Michigan · Nonprofit
STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC
STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC (Michigan) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,011,651 to it, the largest being THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION ($510,906). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $2.0M
- Funders on record
- 48
- Grants received
- $3.0M
- Net assets
- $3.5M
What Student Advocacy Center of Michigan Inc does
Mission
The student advocacy center of michigan works collaboratively with underserved students, and their families, to stay in school, realize their rights to a quality public education, grow and experience success.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Education advocacy and support: sac provides no-cost advocacy and support for families in educational crisis (expulsion, suspension, school failure, enrollment denial, discrimination). We assess needs, explore rights and options, build self-advocacy skills, coordinate with the schools and cocreate plans that result in improved attendance, behavior and grades. We have a statewide helpline and in-person support in wayne, washtenaw and jackson counties.
$1,001,687 spent53% of program spendingCheck & connect is an intensive, structured, long-term, and evidence-based mentoring program for students who are disconnected from school and learning. The program, started in the 1990s from the university of minnesota, has been proven to increase school completion. Sac first piloted check & connect in 2012 in ypsilanti and now provides the program in ypsilanti, ann arbor, and detroit. We work with low- and no-income students impacted by trauma, mental illness, racism, and barriers such as harsh school discipline, truancy, and school failure. Mentors and mentees work together for a minimum of two years. Continued on schedule oevery week, mentors connect with each youth, check school engagement data, design personalized interventions based on that data, encourage goalsetting and problem-solving, and serve as a bridge between the student, school, caregivers, and community. Mentees improve attendance, grades, and discipline and are more likely to graduate.
$488,605 spent26% of program spendingYouth organizing/community organizing/policy: the vision of sac from the start was to both provide meaningful "social service" type support and individual case advocacy - but also to build power of students and familiies and together take collective action to win concrete changes to policies and practices that improve the lives of many more students. Sac is focused on concrete wins that increase student voice, choice, support and care and decrease harsh discipline and carceral systems. As part of this work, sac engages in youth organizing in a program called youth action michigan (yam) in detroit and ypsilanti. Yam is an education justice youth organizing program that works to build youth leadership, power and better schools. We combat school push-out and work towards healthy and healing schools. Continued on schedule o sac also engages caregivers and community members in organizing locally and in statewide work.
$380,427 spent20% of program spendingClient support services
$4,984 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,875,703.
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.
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 $2.5M to $3.5M (+40%).
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 39% · 2018 18% · 2019 36% · 2020 27% · 2021 26% · 2022 47% · 2023 19% · 2024 36% · 2025 65%. 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 9 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.
Board chair
Alicia Davis
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 7 funders to 23 funders, grant income rose $129k → $584k.
10 of 48 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 36% 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 STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 48 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
STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 17% 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
63% 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 STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 39% · 2018 58% · 2019 40% · 2020 32% · 2021 30% · 2022 26% · 2023 21% — 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
42% of STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% 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
96% of STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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.
Organizations like STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
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
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC: 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 STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC?
- STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC (Michigan) receives grants from 48 organizations whose IRS filings report $3,011,651 to it, the largest being THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION ($510,906). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC have?
- IRS filings report 48 organizations giving $3,011,651 in grants to STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC?
- THE SKILLMAN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $510,906 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like STUDENT ADVOCACY CENTER OF MICHIGAN INC 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 Student Advocacy Center of Michigan →
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 48 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