Michigan · Nonprofit
DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY
DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY (Michigan) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $507,891 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ($150,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $238k
- Funders on record
- 13
- Grants received
- $508k
- Net assets
- $232k
What Detroit Puppet Company does
Mission
Dpc uses awe-inspiring puppetry as a vehicle for a better tomorrow. Dpc collaborates with the local commmunity to create inclusive spaces that bring together detroit and hamtramck residents with artists from around the country. The works dpc creates and curates in its neighborhood-based venues or in venues across the city have been seen by over 25,000 audience members over the past three years and for free or at pay-what-you-can prices. With dedication to its craft, dpc is committed to serving the commmunity and telling stories that resonate with dpc's neighbors, using something as small as a puppet to inspire larger social change. Working with many venues and neighborhood organizations to co-produce professional performances and events across the city, dpc tells the stories around the city with imagination and truth, expanding public understanding of what puppetry can be.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Presenting contemporary puppetry and performances. Presenting 15-30 high-caliber theatrical works by local and national performing artists.
$59,147 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $59,147.
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 2020 to 2021, from $158k to $309k (+96%).
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: 2020 28% · 2021 62% · 2022 23% · 2023 41% · 2024 11%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
81% of DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $11k → $64k.
3 of 13 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 46% 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 PUPPET COMPANY’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
DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 30% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
82% 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 PUPPET COMPANY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2019 52% · 2020 50% · 2021 92% · 2022 60% · 2023 31% — 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
29% of DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
77% of DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $234k 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
DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $80k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$80k
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 DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY
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
50% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
91%
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 PUPPET COMPANY: 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 DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY?
- DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY (Michigan) receives grants from 13 organizations whose IRS filings report $507,891 to it, the largest being COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ($150,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY have?
- IRS filings report 13 organizations giving $507,891 in grants to DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY?
- COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like DETROIT PUPPET COMPANY 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 Puppet Company →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 13 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