GrantmakersMichigan

Otsego Community Foundation

Gaylord, MI · EIN 38-3216235. Reported 61 grants totalling $3,675,655 to 32 organizations across tax years 2021-2024, on Form 990 Schedule I.

32organizations funded
$11,500median reported grant
$3,675,655granted, 2021-2024
54%of grantees funded again the next year
49%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 Otsego Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
  2. How spread out its giving is. 32 distinct organizations, with 49% 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.
  3. 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 $11,500. Half of what it reported fell between $7,000 and $28,580; the smallest was $5,100 and the largest $1,168,858. 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.
$5,000 - $10,000
24 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
19 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
7 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
5 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
3 grants
$250,000 Or More
3 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
Otsego Christian School Association IncGaylord, MI$1,786,105222024
Habitat for Humanity International IncGaylord, MI$739,709332024
Otsego County United Way IncGaylord, MI$229,250442024
Refuge in Otsego CountyGaylord, MI$143,700332024
Gaylord Community SchoolsGaylord, MI$143,253442024
Michigan Disaster Recovery and ResponseLansing, MI$85,000112022
Otsego County SportsplexGaylord, MI$81,048442024
Veterans Education Training & Support IncGaylord, MI$57,879222023
Otsego Community FoundationGaylord, MI$52,791112022
Huron Pines Resource Conservation and Development Council IncGaylord, MI$30,000112023
Power Book BagsSuttons Bay, MI$28,425332024
Salvation ArmySouthfield, MI$26,100332024
Munson Healthcare Otsego Memorial Hospital FoundationGaylord, MI$25,439222022
Johannesburg-Lewiston Area School DistrictJohannesburg, MI$22,915442024
The Karing Home Youth ProjectGaylord, MI$21,900222023
Otsego County Commission on AgingGaylord, MI$20,000112024
Otsego County Community Food PantryGaylord, MI$18,940222024
Womens Resource Center of Northern MichiganPetoskey, MI$18,000222024
Gaylord Last ResortGayord, MI$16,600112022
Little League Baseball IncGaylord, MI$16,024222022
Headwaters Land ConservancyGaylord, MI$13,000112022
Gaylord Area Council for the ArtsGaylord, MI$12,500222024
Northern Family Intervention Services IncGaylord, MI$12,000112024
Gaylord Gators IncGaylord, MI$11,977222024
City of GaylordGaylord, MI$11,500112024
Community Mediation ServicesGaylord, MI$10,000112024
State Trooper Outreach Partnership Gaylord ChapterGaylord, MI$10,000112023
Michigan Disaster Recovery and ResponseMidland, MI$7,800112023
Mclaren Northern Michigan Foundatio NPetoskey, MI$6,300112022
Gaylord Soccer League IncGaylord, MI$6,000112021
Junior Achievement USAGrand Rapids, MI$6,000112024
Kirtland Community College FoundationGrayling, MI$5,500112024

17 of 32 (53%) 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 4 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 18 of 32 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.

Human Services
4 orgs
Recreation & Sports
3 orgs
Environment
2 orgs
Education
1 org
Philanthropy & Grantmaking
1 org
Housing & Shelter
1 org
Youth Development
1 org
Food & Nutrition
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
202113$163,304$10,500
202215$968,129$28,580
202314$1,056,411$10,000
202419$1,487,811$10,000

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

Gaylord, MI
$3.5M
Lansing, MI
$85K
Suttons Bay, MI
$28K
Southfield, MI
$26K
Petoskey, MI
$24K
Johannesburg, MI
$23K
Gayord, MI
$17K
Midland, 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.

Donor Advised Charitable Giving Inc7 shared recipientsFidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund6 shared recipientsConsumers Energy Foundation6 shared recipientsNatl Christian Charitable Fdn Inc5 shared recipientsCommunity Foundation for Southeast5 shared recipientsCommunity Financial Credit Union4 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 $11,500 -- 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 Otsego Community Foundation'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.

On its most recent return it told the IRS it made grants to 19 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: Po Box 344, Gaylord, MI, 49734.

EIN 38-3216235 · 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.