Michigan · Nonprofit
Ann Arbor Spark
Ann Arbor Spark (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $482,000 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($300,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $482k
- Net assets
- $13M
What Ann Arbor Spark does
Mission
Ann Arbor SPARK advances the region by encouraging and supporting business acceleration, attraction, expansion and retention. Our organization identifies and meets the needs of companies at every stage, from start-ups to large organizations. Ann Arbor SPARK collaborates with business, academic, government and community investment partners to position the region as a destination for innovation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Business Incubator/Accelerator Services: SPARK creates long-term regional prosperity by accelerating the growth of start-ups and early-stage companies through support by offering direct and consultant services. SPARK creates a place where early-stage companies can conduct business at affordable rates and can co-locate with other entrepreneurs and in the eco-system. SPARK offers those companies educational and networking events in the incubator space. We create an ecosystem whereby start-ups can connect easily with resources they need at early stages to launch and establish, thus attracting start-ups to this region. This supports growth in the companies themselves, the direct support services, and the region's economy, creating a virtuous cycle of economic growth. SPARK is part of the award-winning Global Epicenter of Mobility (GEM) program, administering the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) component of the program. In 2024, SPARK assisted 457 innovation start-ups which currently employ 1,154 Full Time Employees. SPARK nutured 156 incubator tenants.
Business Development (Expansion, Attraction, Retention): SPARK maximizes potential jobs and capital investment in the region and helps grow the region's GDP through the retention and expansion of established driving industry companies and the targeted attraction domestically and internationally of similar companies that fit the region's identified clusters. This is done by regular communication with local businesses to determine their needs, making key business introductions, assisting with site selection, collaborating with local municipalities, and assisting companies in working with local academic partners to communicate talent needs.This year SPARK supported these major Washtenaw County companies: North Star Clean Energy, Leibherr's, Tortillas Tita, and the University of Michigan. Additionally, with 17 successful company growth projects, the team facilitated new investment commitments totaling more than $97 million. These projects led to the creating of 541 new jobs and the retention of 657 existing ones.
Communication and Community Engagement: SPARK uses its established platform of social media followers, website traffic, and brand awareness to expand local, regional, statewide, national, and global awareness of the Ann Arbor region's attractiveness for business location and career and life opportunities. SPARK also promotes community events that market the region as a great place to start a business and/or work for a start-up. Our weeklong series of events, A2TECH360, had 20 total events and over 2,400 registered attendees, 1.2 million social media views as well as 161k webpage views.
Capital Funding - Michigan Angel Fund & SPARK capital (formerly Michigan Pre-seed Fund): The mission of our funding programs is to support high-tech companies throughout the state at their earliest stages of development and position these high-growth companies to be able to raise additional capital and investments. Capital programs are an intentional economic development tool that pays itself back, allowing the funds to be redeployed for future reinvestment into more companies. With 155 members, the Michigan Angel Fund (MAF) is the largest angel organization in Michigan. The group has 40 companies, filling an important funding gap by investing in very early-stage companies across the state that are not yet primed for venture and other sources of capital. MAF is managed by Ann Arbor SPARK and invested $521K into 6 companies.
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $14M to $19M (+40%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2018 7% · 2019 17% · 2020 41% · 2023 60% · 2024 83%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Paul Krutko
President & CEO
Board chair
Kelly Sexton
Chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $10k → $50k.
Left out of every figure on this page: $2.2M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Ann Arbor Spark Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money Ann Arbor Spark raised.
From the IRS filings of Ann Arbor Spark’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Ann Arbor Spark leans on a few funders — its largest provides 62% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
38% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Ann Arbor Spark.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 100% · 2019 77% · 2020 67% · 2021 80% · 2022 74% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
75% of Ann Arbor Spark's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 38% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
95% of Ann Arbor Spark's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Government funding Ann Arbor Spark receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.4M on record.
- Department of Commerce$2.4M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like Ann Arbor Spark
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Michigan
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ann Arbor Spark Foundation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Ann Arbor Spark: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Ann Arbor Spark?
- Ann Arbor Spark (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $482,000 to it, the largest being THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION ($300,000). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Ann Arbor Spark have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $482,000 in grants to Ann Arbor Spark, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Ann Arbor Spark?
- THE RALPH C WILSON JR FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Ann Arbor Spark find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Michigan. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 8 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing