Skip to content

Michigan · Nonprofit

TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Michigan) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,773 to it, the largest being MR METZGER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($38,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.

Revenue FY2025
$1.6M
Funders on record
6
Grants received
$85k
Net assets
$750k
2/6 repeat funderspeak grant-dependency 1%
01What it does

What Tower Education Association does

Mission

Summers-knoll school exists to prepare children for the future through a challenging academic program that considers the whole child in a supportive, encouraging, and joyful environment.

As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.

Programs

  1. Classroom teaching - to enable each child the necessary environment to reach their own educational potential.

    $847,286 spent$1,126,789 earned by the program
    75% of program spending
  2. After school programs - these programs are offered to students as extracurricular activities after school hours.

    $72,846 spent$138,430 earned by the program
    6% of program spending
  3. Break programs - these are programs offered to students and the community when the school session is on break during the school year. Programs are offered during the day while parents are at work.

    $5,655 spent$55,262 earned by the program
    1% of program spending
  4. Summer camp program - this is a summer program offered after the end of the school year. It is offered to both students in and out of the summers-knoll community.

    $201,559 spent
    18% of program spending

The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,127,346.

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 ($1.9M) Expenses 100 ($2.1M) Net assets 100 ($999k)2018 Revenue 116 ($2.2M) Expenses 105 ($2.2M) Net assets 102 ($1.0M)2019 Revenue 139 ($2.7M) Expenses 117 ($2.5M) Net assets 124 ($1.2M)2020 Revenue 132 ($2.5M) Expenses 117 ($2.5M) Net assets 131 ($1.3M)2021 Revenue 119 ($2.3M) Expenses 102 ($2.1M) Net assets 141 ($1.4M)2022 Revenue 162 ($3.1M) Expenses 122 ($2.6M) Net assets 196 ($2.0M)2023 Revenue 91 ($1.7M) Expenses 101 ($2.1M) Net assets 157 ($1.6M)2024 Revenue 57 ($1.1M) Expenses 83 ($1.7M) Net assets 96 ($962k)2025 Revenue 82 ($1.6M) Expenses 84 ($1.8M) Net assets 75 ($750k)
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Revenue (82)Expenses (84)Net assets (75)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 $4.6M to $3.9M (−16%).

$3.7M
$3.8M
$3.8M
$3.8M
$4.1M
$4.6M
$3.9M
$3.3M
$3.4M
'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
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
2025
ContributionsProgram revenueInvestmentOther

Government-grant reliance: 2021 12% · 2022 18% · 2023 8% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.

3% of TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (48% for the typical peer).

This organization
Typical peer · 12,352 orgs

Surplus & reserves

Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 4 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.

−$184k
’17
$19k
’18
$217k
’19
$73k
’20
$149k
’21
$545k
’22
−$387k
’23
−$640k
’24
−$208k
’25
3.0
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

Carrie Symons

Exec dir - t

As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.

'17'18'19'20'21'22'23'24'25
Listed711141110101089
Joined·+5+5+0+2+4+2+2+1
No longer listed·12334240
03Who funds it

Who funds it, year by year

2017 → 2023: the base held at 2 funders, grant income rose $5k → $6k.

4 of 6 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 55% 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 TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION’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

TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION leans on a few funders — its largest provides 45% of grant income and the top three 87%; half comes from just 2 funders.

the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left

55% 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 TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION.

45%
largest funder
87%
top three
~3
effective funders

Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 95% · 2018 100% · 2019 83% · 2020 97% · 2021 97% · 2022 62% · 2023 99% — 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

55% of TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $38k that is directly attributable, 99% of it comes from funders outside Michigan, across 2 states.

MI
NY

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. $47k 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.

04Its place in the field

Against its field

TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION's revenue fell 18% between 2017 and 2025.

Operating margin−13% · bottom quartile
Months of reserve3.0mo · below the median
Revenue growth (annualized)−3% · bottom quartile

this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 9,398 education nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025

Organizations like TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

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

63% of spending goes to programs.

Program 63%Management 32%Fundraising 5%

Governance

5
board members
100%
independent
✓Conflict-of-interest policy✓Whistleblower policy✓Document retention✓Board reviewed the 990–Audited financials

Footprint & structure

Files a return copy in 1 state

MI

Screen this organization

A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: 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 TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION?
TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION (Michigan) receives grants from 6 organizations whose IRS filings report $84,773 to it, the largest being MR METZGER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC ($38,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 55% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
How many funders does TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION have?
IRS filings report 6 organizations giving $84,773 in grants to TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
Who is the largest funder of TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION?
MR METZGER FAMILY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $38,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
How can an organization like TOWER EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 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 Tower Education Association →

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 6 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