Michigan · Nonprofit
AQUME FOUNDATION
AQUME FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $938,375 to it, the largest being GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($776,625). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $486k
- Funders on record
- 8
- Grants received
- $938k
- Net assets
- $294k
What Aqume Foundation does
Mission
AQUME Foundation honors Black intelligence and innovation by investing in community leaders and fostering unity, economic growth, and strong thriving communities where children and families can flourish together.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
AQUME Foundations General Operations support the organizations exempt-purpose activities by providing administrative, operational, and program infrastructure for our leadership development and community engagement initiatives. Operate in Excellence program strengthens the capacity of Black leaders and under resourced organizations through executive leadership development, operational support, and sustainability-focused training; also supports annual charitable community events, including 5K Health is Wealth and Community Free Skate, which promote community connection, wellness, and public benefit; our Fiduciary program provides both project-specific and comprehensive fiscal sponsorship services for charitable projects that align with our mission to advance economic and racial justic. Project-specific sponsorship is limited to receiving, administering, and disbursing restricted funds for approved charitable purposes, while comprehensive sponsorship may also include
$119,047 spent57% of program spendingAQUME Foundations OUR JUSTICE grant fund advances innovation by investing in our Black-led organizations whose missions and community-based projects directly benefit Black communities. During the 2025 funding cycle OUR JUSTICE Grant Fund awarded ten grants each totaling $2,500 to eligible organizations, our community sponsorships awarded four organizations with $500 each one organization with $250. These grants and sponsorship investments strengthen local initiatives, foster leadership development and provide critical resources to efforts that address community needs, celebrate Black culture and advance equity-driven solutions; OUR Gold Scholar Program reflects the Foundations community trust-based philanthropic model by providing merit-based scholarships to support students with nontraditional college expenses during their first year of college. In 2025 the program awarded three scholarships of $1,000 each. By disbursing funds directly to students, the program
$62,508 spentof which $30,250 as grants30% of program spendingAQUME Foundations Philanthropy Looks Like Me social enterprise program serves greater Grand Rapids area youth and guides a cohort of middle school and high school students through a ten-week program where student entrepreneurs learn how to build a business, generate revenue, and experience the philanthopic impact of collectively giving back to their communities in correlation with the quadruple bottom line of people, planet, profit, and purpose.
$26,450 spent13% of program spending(cont pg2)AQUME Foundations General Operations administrative oversight, bill and vendor payments, grant fund expense tracking and compliance support
(cont pg2) AQUME Foundations Our Justice helps reduce pre-semester financial barriers and promotes greater equity in access to higher education.
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $208,005.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2024 to 2025, from $21k to $304k (+1379%).
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.
102% of AQUME FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (87% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 4 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
Ciarra C Adkins
Executive director
Board chair
Chris Jackson
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2022 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income rose $45k → $50k.
2 of 8 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 84% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AQUME FOUNDATION’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
AQUME FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 83% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
93% 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 AQUME FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2022 89% · 2023 55% — diversifying over time.
“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.
Where its funders are
84% of AQUME FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $147k that is directly attributable, 82% of it comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $791k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. 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.
Against its field
AQUME FOUNDATION has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,237 philanthropy nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like AQUME FOUNDATION
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.
Where the money goes
47% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AQUME FOUNDATION: 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 AQUME FOUNDATION?
- AQUME FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 8 organizations whose IRS filings report $938,375 to it, the largest being GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ($776,625). 3 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 84% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AQUME FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 8 organizations giving $938,375 in grants to AQUME FOUNDATION, 3 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AQUME FOUNDATION?
- GRAND RAPIDS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $776,625 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AQUME FOUNDATION 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.
Play a game about who funds Aqume →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2022–2025), 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 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing