Michigan · Nonprofit
DESIGNCONNECT
DESIGNCONNECT (Michigan) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $219,801 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ($180,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2023
- $111k
- Funders on record
- 7
- Grants received
- $220k
- Net assets
- $102k
What Designconnect does
Mission
To provide career pathways in creative design for Detroit students through experiential learning, mentoring, and financial assistance.
As stated on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Financial assistance to students and teachers in terms of scholarships, as well as donations of art supplies and equipment.
$3,695 spentof which $3,695 as grants7% of program spendingWe started out the expansion of our programming in the summer of 2023. We collaborated with the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation to launch the "Art and Design" workshop. This program reached out to Hispanic students in Southwest Detroit, a demographic previously not covered by DC's programming. The workshop was designed to immerse students in creative processes and real-world design applications, significantly enriching their educational experience during a period typically marked idleness. We have continued to evolve and expand our offerings to better meet the interests and needs of our students at the Detroit School of Arts (DSA). Our design curriculum has been notably enhanced with the addition of Product Design and Animation Design workshops, reflecting our commitment to the five-year curriculum expansion we initially laid out in 2019. We launched an after-school club at DSA, led by Camila Lenare, a senior from the College for Creative Studies (CCS), in the fall of 2023. Under her tutelage and mentoring, this program has flourished, providing a rich supplement to in-school curriculum. Camila has meticulously developed specific content tailored to the unique needs and…
$50,756 spent93% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $54,451.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2021 to 2022, from $109k to $72k (−33%).
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.
100% of DESIGNCONNECT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 4 reported years ran a deficit.
Leadership and staff
Chief executive
Jocelyn Chen
Executive Director
Board chair
Chris Benjamin
Chair
As listed on its FY2023 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 3 funders, grant income rose $5k → $57k.
3 of 7 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 85% 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 DESIGNCONNECT’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
DESIGNCONNECT leans on a few funders — its largest provides 82% of grant income and the top three 96%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
96% 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 DESIGNCONNECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2021 96% · 2022 99% · 2023 88% — 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
85% of DESIGNCONNECT'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 $33k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $187k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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
DESIGNCONNECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,174 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,174 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2023
Organizations like DESIGNCONNECT
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.
Public support
87%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for DESIGNCONNECT: 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 DESIGNCONNECT?
- DESIGNCONNECT (Michigan) receives grants from 7 organizations whose IRS filings report $219,801 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ($180,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 85% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does DESIGNCONNECT have?
- IRS filings report 7 organizations giving $219,801 in grants to DESIGNCONNECT, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DESIGNCONNECT?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN is the largest funder on record, with $180,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DESIGNCONNECT 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 Designconnect →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2023 (financials across 2019–2023), and the filings of 7 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