Michigan · Nonprofit
We the People of Detroit
We the People of Detroit (Michigan) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,613,175 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($1,360,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $5.6M
- Net assets
- $2.5M
What We the People of Detroit does
Mission
Dedicated to community coalition building and providing vehicles that inform, train, and mobilize the citizens of the city of Detroit and beyond to improve their quality of life.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Water Works - A human rights program. Volunteers support a hotline and assist citizens with locating emergency water, making payment arrangements, and navigating various water support resources. The water works program acquires emergency water and delivers such water to the elderly, disabled, and those in need.
$533,849 spent50% of program spendingYouth Intership - We the Youth of Detroit (WYD), a year-round program (previously a summer program), builds up young leaders who lead the way in community efforts to address water security by co-leadership &professional development. Building their skillsetsin relation to the science of water, training them in water recreation, careers in water testing/conservation, and GIS Mapping. Exposing them to community service, civic & intergenerational engagement, and communication strategies.
$360,338 spent34% of program spendingCommunity Research Collective (WPD CRC): This is a collaboration among community activists, academics, researchers, and designers in Detroit, Michigan, studying the impact of water affordability & safety, policy, social equity, and economic power building with local residents. Our community-based participatory research process provides statistically significant data and scientifically rigorous research to demonstrate the impact of policy interventions and / or regression on water affordability, water quality, water insecurity, psychological distress, displacement, and public health concerns among residents.
$130,627 spent12% of program spendingTech Hub Infrastructure - As a result of support received from funding partners, the organization has opened multiple tech hubs designed to promote the benefits of addressing the technology learning curve. Providing capital for technological infrastructures.Obtaining and Long-term commitments for continuing investment.
$48,693 spent5% of program spendingWe the People of Detroit Community Research Collective (WPD CRC) is a collaboration among community activists, academics, researchers, and designers in Detroit, Michigan, studying the impact of water affordability & safety, policy, social equity, and economic power building with local residents. Our community-based participatory research process provides statistically significant data and scientifically rigorous research to demonstrate the impact of policy interventions and/or regression on water affordability, water quality, water insecurity, psychological distress, displacement, and public health concerns among residents.
The 5 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,073,507.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2020 to 2021, from $784k to $2.4M (+208%).
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.
95% of We the People of Detroit’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 7 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
Monica Lewis-Patrick
CEO and President
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 12 funders, grant income rose $104k → $983k.
9 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% 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 We the People of Detroit’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 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
We the People of Detroit has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
51% 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 We the People of Detroit.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 55% · 2019 72% · 2020 30% · 2021 32% · 2022 22% · 2023 24% — 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
32% of We the People of Detroit's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
We the People of Detroit draws 79% of its grant income from funders outside Michigan, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.3M arriving through sponsors registered in 7 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
We the People of Detroit holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 6,891 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 6,891 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like We the People of Detroit
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
59% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
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 We the People of Detroit: 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 We the People of Detroit?
- We the People of Detroit (Michigan) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $5,613,175 to it, the largest being THE FORD FOUNDATION ($1,360,000). 26 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does We the People of Detroit have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $5,613,175 in grants to We the People of Detroit, 26 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of We the People of Detroit?
- THE FORD FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $1,360,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like We the People of Detroit 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 We the People of Detroit →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2019–2025), and the filings of 46 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