Michigan State University Research
East Lansing, MI · EIN 23-7326030. Reported 72 grants totalling $70.0M to 49 organizations across tax years 2020-2024, 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 Michigan State University Research, by its IRS classification it exists to support one specific institution in education -- typically its own parent hospital, university or school (NTEE B110).
- How spread out its giving is. 49 distinct organizations, with 97% of the dollars going to the largest single recipient. That is extreme concentration. A grantmaker sending three quarters of its money to one organization is in practice a support fund for that organization, whatever its classification says, and an unsolicited request is very unlikely to go anywhere.
- How much its list changes. 46% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 2 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% median for private foundations. It describes the organizations it already funds, not whether it would consider a new one.
How big are its grants?
The median reported grant is $16,664. Half of what it reported fell between $12,500 and $34,786; the smallest was $5,005 and the largest $17.6M. 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 | $68.2M | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Grip Medical Properties I LLC | Plymouth, MI | $400,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Vetr Health LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $93,404 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Ride Yourway | Grand Rapids, MI | $84,876 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Reel Free LLC | Wyoming, MI | $75,970 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Healthbar | Grand Rapids, MI | $74,673 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Smart Bridge Medical | Plymouth, MI | $70,845 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Movefactorx | Grand Rapids, MI | $67,173 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Carbon Stealth Designs LLC | Ada, MI | $55,200 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| The Ohio State University | Columbus, OH | $53,368 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Curacollaborative LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $50,628 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Cross Equipment LLC | Sterling Heights, MI | $50,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Motion Grazer Ai | East Lansing, MI | $47,480 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Overpower | Hastings, MI | $33,986 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Elite Care Technologies | Grand Rapids, MI | $31,750 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Quantitative Coin Grading | Stanwood, MI | $31,265 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Sbe Medical LLC | Belmont, MI | $28,060 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Farmish | Grand Rapids, MI | $27,591 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Titan Bioplastics | Grand Rapids, MI | $25,800 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Preemier | Grand Rapids, MI | $25,780 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Faycrest Studios | Alma, MI | $25,000 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Sharp & Flat Inc | Holland, MI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Cavgene Therapeutics Inc | Grand Rapids, MI | $23,721 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Student Achievement Systems | Grand Rapids, MI | $22,752 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Bookscore LLC | Coopersville, MI | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wimage | Grand Rapids, MI | $22,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mfgparts | Grand Rapids, MI | $20,700 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Blutapp Dba Blulateral | Grand Rapids, MI | $19,570 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Vped | Grand Rapids, MI | $18,745 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| Trueline Health | Grand Rapids, MI | $18,420 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Photonicare | Grand Rapids, MI | $18,170 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Emergency Medicine Innovations | Grand Rapids, MI | $16,871 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Everfriendsai | Grand Rapids, MI | $16,579 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Fieldman | Sawyer, MI | $16,125 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Justair Solutions | Grand Rapids, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Simple Estimate LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Mesa Enterprises | Midland, MI | $14,990 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Wisckar LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $14,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Engage Systems LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $13,750 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Boxmagic | Grand Rapids, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kikcit LLC | Grand Rapids, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Rigrax | Grand Rapids, MI | $9,540 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Lucid Biosystems | Grand Rapids, MI | $9,508 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| First Rule Cm | Grand Rapids, MI | $9,416 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Labr Inc | Grand Rapids, MI | $8,228 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Trusted Rides | Grand Rapids, MI | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Auxin Games | Grand Rapids, MI | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Fieldman | Sawyer, MI | $5,375 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Kozi Ale | Grand Rapids, MI | $5,005 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
16 of 49 (33%) received money in more than one year over the 5 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 kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 2 of 49 recipients we could match to a registered organization. The categories are the IRS's, not ours -- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 | $12.2M | $12.2M |
| 2021 | 1 | $14.8M | $14.8M |
| 2022 | 16 | $18.2M | $10,675 |
| 2023 | 31 | $12.1M | $17,100 |
| 2024 | 23 | $12.7M | $18,420 |
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
100% 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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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 $16,664 -- 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 Michigan State University Research's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2020-2024). Grant figures are from its returns. Recipient classifications, the concentration and retention figures and the funders that support the same organizations are our own calculations from them, described in how we build this.
On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 2 section 501(c)(3) organizations and 23 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: 325 E Grand River Ave Ste 275, East Lansing, MI, 48823.
EIN 23-7326030 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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