Skip to content

Michigan · Nonprofit

FOCUSHOPE

FOCUSHOPE (Michigan) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,329,566 to it, the largest being STARFISH FAMILY SERVICES INC ($32,850,504). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$38M
Funders on record
113
Grants received
$51M
Net assets
$9.0M
65/113 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 22%
01What it does

What Focushope does

Mission

Focus: hope is a non-profit civil and human rights organization. Founded in 1968, its mission is to promote intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty and injustice in metropolitan detroit. The organization focuses on four main areas: a food program for seniors, workforce development and education programs, and an early learning/youth development program all looked at through an advocacy, equity and community empowerment (aece) lens.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. The focus: hope food program is one of the nations largest commodity supplemental food programs for limited income senior citizens. Each month, it distributes food to approximately 42,000 senior citizens with a minimal number of women & children through its three distribution centers and one central warehouse. The program assists residents of wayne, oakland, macomb washtenaw, huron, sanilac, tuscola, lapeer and st. Clair counties and is administered through the u.s. Department of agriculture.

    $23,431,293 spent
    70% of program spending
  2. Since 1981, workforce development education job training focus: hope has graduated 15,000 students to date from our career programs. Our education and workforce development programs prepare individuals for success with a holistic approach to individuals looking to jump start their careers.

    $3,502,028 spent
    11% of program spending
  3. Focus: hopes early learning programs operating at the center for children and new paradigm glazer academy and durfee innovation society,offers quality childcare in an education environment for infants and children up to age five. Focus: hope offers early head start/ head start (birth to five) along with the great start readiness program and other early childhood preschool education programs. The programs serve the children in the community who meet head start or great start readiness program requirements. Additionally, through a community-based doula program, it provides non-medical peer support for low income pregnant mothers.

    $6,221,590 spent
    19% of program spending
  4. Each of focus: hopes core program areas are tied together by a range of empowerment initiatives designed to develop community leadership and promote economic prosperity of program participants as focus: hope engages in advocacy toward equitable systems change. These initiatives consists economic empowerment offerings, youth leadership as activism and of a mix of anti-racism discussions and activities engaging colleagues along with the public.

    $168,922 spent
    1% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $33,323,833.

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 ($25M) Expenses 100 ($24M) Net assets 100 ($4.8M)2018 Revenue 108 ($27M) Expenses 110 ($27M) Net assets 112 ($5.4M)2019 Revenue 110 ($27M) Expenses 115 ($28M) Net assets 120 ($5.8M)2020 Revenue 123 ($30M) Expenses 119 ($29M) Net assets 230 ($11M)2021 Revenue 133 ($33M) Expenses 126 ($31M) Net assets 281 ($14M)2022 Revenue 129 ($32M) Expenses 124 ($30M) Net assets 322 ($16M)2023 Revenue 136 ($34M) Expenses 138 ($34M) Net assets 211 ($10M)2024 Revenue 141 ($35M) Expenses 149 ($36M) Net assets 190 ($9.2M)2025 Revenue 151 ($38M) Expenses 156 ($38M) Net assets 185 ($9.0M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (151)Expenses (156)Net assets (185)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 $12M to $18M (+53%).

$11M
$13M
$12M
$18M
$18M
$18M
$13M
$12M
$12M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2017 59% · 2018 64% · 2019 87% · 2020 88% · 2021 88% · 2022 84% · 2023 96% · 2024 95% · 2025 84%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

97% of FOCUSHOPE’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (21% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 3,405 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$536k
’17
$120k
’18
−$547k
’19
$1.5M
’20
$2.5M
’21
$2.0M
’22
$74k
’23
−$1.0M
’24
−$241k
’25
0.3
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

Portia Roberson

CEO

Board chair

D Scott Sandefur

Chair of boa

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed252020232223262623
Joined·+5+0+3+7+5+4+1+5
No longer listed·100084118
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 28 funders to 46 funders, grant income rose $5.3M → $5.5M.

17 of 113 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 FOCUSHOPE’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 113 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

FOCUSHOPE leans on a few funders — its largest provides 64% of grant income and the top three 75%; half comes from just 1 funder.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left

81% 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 FOCUSHOPE.

64%
largest funder
75%
top three
~2
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 61% · 2019 67% · 2020 63% · 2021 57% · 2022 62% · 2023 70% — growing more concentrated.

“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

46% of FOCUSHOPE's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% 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

94% of FOCUSHOPE's grant income comes from Michigan funders.

NH
MN
IL
MI
NY
OH
PA
CT
RI
CA
CO
MO
KY
MD
DE
NC
DC
TX
FL

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. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 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

FOCUSHOPE's funding base is broadening — from 28 funders to 46 as grant income climbed.

Operating margin−1% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve0.3mo · bottom quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)5% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,396 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025

Government funding FOCUSHOPE receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $520k on record.

Federal$520k
grants $520kcontracts $0
17
18
24
Top agencies
  • Department of Housing and Urban Development$500k
  • National Endowment for the Arts$20k

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 FOCUSHOPE

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

88% of spending goes to programs.

Program 88%Management 10%Fundraising 2%

Governance

17
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention–Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

95%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for FOCUSHOPE: 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 FOCUSHOPE?
FOCUSHOPE (Michigan) receives grants from 113 organizations whose IRS filings report $51,329,566 to it, the largest being STARFISH FAMILY SERVICES INC ($32,850,504). 65 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does FOCUSHOPE have?
IRS filings report 113 organizations giving $51,329,566 in grants to FOCUSHOPE, 65 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of FOCUSHOPE?
STARFISH FAMILY SERVICES INC is the largest funder on record, with $32,850,504 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like FOCUSHOPE 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 113 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