Michigan · Nonprofit
FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS
FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS (Michigan) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,639,908 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($561,334). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 27
- Grants received
- $1.6M
- Net assets
- $699k
What Friends of Grand Rapids Parks does
Mission
Empowering people to cultivate vibrant parks, green spaces, and trees in our community.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
The urban forest project (ufp) is program of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks that works to engage citizens to help add to the 2011 green grand rapids amendment to the city's master plan to establish a 40% tree canopy goal in grand rapids. The project collaborates with the city of grand rapids forestry department to involve neighbors in expanding the urban tree canopy. In order to help reach the 40% canopy cover goal we provide neighbors with tree-planting resources in underserved public areas, education and outreach to encourage tree planting, and offer mini grant and other tree planting opportunities. Our goal is to help neighbors understand that trees provide myriad benefits, like lead abatement, storm water management, reduction in the urban heat island effect, and provide habitat for many animals. Our explore your parks program is a joint venture between the Friends of Grand Rapids Parks and the city of grand rapids to reclaim and sustain parks through volunteerism and sponsorship. Our goal is to have all of our neighborhood parks represented by residents and groups. Community leadership is critical to creating a great park system with ongoing support. Our programs are essential…
$614,908 spent$126,511 earned by the program57% of program spendingParks and tree volunteer opportunity and events - friends of gr parks hosts over 60+ special events to build community and engage neighbors through parks and trees. Our volunteers gather to spruce-up parks or plant and maintain trees. These opportunities allow both seasoned and novice fgrp volunteers to gain hands-on experience with our parks and forestry tools. As part of a commitment to engaging community around advocacy for parks, friends of gr parks collaborates with gr parks and recreation department to engage community to come together to give input on new opportunities available in parks outlined in the parks and recreation 5-year master plan. Through our work, we bring together the community to keep the activation, advocacy, and volunteerism momentum going in our green spaces.our programs are essential so that we can educate our community to understand why parks are vital for increasing quality of life by providing physical, emotional, spiritual, and social elements that impact our quality of life. Through our programs, education, and advocacy we promote why parks and public spaces are essential gathering places that add to the health of our citizens and the economic…
$473,233 spent$606 earned by the program43% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,088,141.
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.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $282k to $1.0M (+270%).
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: 2021 30% · 2022 23% · 2023 26% · 2024 54% · 2025 74%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
92% of FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (13% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 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.
Chief executive
Stacy Bare
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 7 funders, grant income rose $25k → $485k.
5 of 27 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS’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
FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 66%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
73% 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 FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 56% · 2018 32% · 2019 94% · 2020 65% · 2021 33% · 2022 34% · 2023 65% — 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
33% of FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 70% 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
FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS draws 63% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $370k arriving through sponsors registered in 5 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
FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,623 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $5.1M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$5.1M
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 FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS
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
70% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
89%
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 FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS: 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 FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS?
- FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS (Michigan) receives grants from 27 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,639,908 to it, the largest being NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION ($561,334). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS have?
- IRS filings report 27 organizations giving $1,639,908 in grants to FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS?
- NATIONAL FISH AND WILDLIFE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $561,334 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like FRIENDS OF GRAND RAPIDS PARKS 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 Friends of Grand Rapids Parks →
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 27 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