Desk Drawer Fund
East Lansing, MI · EIN 83-3598690. Reported 90 grants totalling $2,850,499 to 56 organizations across tax years 2021-2025, 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 Desk Drawer Fund, 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. 56 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.
- How much its list changes. 43% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 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 $24,982. Half of what it reported fell between $10,000 and $45,859; the smallest was $6,000 and the largest $100,000. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child and Family Charities | Lansing, MI | $400,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| South Oakland Shelter | Pontiac, MI | $200,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Traverse Symphony Orchestra | Traverse City, MI | $200,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Lansing, MI | $150,000 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Detroit Institute of Arts | Detroit, MI | $125,000 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Impression 5 Science Center | Lansing, MI | $125,000 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| The Michigan Womens Foundation | Detroit, MI | $116,478 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Capital Area United Way | Lansing, MI | $104,085 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| Big Brothers Big Sisters Michigan Capital Region Inc | Lansing, MI | $100,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Lansing Promise | Lansing, MI | $96,350 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Tri County Office on Aging | Lansing, MI | $60,829 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Womens Center of Greater Lansing | Lansing, MI | $60,199 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Lansing Art Gallery & Education Center | Lansing, MI | $50,000 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Womens Resource Center for the Grand Traverse Area | Traverse City, MI | $47,965 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Allen Neighborhood Center | Lansing, MI | $46,828 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Children S Healing Center | Grand Rapids, MI | $45,859 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| United Way of South Central Mi | Kalamazoo, MI | $44,123 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Eve Inc | Lansing, MI | $43,390 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Affirmations Community Center | Ferndale, MI | $40,133 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Family Promise of Grand Rapids | Grand Rapids, MI | $40,066 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Barn Sanctuary | Chelsea, MI | $39,839 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Davies Project for Mid-Michigan Children | Lansing, MI | $39,253 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| New Day Foundation for Families | Rochester, MI | $39,108 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Firecracker Foundation | Lansing, MI | $38,534 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| New Hope Pet Rescue | Charlotte, MI | $36,789 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Reach Studio Art Center | Lansing, MI | $36,057 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Love in Deed Inc | Dewitt, MI | $32,709 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Salus Center | Lansing, MI | $31,497 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Youth Haven | Rives Jct, MI | $30,073 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Kids Food Basket | Grand Rapids, MI | $27,501 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| All of the Above Hip Hop Academy | Lansing, MI | $27,500 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Capital Area Housing Partnership | Lansing, MI | $27,500 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
| City of East Lansing- Jazz Festival | East Lansing, MI | $27,500 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Detroit Public Theatre | Detroit, MI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| First Step-Western Wayne County Project on Domestic Assault | Plymouth, MI | $25,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Sweet Encounter | Lansing, MI | $21,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Michael's Place | Traverse City, MI | $20,066 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| New Moms Inc | Chicago, IL | $20,066 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Salute Inc | Palatine, IL | $20,066 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Traverse City, MI | $20,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Home Repair Services of Kent County Inc | Grand Rapids, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Woldumar Nature Association | Lansing, MI | $17,530 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Junior Achievement USA | Grand Rapids, MI | $15,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Boy Scouts of America | Eagle, MI | $11,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Communities in Schools of Michigan Inc | Lansing, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Greater Lansing Area Holiday Commission | Lansing, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Grit Glam and Guts | East Lansing, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Holocaust Memorial Center | Farmingtn Hls, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Links Inc | Lansing, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| ACCELERATE4KIDS Foundation | Detroit, MI | $9,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Aya Youth Collective | Grand Rapids, MI | $8,702 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Helping Women Period Inc | Lansing, MI | $8,702 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Oakland County Animal Shelter | Pontiac, MI | $8,702 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Road Runners Club of Awmerica | Traverse City, MI | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Mid-Michigan Moms | Flint, MI | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Haven House | East Lansing, MI | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
18 of 56 (32%) 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 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.
- Michigan Women Forward
FOSTERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP - United Way of South Central Michigan
FINANCIAL EDUCATION AND YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 43 of 56 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 20 | $330,748 | $12,000 |
| 2022 | 18 | $482,441 | $15,000 |
| 2023 | 19 | $603,545 | $25,000 |
| 2024 | 16 | $785,573 | $48,175 |
| 2025 | 17 | $648,192 | $20,066 |
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
99% 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 a sign of overlapping priorities and nothing more: they do not show that any of these funders would consider a new organization. Each page says what its filings show.
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 $24,982 -- 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 Desk Drawer Fund's own Form 990 Schedule I filings, which the IRS publishes in bulk. We used 5 returns (tax years 2021-2025). 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 17 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: 3777 West Rd, East Lansing, MI, 48823.
EIN 83-3598690 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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