Michigan · Nonprofit
THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL
THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL (Michigan) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $109,456 to it, the largest being BESSER FOUNDATION ($92,956). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $128k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $109k
- Net assets
- $137k
What Thunder Bay Arts Council does
Mission
The mission of Thunder Bay Arts Council, inc. Is to promote, support, and preserve the arts through performance, education, and leadership.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
Art on the bay 2023 juried arts & craft fair attendees approx. 4,000
Varies showcases, concerts & festivals held during the 22-23 season
Art vision alpena - multi year sculpture project throughout alpena
Rental of gallery space to local artists
$95,603 spent100% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $95,603.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2022 to 2023, from $92k to $144k (+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.
73% of THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base narrowed from 3 funders to 1 funder, grant income fell $15k → $9k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 2% 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 THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL’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
THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL leans on a few funders — its largest provides 85% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 83% · 2018 95% · 2019 92% · 2020 86% · 2021 55% · 2022 100% · 2023 100% — growing more concentrated.
“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
100% of THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL's revenue grew 40% between 2018 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,634 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL
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.
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL: 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 THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL?
- THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL (Michigan) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $109,456 to it, the largest being BESSER FOUNDATION ($92,956). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $109,456 in grants to THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL?
- BESSER FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $92,956 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THUNDER BAY ARTS COUNCIL 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 Thunder Bay Arts Council →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2018–2025), and the filings of 3 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