Michigan · Nonprofit
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN (Michigan) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,179,154 to it, the largest being BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($2,204,788). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $3.5M
- Funders on record
- 47
- Grants received
- $5.2M
- Net assets
- $2.6M
What United Way of Southwest Michigan does
Mission
United Way of Southwest Michigan works in berrien, cass, and van buren counties to create a united and resilient community where everyone contributes, belongs, and thrives.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
United Way of Southwest Michigan provided funding to 64 programs at 47 organizations that serve berrien, cass, and van buren counties. United Way of Southwest Michigan is creating impact through investments in the areas of financial security, healthy community, youth opportunity, and community resiliency. In the final year of the most recent funding cycle, United Way of Southwest Michigan funding helped area agencies receive more than $1,200,000 in leveraged funds and impacted more than 179,000 individuals. The organization also mobilized 2,397 volunteers who contributed 14,750 hours of their time; a total value of $513,152.50.
$2,748,601 spentof which $1,497,158 as grants$11,949 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2025 Form 990. Program spending in total: $2,748,601.
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 2023 to 2024, from $5.8M to $4.6M (−21%).
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: 2020 5% · 2022 8%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
96% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 7 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
Tim Smith
Board chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 11 funders to 28 funders, grant income rose $354k → $764k.
14 of 47 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 61% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $13M from 7 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Whirlpool Foundation). These are real filings, and they are not money UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN raised.
From the IRS filings of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 47 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
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN leans on a few funders — its largest provides 43% of grant income and the top three 53%; half comes from just 3 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
77% 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 UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 68% · 2018 58% · 2019 67% · 2020 37% · 2021 54% · 2022 33% · 2023 30% — 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
52% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 64% 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
61% of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN'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 $2.0M that is directly attributable, 64% of it comes from Michigan funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $3.2M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN's revenue fell 25% between 2017 and 2025.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,645 philanthropy nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Government funding UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.7M on record.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$1.7M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN
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
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
98%
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 UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN: 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 UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN?
- UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN (Michigan) receives grants from 47 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,179,154 to it, the largest being BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC ($2,204,788). 30 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 61% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN have?
- IRS filings report 47 organizations giving $5,179,154 in grants to UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN, 30 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN?
- BERRIEN COMMUNITY FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $2,204,788 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNITED WAY OF SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN 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 FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 47 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