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Michigan · Nonprofit

OX-BOW

OX-BOW (Michigan) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $851,797 to it, the largest being Central Indiana Community Foundation Inc ($374,475). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 87% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2024
$3.3M
Funders on record
14
Grants received
$852k
Net assets
$3.8M
10/14 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 9%
01What it does

What Ox-Bow does

Mission

To connect artists to a network of creative people, resources, and ideas; to an energizing natural environment; and to a rich artistic history and to a vital future.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Program

  1. Ox-Bow was founded in 1910 and operates an art school, including artists-in-residency programs, and owns the necessary property and buildings to conduct the same. Ox-Bow's purpose is to connect artists to a network of creative people, resources and ideas to an energizing natural environment and, to a rich artistic history and to a vital future. Ox-Bow recognizes artists are visionaries: they create new possibilities, advance culture, and enable others to imagine the unimaginable. Our school and residency are programmed to support and build on those skills by providing artists at all stages in their artistic journey access to a range of programs and resources throughout the year, online and in person. At Ox-Bow, a nourished life includes conversation, rigor, playfulness, experiencing nature, immersion into a creative context, and communally enjoying delicious, healthy meals. Ox-Bow's strength is drawn from healthy relationships with the saugatuck/douglas community, the school of the art institute of chicago, partners schools throughout the united states, and national and international artists and supporters. Ox-Bow believes experiencing a flourishing natural world invigorates a…

    $2,690,630 spentof which $181,806 as grants$2,061,512 earned by the program
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,690,630.

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.

100 = 20172017 Revenue 100 ($2.2M) Expenses 100 ($2.2M) Net assets 100 ($6.8M)2018 Revenue 118 ($2.6M) Expenses 118 ($2.6M) Net assets 95 ($6.5M)2019 Revenue 105 ($2.3M) Expenses 112 ($2.5M) Net assets 97 ($6.6M)2020 Revenue 69 ($1.5M) Expenses 95 ($2.1M) Net assets 91 ($6.2M)2021 Revenue 119 ($2.6M) Expenses 125 ($2.8M) Net assets 90 ($6.2M)2022 Revenue 127 ($2.8M) Expenses 152 ($3.4M) Net assets 70 ($4.8M)2023 Revenue 126 ($2.7M) Expenses 153 ($3.4M) Net assets 66 ($4.5M)2024 Revenue 153 ($3.3M) Expenses 173 ($3.9M) Net assets 56 ($3.8M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (153)Expenses (173)Net assets (56)

Balance sheet

Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $6.7M to $5.9M (−13%).

$7.0M
$6.8M
$6.8M
$6.9M
$6.7M
$5.9M
$6.1M
$6.0M
'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: 2019 2% · 2020 3% · 2021 16% · 2022 0% · 2023 20% · 2024 2%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

Surplus & reserves

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

−$46k
’17
−$68k
’18
−$211k
’19
−$609k
’20
−$181k
’21
−$622k
’22
−$656k
’23
−$535k
’24
0.2
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

Shannon R Stratton

Executive director

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed2022121212121114
Joined·+4+2+2+2+2+0+5
No longer listed·21222212
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 6 funders, grant income rose $5k → $75k.

6 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 87% 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 OX-BOW’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

OX-BOW leans on a few funders — its largest provides 44% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

87% 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 OX-BOW.

44%
largest funder
74%
top three
~4
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 100% · 2018 90% · 2019 93% · 2020 96% · 2021 67% · 2022 77% · 2023 47% — 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

50% of OX-BOW's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 71% give in more than one year at all.

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

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

87% of OX-BOW'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 $108k that is directly attributable, 97% of it comes from funders outside Michigan, across 6 states.

IL
MI
NY
MD
DE
AR

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. $744k 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

Government funding OX-BOW receives

Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $222k on record.

Federal$222k
grants $222kcontracts $0
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Top agencies
  • National Endowment for the Arts$212k
  • National Endowment for the Humanities$10k

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 OX-BOW

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 8%Fundraising 9%

Governance

13
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 2 states

IL
MI

Part of a family of 1 related entity

  • Art Institute of Chicago · exempt

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for OX-BOW: 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 OX-BOW?
OX-BOW (Michigan) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $851,797 to it, the largest being Central Indiana Community Foundation Inc ($374,475). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 87% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does OX-BOW have?
IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $851,797 in grants to OX-BOW, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of OX-BOW?
Central Indiana Community Foundation Inc is the largest funder on record, with $374,475 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like OX-BOW 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 Ox-Bow →

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 14 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