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Michigan · Nonprofit

ECOLOGY CENTER

ECOLOGY CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,732,667 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($3,000,000). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$2.9M
Funders on record
62
Grants received
$13M
Net assets
$4.0M
41/62 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 91%
01What it does

What Ecology Center does

Mission

The Ecology Center is a michigan-based nonprofit environmental organization that develops innovative solutions for healthy people and a healthy planet.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Programs and education to the community on local and state-wide environmental issues.

    $2,465,342 spentof which $450,500 as grants$472,385 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,465,342.

02The organization over time

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. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($1.7M) Expenses 100 ($1.9M) Net assets 100 ($1.5M)2018 Revenue 146 ($2.5M) Expenses 107 ($2.1M) Net assets 129 ($1.9M)2019 Revenue 72 ($1.2M) Expenses 91 ($1.8M) Net assets 95 ($1.4M)2020 Revenue 172 ($3.0M) Expenses 95 ($1.9M) Net assets 174 ($2.6M)2021 Revenue 110 ($1.9M) Expenses 116 ($2.3M) Net assets 152 ($2.2M)2022 Revenue 113 ($2.0M) Expenses 121 ($2.4M) Net assets 120 ($1.8M)2023 Revenue 275 ($4.8M) Expenses 135 ($2.6M) Net assets 270 ($4.0M)2024 Revenue 169 ($2.9M) Expenses 153 ($3.0M) Net assets 272 ($4.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (169)Expenses (153)Net assets (272)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 2022 to 2023, from $2.0M to $4.7M (+142%).

$1.5M
$2.0M
$1.5M
$2.8M
$2.6M
$2.0M
$4.7M
$4.5M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
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.

2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 10% · 2022 10%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

81% of ECOLOGY CENTER’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 2,303 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$211k
’17
$445k
’18
−$515k
’19
$1.1M
’20
−$343k
’21
−$392k
’22
$2.1M
’23
−$29k
’24
11
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.

Chief executive

Michael Garfield

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed1615151514151718
Joined·+0+3+3+1+2+4+3
No longer listed·1332122
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 10 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $557k → $2.4M.

11 of 62 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 9% 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 ECOLOGY CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 62 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

ECOLOGY CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left

35% 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 ECOLOGY CENTER.

24%
largest funder
48%
top three
~10
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 36% · 2019 34% · 2020 32% · 2021 29% · 2022 35% · 2023 21% — 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

54% of ECOLOGY CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 66% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

ECOLOGY CENTER draws 69% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 12 states in all.

ME
WA
MN
IL
MI
NY
MA
CA
VA
MD
AZ
LA

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

’17
’18
’19
’20
’21
’22
’23
Michigan out of state home

Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 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

ECOLOGY CENTER holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,187 environment nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−1% · below the median
Months of reserve10.6mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)8% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,187 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like ECOLOGY 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

83% of spending goes to programs.

Program 83%Management 11%Fundraising 6%

Governance

13
board members
92%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

92%

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

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MI

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Recycle Ann Arbor · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ECOLOGY 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.

A paid feature, included from the $75 plan up. Sign in to download.

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 ECOLOGY CENTER?
ECOLOGY CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 62 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,732,667 to it, the largest being FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION ($3,000,000). 41 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does ECOLOGY CENTER have?
IRS filings report 62 organizations giving $12,732,667 in grants to ECOLOGY CENTER, 41 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of ECOLOGY CENTER?
FREEDOM TOGETHER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $3,000,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like ECOLOGY 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.

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 62 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