GrantmakersMichigan

Arts Council of Greater Lansing

East Lansing, MI · EIN 38-2086424. Reported 62 grants totalling $794,550 to 33 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

33organizations funded
$8,950median reported grant
$794,550granted, 2020-2023
60%of grantees funded again the next year
10%of dollars to its largest recipient

Does this grantmaker accept applications?

Its tax return does not say, and we will not guess. Private foundations file Form 990-PF, which asks outright whether they fund only organizations they select themselves -- 78% say yes, and that one answer is what lets the rest of this site tell you which foundations are worth approaching. Grantmaking charities like this one file a regular Form 990 instead, and the IRS never puts the question to them. Anyone claiming to know the answer from the filing is inventing it.

Three things in the filing do bear on it:

  1. What kind of organization it is. For Arts Council of Greater Lansing, the IRS classifies it under arts & culture rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE A260) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 33 distinct organizations, with 10% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is genuinely spread out -- the mark of a funder making many independent decisions rather than underwriting one institution.
  3. How much its list changes. 60% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 57% median for grantmaking charities -- noticeably lower than the 67% private foundations manage. Organizations like this one rotate more of their list each year, which is where an opening for a newcomer tends to be.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $8,950. Half of what it reported fell between $7,500 and $16,375; the smallest was $4,875 and the largest $34,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.

Schedule I only reports grants over $5,000. Form 990 requires a charity to list recipients it paid more than that and lets it omit the rest, so every grant-size figure on this page describes the grants it reported, not all of them. Its real median is lower and its real recipient count is higher. This is also why these numbers cannot be compared with the private-foundation figures elsewhere on this site -- Form 990-PF has no reporting floor, so the two are different populations rather than two samples of one.
Under $5,000
1 grant
$5,000 - $10,000
33 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
20 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
8 grants

Every organization it funded

This is the complete list from its filings, largest first. Recipients are grouped by the EIN the filer reported, not by name, so an organization that was typed differently in two years appears once rather than twice.

OrganizationLocationTotal receivedGrantsYears fundedLast
Lansing Symphony Association IncLansing, MI$82,915442023
Capitol CollectiveEast Lansing, MI$81,836442023
Michigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI$79,700842023
Capital City Film FestivalLansing, MI$72,625442023
Michigan Institute for Contemporary ArtLansing, MI$58,234442023
Lansing Art Gallery & Education CenterLansing, MI$57,150222023
Lansing Art Gallery and Education CenterLansing, MI$51,938222022
Reach Studio Art CenterLansing, MI$27,955332023
Old Town Commercial AssociationLansing, MI$25,050222021
All of US Express Childrens TheatreLansing, MI$23,558332023
Williamston TheatreWilliamston, MI$23,216332023
East Lansing Art FestivalEast Lansing, MI$20,000112021
Impression 5 Science CenterLansing, MI$17,125112021
Grit Glam and GutsEast Lansing, MI$17,000112023
LepfaLansing, MI$14,500112023
Michigan Arts and Culture CouncilLansing, MI$14,225112022
Lansing Matinee MusicaleOkemos, MI$11,688222023
Holt Community Arts CouncilHolt, MI$9,450112021
Against All OddsLansing, MI$8,750112023
Clinton County Arts Council IncSaint Johns, MI$7,500112022
Community Circle Players IncLansing, MI$7,500112022
Cracked Pot Studio TourWilliamston, MI$7,500112022
Focus on Love FoundationCharlotte, MI$7,500112022
Happendance IncOkemos, MI$7,500112022
Lansing Childrens ChoirLansing, MI$7,500112022
Peppermint Creek Theatre CoEaton Rapids, MI$7,500112022
Reo Town Commercial AssociationLansing, MI$7,500112022
The Lansing Womens ChorusEast Lansing, MI$7,500112022
Ourspace FoundationLansing, MI$6,760112023
Capitol Harp EnsembleEast Lansing, MI$6,250112023
The Army of Survivors IncLansing, MI$6,250112021
Michigan Dance and Movement CollectiveEast Lansing, MI$5,625112022
Reo Town Commercial AssociationLansing, MI$5,250112021

12 of 33 (36%) received money in more than one year over the 4 years we hold. Remember the $5,000 floor: an organization funded every year at $3,000 shows up here as never funded at all.

It also reported 6 groups of grants to individuals -- scholarships, emergency assistance and similar. Schedule I reports these by category with a headcount and never by name, so there is nothing here we could publish about the recipients even if we wanted to.

What the money was for

Taken verbatim from the purpose column of its filings, largest first. This is the closest thing to a statement of what it funds, in its own words.

What kind of organizations it funds

By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 21 of 33 recipients we could match to a registered organization. These are assigned categories, not our guesses -- Schedule I reports the recipient's EIN, so this is a lookup rather than a name match.

Arts & Culture
12 orgs
Education
2 orgs
Community Improvement
2 orgs
Human Services
2 orgs
Recreation & Sports
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Crime & Legal
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20207$112,317$16,375
202117$272,503$12,250
202223$207,729$7,500
202315$202,001$14,500

Tax years, not calendar years, and the most recent year is usually incomplete -- Form 990 arrives about a year after the year it covers, so a low final year means late paperwork rather than a grantmaker winding down.

Where its money goes

Lansing, MI
$495K
East Lansing, MI
$218K
Williamston, MI
$31K
Okemos, MI
$19K
Holt, MI
$9K
Saint Johns, MI
$8K
Charlotte, MI
$8K
Eaton Rapids, MI
$8K

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Funders that support the same organizations

These grantmakers and private foundations gave to organizations this one also funded. Shared grantees are the strongest signal available that two funders have overlapping priorities -- and a funder already backing your peers is a far warmer prospect than one that merely lists your cause.

Lansing Economic Area Partnership11 shared recipientsCapital Region Community Foundation10 shared recipientsRe Olds Foundation5 shared recipientsDonor Advised Charitable Giving Inc4 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund3 shared recipientsDesk Drawer Fund3 shared recipients

How to approach this grantmaker

  1. Look for a published programme first. Unlike most private foundations, organizations of this kind often do run open, deadlined grant cycles with written guidelines. Its own website is the authority on that; this page is the authority on who it has actually paid.
  2. Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $8,950 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
  3. Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Michigan.
  4. Read the recipient list for organizations like yours. If nothing on it resembles your work, that is a real answer and a cheap one to get.

Related guides

Foundations funding education in MichiganEvery funder in this group, ranked

Where these numbers come from

Everything above is taken from Arts Council of Greater Lansing's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2020-2023). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 15 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 0 other organizations. That is the filer's own count for one year; the totals above cover every year we hold.

Address of record on the latest return: 311 Abbot Rd, East Lansing, MI, 48823.

EIN 38-2086424 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this

This is history, not an open call. Form 990 is published about a year after the tax year it covers. Nothing on this page is a deadline. It is a record of who this organization has actually funded, which is the best available predictor of who it will fund next.

Is something here wrong about your organization? Email hello@funderscope.com and we will correct it.