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Michigan · Nonprofit

NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN

NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN (Michigan) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,000,850 to it, the largest being Lowes Foundation ($300,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$2.8M
Funders on record
15
Grants received
$1.0M
Net assets
$1.4M
6/15 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 16%
01What it does

What Next Step of West Michigan does

Mission

A faith based organization employing people coming out of prison or rehab and providing them with a community of support that will help them integrate into the workforce, regain hope and empower themselves to create a better future.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. To provide jobs for those struggling to find employment, next step offers construction, property maintenance, assembly and production services with competitive pricing and timely delivery. The crews are supervised by licensed professionals who have the sensitivity and heart for the individuals they supervise. In fiscal year 2025, next step provided full or temporary employment for individuals who would not be able to find jobs elsewhere, providing its employees with the dignity and stability that employment offers. Next step employees start each day with bible study, and they are assisted in finding housing and mentored in life skills for a hopeful future.

    $2,032,344 spent$1,886,058 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,032,344.

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 ($1.6M) Expenses 100 ($883k) Net assets 100 ($2.2M)2018 Revenue 56 ($920k) Expenses 92 ($811k) Net assets 105 ($2.3M)2019 Revenue 73 ($1.2M) Expenses 114 ($1.0M) Net assets 114 ($2.5M)2021 Revenue 64 ($1.0M) Expenses 132 ($1.2M) Net assets 97 ($2.1M)2022 Revenue 119 ($1.9M) Expenses 165 ($1.5M) Net assets 119 ($2.6M)2023 Revenue 107 ($1.7M) Expenses 179 ($1.6M) Net assets 45 ($977k)2024 Revenue 116 ($1.9M) Expenses 176 ($1.6M) Net assets 61 ($1.3M)2025 Revenue 169 ($2.8M) Expenses 299 ($2.6M) Net assets 67 ($1.4M)
'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (169)Expenses (299)Net assets (67)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 $3.6M to $1.2M (−68%).

$2.4M
$2.4M
$2.6M
$3.1M
$3.6M
$1.2M
$2.2M
$1.8M
'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
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
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2024 21%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

32% of NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (93% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 1,392 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 1 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

$756k
’17
$108k
’18
$191k
’19
−$123k
’21
$489k
’22
$173k
’23
$337k
’24
$130k
’25
1.9
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

David Bult

Executive director

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'21'22'23'24'25
Listed67744557
Joined·+1+0·+0+1+1+2
No longer listed·00·0010
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 2 funders, grant income rose $16k → $34k.

5 of 15 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 43% 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 NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN’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

NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN 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

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 NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN.

30%
largest funder
63%
top three
~6
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 67% · 2019 78% · 2020 46% · 2021 100% · 2022 100% · 2023 93% — 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

22% of NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 40% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN draws 61% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 3 states in all.

MI
SD
NC

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. $427k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 793 crime & legal nonprofits its size.

Operating margin5% · above the median
Months of reserve1.9mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)7% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 793 crime & legal nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN

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

77% of spending goes to programs.

Program 77%Management 23%Fundraising 0%

Governance

4
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990✓Audited financials

Public support

83%

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 3 related entities

  • Mel Trotter Ministries · exempt
  • Mtm Support Corporation · exempt
  • Mtm Housing LLC · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN: 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 NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN?
NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN (Michigan) receives grants from 15 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,000,850 to it, the largest being Lowes Foundation ($300,000). 6 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN have?
IRS filings report 15 organizations giving $1,000,850 in grants to NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN, 6 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN?
Lowes Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $300,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like NEXT STEP OF WEST MICHIGAN 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 Next Step of West Michigan →

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 15 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