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Michigan · Nonprofit

Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum

Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum (Michigan) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $330,221 to it, the largest being THE KUNKLE CABE FOUNDATION ($112,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2025
$359k
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$330k
Net assets
$850k
4/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 43%
01What it does

What Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum does

Mission

To create an environment that encourages and inspires children and families to explore their world, offering hands-on discovery while stimulating creativity, curiousity, the love of learning, cultural awareness, and positive interactions within and among families.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Program

  1. Exhibits educate children about life in different environments with interactive activities. This includes living on a farm, planting gardens and understanding the impact of the activities. Field trips are offered throughout the season to groups of children locally and for surrounding communities.

    $130,030 spent
    100% of program spending

The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $130,030.

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 ($294k) Expenses 100 ($209k) Net assets 100 ($769k)2018 Revenue 77 ($227k) Expenses 93 ($193k) Net assets 88 ($680k)2019 Revenue 98 ($290k) Expenses 120 ($250k) Net assets 117 ($897k)2020 Revenue 34 ($100k) Expenses 68 ($142k) Net assets 113 ($866k)2021 Revenue 82 ($240k) Expenses 93 ($195k) Net assets 109 ($841k)2022 Revenue 97 ($285k) Expenses 129 ($269k) Net assets 106 ($815k)2023 Revenue 101 ($296k) Expenses 139 ($290k) Net assets 111 ($852k)2024 Revenue 99 ($291k) Expenses 152 ($317k) Net assets 109 ($837k)2025 Revenue 122 ($359k) Expenses 147 ($308k) Net assets 111 ($850k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (122)Expenses (147)Net assets (111)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 2018 to 2019, from $685k to $901k (+32%).

$775k
$685k
$901k
$866k
$848k
$819k
$856k
$842k
$856k
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2018 2% · 2019 0% · 2021 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

24% of Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 19,547 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

$85k
’17
$34k
’18
$39k
’19
−$41k
’20
$46k
’21
$16k
’22
$6k
’23
−$26k
’24
$51k
’25
3.2
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.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed910101010891012
Joined·+3+0+4+0+1+1+2+2
No longer listed·20403010
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 4 funders, grant income fell $26k → $25k.

2 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 31% 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 Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum’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

Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum leans on a few funders — its largest provides 34% of grant income and the top three 94%; half comes from just 2 funders.

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

36% 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 Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum.

34%
largest funder
94%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 74% · 2018 68% · 2019 64% · 2020 77% · 2021 52% · 2022 50% · 2023 74% — 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

Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum draws 91% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 4 states in all.

IL
MI
NY
TX

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. $101k arriving through sponsors registered in 2 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

Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits its size.

Operating margin14% · above the median
Months of reserve3.2mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)3% · below the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025

Organizations like Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum

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

42% of spending goes to programs.

Program 42%Management 56%Fundraising 1%

Governance

10
board members
80%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Public support

97%

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

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum: 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.

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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 Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum?
Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum (Michigan) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $330,221 to it, the largest being THE KUNKLE CABE FOUNDATION ($112,500). 4 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $330,221 in grants to Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum, 4 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum?
THE KUNKLE CABE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $112,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum 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 Sandcastles A Lake Michigan Childrens Museum →

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 6 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