GrantmakersMichigan

Battle Creek Unlimited Inc

Battle Creek, MI · EIN 38-1951806. Reported 32 grants totalling $3,263,309 to 22 organizations across tax years 2020-2023, on Form 990 Schedule I.

22organizations funded
$88,000median reported grant
$3,263,309granted, 2020-2023
33%of grantees funded again the next year
14%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 Battle Creek Unlimited Inc, the IRS classifies it under community improvement rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE S400) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
  2. How spread out its giving is. 22 distinct organizations, with 14% 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. 33% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 3 year-to-year transitions. That is below the 57% median for grantmaking charities, and well below the 67% private foundations manage. A list that turns over this much is one a newcomer can realistically join.

How big are its grants?

The median reported grant is $88,000. Half of what it reported fell between $17,794 and $150,000; the smallest was $5,100 and the largest $412,074. 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
7 grants
$10,000 - $25,000
3 grants
$25,000 - $50,000
4 grants
$50,000 - $100,000
4 grants
$100,000 - $250,000
11 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
Stream 2 LLCBattle Creek, MI$450,000222022
Simply Sensational Berries LLCBattle Creek, MI$419,574222023
Jay Andrew Development CoOkemos, MI$360,000112020
New Level ChurchBattle Creek, MI$240,000222022
Torti Taco LLCBattle Creek, MI$215,000222021
Burmese American Initiative IncSpringfield, MI$205,100332023
Hexx Design CoBattle Creek, MI$200,000112021
Brilliant Minds Family Consulting LLCBattle Creek, MI$198,900222022
The Elizabeth Building PartnersBattle Creek, MI$171,200222021
Sprout Urban Farms IncBattle Creek, MI$167,794222023
Umami Ramen LLCBattle Creek, MI$153,000112020
Smith-Cotton Funeral Home LLCBattle Creek, MI$147,926112022
Lkv Ventures LLCAugusta, MI$96,203112020
Sunlight GardensBattle Creek, MI$80,000112022
Penetrator Events LLCBattle Creek, MI$40,000112022
Snackwerks of MichiganBattle Creek, MI$38,000112020
Cereal City Tattoo & PiercingBattle Creek, MI$35,000112020
Western Michigan UniversityKalamazoo, MI$12,612222023
New Level SportsBattle Creek, MI$10,000112021
Battle Creek Hot Air Balloon Championships IncBattle Creek, MI$8,000112021
Bread and Basket LLCBattle Creek, MI$7,500112023
Cricket ClubBattle Creek, MI$7,500112020

9 of 22 (41%) 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 5 of 22 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.

Religion
1 org
Arts & Culture
1 org
Food & Nutrition
1 org
Education
1 org
Youth Development
1 org

Giving by year

Tax yearGrants reportedTotalMedian grant
20208$927,703$82,101
202110$913,950$101,600
20229$1,376,400$100,000
20235$45,256$7,500

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

Battle Creek, MI
$2.6M
Okemos, MI
$360K
Springfield, MI
$205K
Augusta, MI
$96K
Kalamazoo, MI
$13K

Find more funders like Battle Creek Unlimited Inc

We read newly filed IRS returns and email you the grantmakers whose giving matches your state and cause, as they are published. Free.

No spam, unsubscribe in one click. We never sell or share your address.

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.

Wk Kellogg Foundation4 shared recipientsBattle Creek Community Foundation3 shared recipientsUnited Way of South Central Michigan3 shared recipientsW E Upjohn Unemployment Trustee Corp2 shared recipientsMiller Foundation2 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 $88,000 -- 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 Battle Creek Unlimited Inc'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.

Address of record on the latest return: 4950 West Dickman Rd Suite 1, Battle Creek, MI, 49037.

EIN 38-1951806 · 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 [email protected] and we will correct it.