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Michigan · Nonprofit

Detroit Justice Center

Detroit Justice Center (Michigan) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,683,169 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,165,430). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$4.5M
Funders on record
76
Grants received
$20M
Net assets
$5.1M
40/76 repeat fundersgrants exceed reported revenue in one year
01What it does

What Detroit Justice Center does

Mission

The Detroit Justice Center works alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) is a nonprofit law firm working alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities. In 2024, DJC advanced its mission through movement lawyering, policy advocacy, and non-carceral pilot programs. The Legal Services and Advocacy Practice directly represented 577 clients, staving off threats of incarceration and helping residents maintain jobs and stable housing. The Economic Equity Practice supported Detroiters in forming community land trusts, worker-owned cooperatives, and enterprises led by returning citizens to promote affordable housing and build wealth. The Innovation Labs pilot programs leveraged research, advocacy, and coalition building to increase access to restorative justice and non-carceral systems of care. DJCs program service expenses for 2024 totaled approximately $2.3 million, supported primarily by foundation grants and individual gifts.

    $2,276,303 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,276,303.

02The organization over time

The organization over time

Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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.

100 = 20182018 Revenue 100 ($1.1M) Expenses 100 ($481k) Net assets 100 ($610k)2019 Revenue 184 ($2.0M) Expenses 359 ($1.7M) Net assets 139 ($847k)2020 Revenue 489 ($5.2M) Expenses 561 ($2.7M) Net assets 645 ($3.9M)2021 Revenue 403 ($4.3M) Expenses 645 ($3.1M) Net assets 867 ($5.3M)2022 Revenue 295 ($3.2M) Expenses 841 ($4.0M) Net assets 722 ($4.4M)2023 Revenue 432 ($4.6M) Expenses 1001 ($4.8M) Net assets 690 ($4.2M)2024 Revenue 424 ($4.5M) Expenses 752 ($3.6M) Net assets 832 ($5.1M)
2018201920202021202220232024
Revenue (424)Expenses (752)Net assets (832)Peer revenue range

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $858k to $4.2M (+390%).

$616k
$858k
$4.2M
$5.4M
$4.6M
$4.4M
$5.2M
2018201920202021202220232024
Total assetsTotal liabilities

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.

2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 100% · 2019 96%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

93% of Detroit Justice Center’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (93% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,392 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 7 reported years ran a deficit.

$589k
’18
$237k
’19
$2.5M
’20
$1.2M
’21
−$888k
’22
−$198k
’23
$916k
’24
12
months of
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.

2018201920202021202220232024
Listed44715131313
Joined·+0+3+9+0+1+5
No longer listed·001215
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2018 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $1.1M → $3.4M.

19 of 76 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 39% 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 Detroit Justice Center’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 76 funders by total. 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

Detroit Justice Center has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left

50% 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 Detroit Justice Center.

11%
largest funder
29%
top three
~20
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2018 77% · 2019 36% · 2020 22% · 2021 16% · 2022 28% · 2023 16% — 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.

How long its funders stay

38% of Detroit Justice Center's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 53% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y

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

Detroit Justice Center draws 72% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 18 states in all.

ME
WA
MT
IL
MI
NY
MA
IN
NJ
CT
CA
CO
NE
DE
NC
DC
OK
FL

In-state vs out-of-state, by year

’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Michigan out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 12 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

Detroit Justice Center runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin20% · top quartile
Months of reserve11.5mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)27% · top quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,337 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like Detroit Justice Center

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

05Profile & governance

Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.

Where the money goes

63% of spending goes to programs.

Program 63%Management 28%Fundraising 9%

Governance

9
board members
100%
independent
–Conflict-of-interest policy–Whistleblower policy–Document retention–Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

100%

Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Detroit Justice Center: 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.

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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 Detroit Justice Center?
Detroit Justice Center (Michigan) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $19,683,169 to it, the largest being FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ($2,165,430). 40 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Detroit Justice Center have?
IRS filings report 76 organizations giving $19,683,169 in grants to Detroit Justice Center, 40 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Detroit Justice Center?
FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND is the largest funder on record, with $2,165,430 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Detroit Justice Center 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 Detroit Justice Center →

These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 76 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