Michigan · Nonprofit
GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION
GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $200,000 to it, the largest being DICK AND BETSY DEVOS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $48k
- Funders on record
- 2
- Grants received
- $200k
- Net assets
- $310
What Great Lakes Education Foundation does
Mission
Provide informational programs and non-partisan research and analysis concerning education reform. Conduct and examine others' research into education reform and analyze those plans' application in Michigan.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Program
Conduct and examine others' research into education reform and analyze those plans' application in Michigan. Engage in public interest litigation.
$32,335 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $32,335.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $388k to $37k (−90%).
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.
100% of GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (65% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 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
2020 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income held at $50k.
1 of 2 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $30k from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Michigan Freedom Fund). These are real filings, and they are not money GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION’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
GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 50% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder 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 GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — broadly stable.
“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.
Where its funders are
50% of GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $100k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from Michigan funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $100k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION's revenue fell 73% between 2020 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,277 education nonprofits under $100k, FY2025
Organizations like GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION
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.
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 GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION: 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 GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
- GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION (Michigan) receives grants from 2 organizations whose IRS filings report $200,000 to it, the largest being DICK AND BETSY DEVOS FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 2 organizations giving $200,000 in grants to GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION?
- DICK AND BETSY DEVOS FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like GREAT LAKES EDUCATION FOUNDATION 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 Great Lakes Education →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 2 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