Drive for Life
Kalamazoo, MI · EIN 82-3209896. Reported 50 grants totalling $3,554,440 to 29 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.
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:
- What kind of organization it is. For Drive for Life, the IRS classifies it as a public foundation -- a grantmaker that raises its money from many sources rather than from one donor (NTEE T30).
- How spread out its giving is. 29 distinct organizations, with 55% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is concentrated. Most of the money has a settled destination, and the remainder is what is realistically in play.
- How much its list changes. 54% 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 $19,500. Half of what it reported fell between $12,020 and $55,000; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $1,112,000. If you are asking for materially more than the top of that range, you are asking the wrong organization.
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.
| Organization | Location | Total received | Grants | Years funded | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State University | East Lansing, MI | $1,954,000 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Southwest Michigan First Corporation | Kalamazoo, MI | $467,000 | 6 | 4 | 2024 |
| American Cancer Society Inc | Atlanta, GA | $243,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Journey 21 Inc | Oconomowoc, WI | $150,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bronco Athletic Fund | Kalamazoo, MI | $100,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Western Michigan University | Kalamazoo, MI | $99,000 | 4 | 3 | 2024 |
| Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center | Augusta, MI | $56,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Community Foundation for Oceana County | Pentwater, MI | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Evans Scholars Foundation | Glenview, IL | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Folds of Honor Foundation | Owasso, OK | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Ocean Reef Foundation Inc | Key Largo, FL | $45,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinsons Wellness | Farmington Hills, MI | $35,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Drive for Life | Kalamazoo, MI | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gull Lake Athletics | Richland, MI | $28,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County Inc | Goshen, IN | $21,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Kalamazoo Community Foundation | Kalamazoo, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Western Michigan University Foundation | Kalamazoo, MI | $16,320 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Hackett Catholic Prep School | Kalamazoo, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office | Kalamazoo, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Mrc Industries Incorporated | Kalamazoo, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ocean Reef Chapel Foundation Inc | Key Largo, FL | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Movember Foundation | Santa Monica, CA | $12,020 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Sherman Lake YMCA Outdoor Center | Augusta, MI | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Grant Cardone Foundation Inc | Aventura, FL | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Great Lakes Center for the Arts | Bay Harbor, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Kalamazoo Public Safety | Kalamazoo, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kalamazoo Regional Catholic Schools Foundation | Kalamazoo, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Junior Achievement of Greater Lafayette | Lafayette, IN | $8,600 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Hardystrong Foundation Nfp | St Charles, IL | $7,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
8 of 29 (28%) 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.
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.
- Community Foundation for Oceana County
WAYNE ELHART BE NICE MEMORIAL FUND - Wmu Athletics - Athletic Sponsorship
ATHLETIC SPONSORSHIP 2022 - Wmu Public Safety
IN HONOR OF OFFICER GENTRY
What kind of organizations it funds
By each recipient's own IRS classification, for the 21 of 29 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.
Giving by year
| Tax year | Grants reported | Total | Median grant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 9 | $329,000 | $15,000 |
| 2022 | 13 | $1,502,340 | $17,000 |
| 2023 | 15 | $814,600 | $47,000 |
| 2024 | 13 | $908,500 | $30,000 |
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
83% of its giving went to organizations in Michigan. Community foundations and federated funds are usually the most geographically bounded funders there are -- being outside the footprint is normally disqualifying in a way that a weak programme fit is not.
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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.
How to approach this grantmaker
- 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.
- Check you are its size. The median reported grant is $19,500 -- and because grants under $5,000 need not be reported, it very likely writes smaller cheques than this page can see.
- Check you are in its geography. Its giving concentrates in Michigan.
- 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
Where these numbers come from
Everything above is taken from Drive for Life's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 4 returns (tax years 2021-2024). Nothing here is scraped, inferred or estimated.
Address of record on the latest return: 4201 Stadium Dr, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008.
EIN 82-3209896 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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