Michigan · Nonprofit
SOULARDARITY
SOULARDARITY (Michigan) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,043,477 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ($587,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 37
- Grants received
- $4.0M
- Net assets
- $725k
What Soulardarity does
Mission
Soulardarity is working to install solar-powered streetlights, save money on energy bills, and work together with Highland Park, MI and neighboring communities to build a just and equitable energy system for all. Soulardarity endeavors to achieve this goal through education, organizing, and people-powered clean energy.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Movement Building. State-Level Energy Democracy- a series of campaigns and coalition work to achieve affordability, health, and community-owned clean energy aimed at DTE, the MI Public Service Commission, and the legislature. Soulardarity is the only community-based organization with a strong legal presence at the MPSC fighting and building toward goals of racial and economic justice. We have leveraged legal intervention with public campaign work to win material victories to rate payers of SE Michigan including stopping regressive rate hikes, getting concessions from DTE to build low-income benefitting solar projects, and getting public health considered in energy decisions.
$476,580 spentof which $635,163 as grants50% of program spendingAsset Development: Highland Park Campaign Team-a campaign to make Highland Park, MI a global model of sustainability and self-determination, targeted at the City of Highland Park, organized around the Blueprint for Energy Democracy, the product of seven years of community organizing, research, and democratic practice and guide for our multi-issue work. Grow Solar Highland Park-Detroit-a public education and bulk purchasing program that makes going solar easier and more affordable. Creates access to energy-related products and services for Low-to-Moderate-Income ratepayers and members in support of a just transition to clean energy. Eligibility extends to property owners throughout the Detroit metro area and Wayne County. Once per year we offer the MREA sponsored RiseUP Training course established in 2020 to support workforce development efforts and expand employment access in advanced energy by providing solar training scholarships and facilitation paid solar internships. Graduates of the RiseUP Training Program provide students with free, hands-on solar training that can take them from "square one" all the way to their NABCP PV Associate Exam. We are currently working with Polar…
$476,580 spentof which $635,163 as grants50% of program spendingthere is only two program areas to report on
$0 spent0% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $953,160.
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 2021 to 2022, from $467k to $907k (+94%).
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.
100% of SOULARDARITY’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 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
Shimekia Nichols
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $35k → $350k.
8 of 37 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 SOULARDARITY’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 37 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
SOULARDARITY has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
85% 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 SOULARDARITY.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 43% · 2018 100% · 2019 62% · 2020 29% · 2021 23% · 2022 31% · 2023 36% — 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
31% of SOULARDARITY's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 46% 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
SOULARDARITY draws 93% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 10 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $929k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
SOULARDARITY has grown faster than three-quarters of the 2,186 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,186 environment nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like SOULARDARITY
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
100% 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 SOULARDARITY: 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 SOULARDARITY?
- SOULARDARITY (Michigan) receives grants from 37 organizations whose IRS filings report $4,043,477 to it, the largest being UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION ($587,000). 17 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does SOULARDARITY have?
- IRS filings report 37 organizations giving $4,043,477 in grants to SOULARDARITY, 17 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of SOULARDARITY?
- UNITED STATES ENERGY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $587,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like SOULARDARITY 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 37 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