Skip to content

Michigan · Nonprofit

SAY DETROIT

SAY DETROIT (Michigan) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,273,761 to it, the largest being Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation ($4,500,000). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.

Revenue FY2024
$3.5M
Funders on record
77
Grants received
$17M
Net assets
$10M
44/77 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 92%
01What it does

What Say Detroit does

Mission

Providing pathways to success for detroiters in need.

As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Rehabilitating the lipke center in detroit and turning it into the s.a.y. Play center. The s.a.y. Play center offers educational and athletic programs to students aged 8-18. Students must meet certain academic requirements in order to participate in the athletic programs.

    $2,053,332 spent
    57% of program spending
  2. Fund operations of the s.a.y. Detroit family health clinic, the nation's first full-time medical clinic for homeless children and their mothers. Provides a full-time day care center for the children of homeless women who are in transition or searching for work.

    $608,486 spent
    17% of program spending
  3. Provision of funding to many charitable organziations in the detroit metro area that align with the organization's mission.

    $961,034 spentof which $774,989 as grants
    27% of program spending

The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,622,852.

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 ($1.5M) Expenses 100 ($2.0M) Net assets 100 ($6.5M)2018 Revenue 117 ($1.7M) Expenses 87 ($1.7M) Net assets 91 ($5.9M)2019 Revenue 170 ($2.5M) Expenses 92 ($1.9M) Net assets 100 ($6.5M)2020 Revenue 258 ($3.8M) Expenses 115 ($2.3M) Net assets 122 ($8.0M)2021 Revenue 340 ($4.9M) Expenses 142 ($2.9M) Net assets 154 ($10M)2022 Revenue 197 ($2.9M) Expenses 161 ($3.2M) Net assets 148 ($9.6M)2023 Revenue 346 ($5.0M) Expenses 170 ($3.4M) Net assets 172 ($11M)2024 Revenue 239 ($3.5M) Expenses 222 ($4.5M) Net assets 157 ($10M)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Revenue (239)Expenses (222)Net assets (157)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 $9.8M to $12M (+27%).

$7.4M
$6.4M
$6.9M
$8.4M
$10M
$9.8M
$12M
$12M
'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

97% of SAY DETROIT’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (39% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 4,214 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.

−$557k
’17
−$36k
’18
$612k
’19
$1.4M
’20
$2.1M
’21
−$375k
’22
$1.6M
’23
−$1000k
’24
12
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

Richard Kelley

Executive director

Board chair

Charles Rothstein

Board chair

As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.

The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24
Listed311121414141414
Joined·+10+1+3+0+1+0+0
No longer listed·2010100
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 12 funders to 33 funders, grant income rose $810k → $3.7M.

16 of 77 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 25% 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 SAY DETROIT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 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

SAY DETROIT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 26% 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

71% 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 SAY DETROIT.

26%
largest funder
51%
top three
~8
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 52% · 2019 55% · 2020 28% · 2021 26% · 2022 19% · 2023 20% — 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

49% of SAY DETROIT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% give in more than one year at all.

first grant+1y+2y+3y+4y+5y+6y

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

91% of SAY DETROIT's grant income comes from Michigan funders.

NH
MT
MI
NY
NV
OH
PA
NJ
CT
RI
CA
KY
DE
TN
NC
GA
FL

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. $4.4M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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

SAY DETROIT holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 3,973 housing & shelter nonprofits its size.

Operating margin−29% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve11.9mo · top quartile
Revenue growth (annualized)13% · above the median

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,973 housing & shelter nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024

Organizations like SAY DETROIT

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

81% of spending goes to programs.

Program 81%Management 9%Fundraising 10%

Governance

11
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 2 related entities

  • Have Faith Haiti Mission Support Trust · exempt
  • Detroit Water Ice Factory Inc · corp_trust

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for SAY DETROIT: 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 SAY DETROIT?
SAY DETROIT (Michigan) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,273,761 to it, the largest being Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation ($4,500,000). 44 of them have funded it in more than one year.
How many funders does SAY DETROIT have?
IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $17,273,761 in grants to SAY DETROIT, 44 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of SAY DETROIT?
Michigan Masonic Charitable Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $4,500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like SAY DETROIT 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.

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 77 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