Michigan · Nonprofit
RUTH ELLIS CENTER
RUTH ELLIS CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,354,452 to it, the largest being McGregor Fund ($1,402,510). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $5.1M
- Funders on record
- 96
- Grants received
- $8.4M
- Net assets
- $2.2M
What Ruth Ellis Center does
Mission
The Ruth Ellis Center (rec) was formed in 1999 with the mission to provide short and long-term residential safe space and support services for runaway, homeless, and at-risk lesbian, gay, bi-attractional, transgender, and questioning youth. The core purpose of the organization is to build positive futures with lgbtq young people experiencing barriers to housing, health, and wellness.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
To further the mission and vision, rec offers a range of programming to support the young people they serve grounded in the following principles of work: trauma-informed care, restorative justice, harm reduction, and positive youth development.the Ruth Ellis Center (rec) is a connections system partner and social services agency with a mission to create opportunities with lgbtq+ young people to build their vision of a positive future. Rec envisions a world where lgbtq+ young people are safe and supported no matter where they go.
$3,872,022 spent$170,466 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $3,872,022.
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 $4.0M to $7.2M (+81%).
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: 2017 3% · 2018 1% · 2019 4% · 2020 58% · 2021 58% · 2022 53% · 2023 81% · 2024 67%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
99% of RUTH ELLIS CENTER’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. 3 of the last 8 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
Mark Erwin
Executive director
Board chair
Sharron Fincher
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 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 15 funders to 30 funders, grant income rose $669k → $687k.
24 of 96 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 RUTH ELLIS CENTER’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 96 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
RUTH ELLIS CENTER has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
61% 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 RUTH ELLIS CENTER.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 21% · 2019 15% · 2020 18% · 2021 14% · 2022 22% · 2023 37% — 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
38% of RUTH ELLIS CENTER's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 54% 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
73% of RUTH ELLIS CENTER's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 16 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
RUTH ELLIS CENTER has grown faster than half of the 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,732 recreation & sports nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Government funding RUTH ELLIS CENTER receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $2.7M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.9M
- Department of Justice$500k
- Department of Health and Human Services$324k
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 RUTH ELLIS CENTER
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
76% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
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 RUTH ELLIS CENTER: 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 RUTH ELLIS CENTER?
- RUTH ELLIS CENTER (Michigan) receives grants from 96 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,354,452 to it, the largest being McGregor Fund ($1,402,510). 52 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does RUTH ELLIS CENTER have?
- IRS filings report 96 organizations giving $8,354,452 in grants to RUTH ELLIS CENTER, 52 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of RUTH ELLIS CENTER?
- McGregor Fund is the largest funder on record, with $1,402,510 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like RUTH ELLIS CENTER 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 Ruth Ellis Center →
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 96 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