Great Lakes Observing System Regional Association
Ann Arbor, MI · EIN 26-0711287. Reported 81 grants totalling $8,994,627 to 28 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 Great Lakes Observing System Regional Association, the IRS classifies it under science & technology rather than as a grantmaker (NTEE U21) -- it is an operating charity that also makes grants.
- How spread out its giving is. 28 distinct organizations, with 22% 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. 81% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is well above the 56% median for grantmaking charities, and above 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 $63,388. Half of what it reported fell between $25,903 and $112,164; the smallest was $891 and the largest $615,230. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ioos Association | Silver Spring, MD | $1,979,818 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Michigan Tech | Houghton, MI | $1,747,671 | 25 | 5 | 2024 |
| University of Wisconsin Milwaukee | Milwaukee, WI | $1,188,489 | 6 | 5 | 2024 |
| Rps Group Plc | South Kingstown, RI | $938,464 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Spindance | Holland, MI | $615,230 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Colorado School of Mines | Golden, CO | $431,647 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Regents of University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI | $392,620 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Upstate Freshwater Institute Incorporated | Syracuse, NY | $281,826 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Florida Atlantic University | Atlanta, GA | $226,421 | 4 | 4 | 2024 |
| Regents of University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN | $214,536 | 5 | 5 | 2024 |
| Digital Industry Group LLC (dig) | Grand Rapids, MI | $203,055 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| City of Defiance | Defiance, OH | $90,434 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Ltbb of Odawa Indians | Harbor Springs, MI | $84,076 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Wayne State University | Detroit, MI | $80,951 | 2 | 2 | 2021 |
| Heidelberg University | Tiffin, OH | $70,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Syracuse University | Syracuse, NY | $63,388 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Lake County Department of Utilities | Painesville, OH | $62,266 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Clarkson University | Potsdam, NY | $49,423 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Northwestern Michigan College Foundation | Traverse City, MI | $48,805 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Digital Industry Group LLC (dig) | Grand Rapids, MI | $37,670 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Research Foundation for the State University of New York | Albany, NY | $33,657 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| New Water | Green Bay, WI | $32,940 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Salmon Unlimited Wisconsin Inc | Racine, WI | $28,391 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Superior Watershed Partnership | Marquette, MI | $25,903 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| University Prep Science & Math | Detroit, MI | $23,460 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Fugro USA Marine Inc | Houston, TX | $16,800 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Cleveland Water Alliance | Cleveland, OH | $16,686 | 1 | 1 | 2020 |
| Regional Science Consortium at Presque Isle Center | Erie, PA | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
11 of 28 (39%) 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.
- Rps Group Plc
Data aggregation and management for access into GLOS and IOOS web portals - Ioos Association
Supports regional associations of the US IOOS program - Michigan Tech
BITWISE Benthic Investigation Technology for Waters in the Great Lakes with Improved Survey Efficiency - University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Monitoring programs in Lake Michigan - Colorado School of Mines
National Water Initiative Coastal Model Evaluation - Digital Industry Group LLC (dig)
Initial designs of the frontend of GLOS new IT platform.
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 12 of 28 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 | 15 | $1,418,158 | $34,826 |
| 2021 | 23 | $2,849,077 | $70,000 |
| 2022 | 11 | $1,049,607 | $41,894 |
| 2023 | 15 | $1,713,467 | $78,277 |
| 2024 | 17 | $1,964,318 | $44,111 |
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
36% 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 $63,388 -- 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 Great Lakes Observing System Regional Association'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 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: 4840 S State Road, Ann Arbor, MI, 48108.
EIN 26-0711287 · See the original filings on ProPublica · How we build this
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