Michigan · Nonprofit
VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC
VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC (Michigan) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,015,694 to it, the largest being William Davidson Foundation ($2,315,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $2.5M
- Funders on record
- 76
- Grants received
- $16M
- Net assets
- $876k
What Venture for America Inc does
Mission
Venture for america's mission is to responsibly steward its remaining resources while supporting the transition, administrative close-out, and long-term needs of its fellow and alumni community. The organization is committed to preserving its legacy of entrepreneurship development and ensuring an orderly wind-down of operations consistent with its charitable purpose.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Program
In 2024, venture for america (vfa) continued to operate its entrepreneurship and fellowship programs, providing training, placement support, and community resources to its network of fellows and alumni. Throughout the year, the organization also experienced increasing financial and operational challenges, including a significant decline in venture funding among company partners, which reduced both revenue and available placement opportunities. These economic headwinds, coupled with shifting philanthropic priorities, led to a substantial decrease in grant funding that historically comprised the majority of the organization's income.on august 6, 2024, the board of directors and leadership team announced that vfa would begin the process of winding down current day-to-day operations. This decision followed several years of changes in the entrepreneurial landscape and increasing difficulty sustaining the organization's historical funding model. The announcement also recognized vfa's achievements over its 13-year history, including supporting over 950 companies, contributing to economic growth in more than 20 cities, enabling fellows and alumni to launch more than 375 businesses, and…
$1,758,387 spent$310,829 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $1,758,387.
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 2017 to 2018, from $2.2M to $3.6M (+65%).
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: 2021 17% · 2022 16%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
74% of VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (61% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Eric Somerville
CEO
Board chair
Dorie Smith
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2017 and FY2018 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 25 funders, grant income rose $1.5M → $2.6M.
21 of 76 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 18% 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 VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 76 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
VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 14% of grant income, and it takes 6 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 6 funders to its left
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 20% · 2018 16% · 2019 17% · 2020 19% · 2021 19% · 2022 24% · 2023 29% — 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.
How long its funders stay
43% of VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% 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
VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC draws 65% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 19 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 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
VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 4,203 community improvement nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,203 community improvement nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like VENTURE FOR AMERICA 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
80% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
70%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 2 related entities
- Vfa Create LLC · corp_trust
- Vfa Create Inc · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for VENTURE FOR AMERICA 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 VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC?
- VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC (Michigan) receives grants from 76 organizations whose IRS filings report $16,015,694 to it, the largest being William Davidson Foundation ($2,315,000). 48 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC have?
- IRS filings report 76 organizations giving $16,015,694 in grants to VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC, 48 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of VENTURE FOR AMERICA INC?
- William Davidson Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $2,315,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like VENTURE FOR AMERICA 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 76 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