Michigan · Nonprofit
SIDEWALK DETROIT
SIDEWALK DETROIT (Michigan) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,850,325 to it, the largest being THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC ($443,939). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $637k
- Funders on record
- 18
- Grants received
- $1.9M
- Net assets
- $802k
What Sidewalk Detroit does
Mission
Sidewalk Detroit exists to celebrate public and creative life through the lens of arts, culture and deep engagement with residents. We seek to improve livability for residents through the promotion of spatial equity and strong social infrastructure. Our emphasis is on public art, neighborhood place-keeping, and equitable access to urban greenspace. We facilitate processes in which residents reclaim their spaces and envision a joyful, protected and connected future.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Sidewalk festivalsidewalk festival doesn't use traditional stages - artists are challenged to create site-specific performance and installation art for the alleys, gardens, storefronts, courtyards, parking lots and streets of detroit. This festival serves as a sacred space for the convening of boundary-pushing artists, residents, curious art lovers and those of adventurous spirit. In 2024, sidewalk festival returned to two neighborhoods and added an artist residency component that features a permanent art installation at both locations. The residency, like the festival, focuses on deep engagement with the community and partnerships with local community-led organizations to develop a vision for the festival and art installation.
$213,089 spent46% of program spendingConsultant work:Sidewalk Detroit earns income through consultancy work focused on community engagement. The 2024-2025 fiscal year included work with the city of pittsburgh, the city of grand rapids, and the city of detroit on several different projects including the joe louis greenway neighborhood planning study, the arts alleys initiative, and vibrant blocks for business commercial corridors project. These projects focus on deep community engagement throughout the development processes in these cities and their neighborhoods to give residents an opportunity to voice their concerns, opinions, and ideas through the projects planning process.
$102,391 spent$111,227 earned by the program22% of program spendingEliza howell park:each year, Sidewalk Detroit selects talented artists and community organizations to lead weekly outdoor workshops in eliza howell park. Through weekly programming, Sidewalk Detroit is able to connect neighbors with art in this serene natural landscape to improve the community's mental and physical wellness and increase awareness of ourselves as part of the ecosystem. Since 2018, sidewalk has hosted jax nights and other special events to celebrate the gestural natural green spaces in eliza howell park. Like other weekly events, these are intended to bring art, community, and nature together to share out connectedness. In 2023, Sidewalk Detroit held regular public events with opportunities to attend guided nature walks, create take-home art projects, and engage with community members in yoga and otherwise. 2024-2025 also included continued improvements to the infrastructure such as new and improved trails, way-finding signage,trailheads, and natural habitats rumination.
$150,640 spent32% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $466,120.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended.
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 $510k to $793k (+56%).
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: 2020 0% · 2021 4% · 2022 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 6 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
Ryan Myers-Johnson
Executive director
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 9 funders, grant income rose $179k → $408k.
4 of 18 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 SIDEWALK DETROIT’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
SIDEWALK DETROIT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 4 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 4 funders to its left
54% 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 SIDEWALK DETROIT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 93% · 2021 44% · 2022 36% · 2023 31% — 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
25% of SIDEWALK DETROIT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 56% 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
79% of SIDEWALK DETROIT's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $801k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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.
Government funding SIDEWALK DETROIT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $10k on record.
- National Endowment for the Arts$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 SIDEWALK 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
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
85%
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 SIDEWALK 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.
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 SIDEWALK DETROIT?
- SIDEWALK DETROIT (Michigan) receives grants from 18 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,850,325 to it, the largest being THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC ($443,939). 10 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SIDEWALK DETROIT have?
- IRS filings report 18 organizations giving $1,850,325 in grants to SIDEWALK DETROIT, 10 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SIDEWALK DETROIT?
- THE MIAMI FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $443,939 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SIDEWALK 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.
Play a game about who funds Sidewalk Detroit →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2020–2025), and the filings of 18 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