Stewart Mott Foundation · The Pfizer Foundation Inc · Charities Aid Foundation America · The Bank of America Charitable Foundation Inc · Network for Good · American Endowment Foundation · Paypal Charitable Giving Fund · Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program · American Online Giving Foundation 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 The Hougen Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Hougen Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

2get no government money at all

6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–60%

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.

Play a game based on Hougen’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