Michigan · Nonprofit
Umoja Debate Team
Umoja Debate Team (Michigan) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $182,500 to it, the largest being THE JAMIE & DENISE JACOB FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $859k
- Funders on record
- 5
- Grants received
- $183k
- Net assets
- $130k
What Umoja Debate Team does
Mission
Umoja Debate League is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that uses debate as our vehicle to teach Detroit youth ages 11-18 transferable life skills such as critical thinking confidence conflict resolution increased literacy and self-expression. We provide youth with opportunities to articulate their thoughts and ideas to an audience develop interpersonal skills within a team environment and become transformational leaders.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
Umoja Debate League founded in 2021 by 23-year-old Detroit native Jerjuan Howard was established to address a gap in community engagement through disguised learning Umojas programs aim to provide youth with a platform for developing transferable life skills such as critical thinking communication and leadership Since its inception Umoja has positively impacted over 400 families in Detroit with a focus on youth while also strengthening entire communities Umoja Debate League operates three core programs all of which are free to eliminate barriers to participation After-School Debate Program In partnership with Detroit Public Schools Community District DPSCD Umoja offers an afterschool debate program for middle school students Currently the program is active in four DPSCD middle schools John R King Academic and Performing Arts Academy Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary-Middle School and Catherine C Blackwell Institute Students engage in weekly debate practices honing their skills in research public speaking and critical thinking while competing against other DPSCD schools Debate Summer Camp In partnership with The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law…
$695,514 spent100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $695,514.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2022, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2022, 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 2023 to 2024, from $73k to $136k (+87%).
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: 2024 81%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Umoja Debate Team’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 2 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
Orlando Bailey
Board Chair/President
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
Grant support over time, funder by funder — shade shows the grant size each year.
1 of 5 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% 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 Umoja Debate Team’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
Umoja Debate Team leans on a few funders — its largest provides 55% of grant income and the top three 86%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
90% 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 Umoja Debate Team.
“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 Umoja Debate Team's grant income comes from Michigan funders.
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $10k 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
Umoja Debate Team runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Organizations like Umoja Debate Team
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
87% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
0%
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 Umoja Debate Team: 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 Umoja Debate Team?
- Umoja Debate Team (Michigan) receives grants from 5 organizations whose IRS filings report $182,500 to it, the largest being THE JAMIE & DENISE JACOB FAMILY FOUNDATION ($100,000). 2 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Umoja Debate Team have?
- IRS filings report 5 organizations giving $182,500 in grants to Umoja Debate Team, 2 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Umoja Debate Team?
- THE JAMIE & DENISE JACOB FAMILY FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $100,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Umoja Debate Team 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 Umoja Debate Team →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2022–2024), and the filings of 5 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