Otsego Community Foundation
Gaylord, MI · EIN 38-3216235. Reported 93 grants totalling $4,286,909 to 52 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 Otsego Community Foundation, the IRS classifies it as a community foundation (NTEE T31).
- How spread out its giving is. 52 distinct organizations, with 42% 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.
- How much its list changes. 56% of one year's grantees are funded again the next, across 4 year-to-year transitions. That is about the 56% median for grantmaking charities -- lower than 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 $11,000. 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Otsego Christian School Association Inc | Gaylord, MI | $1,796,417 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Habitat for Humanity International Inc | Gaylord, MI | $739,709 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Otsego County United Way Inc | Gaylord, MI | $295,862 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Gaylord Community Schools | Gaylord, MI | $176,527 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Refuge in Otsego County | Gaylord, MI | $175,200 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Sportsplex | Gaylord, MI | $165,021 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Michigan Disaster Recovery and Response | Lansing, MI | $85,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Veterans Education Training & Support Inc | Gaylord, MI | $65,379 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Community Food Pantry | Gaylord, MI | $59,469 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Economic Alliance Inc | Gaylord, MI | $55,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Johannesburg-Lewiston Area School District | Johannesburg, MI | $54,714 | 5 | 5 | 2025 |
| Salvation Army | Southfield, MI | $53,600 | 4 | 4 | 2025 |
| Otsego Community Foundation | Gaylord, MI | $52,791 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Pigeon River Country Association Inc | Gaylord, MI | $30,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Huron Pines Resource Conservation and Development Council Inc | Gaylord, MI | $30,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Power Book Bags | Traverse City, MI | $28,425 | 3 | 3 | 2024 |
| Womens Resource Center of Northern Michigan | Petoskey, MI | $25,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Munson Healthcare Otsego Memorial Hospital Foundation | Gaylord, MI | $25,439 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Vanderbilt Area Schools | Vanderbilt, MI | $23,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| The Karing Home Youth Project | Gaylord, MI | $21,900 | 2 | 2 | 2023 |
| Gaylord Area Council for the Arts | Gaylord, MI | $20,500 | 3 | 3 | 2025 |
| Gaylord Evangelical Free Church | Gaylord, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Commission on Aging | Gaylord, MI | $20,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gaylord Last Resort | Gayord, MI | $16,600 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Little League Baseball Inc | Gaylord, MI | $16,024 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Community Mediation Services | Gaylord, MI | $16,000 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Headwaters Land Conservancy | Gaylord, MI | $13,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Crossroads Ministries Inc | Gaylord, MI | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Northwest Michigan Works Inc | Traverse City, MI | $12,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Northern Family Intervention Services Inc | Gaylord, MI | $12,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Gaylord Gators Inc | Gaylord, MI | $11,977 | 2 | 2 | 2024 |
| City of Gaylord | Gaylord, MI | $11,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Otsego Conservation District | Gaylord, MI | $11,253 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| American National Red Cross | Washington, DC | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan Inc | Traverse City, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| State Trooper Outreach Partnership Gaylord Chapter | Gaylord, MI | $10,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Gaylord Community Orchestra | Gaylord, MI | $8,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Giving Tree Food Pantry of Northeast Michigan Inc | Gaylord, MI | $7,928 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Michigan Disaster Recovery and Response | Midland, MI | $7,800 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Johannesburg Christian Church | Johannesburg, MI | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Parks and Recreation | Gaylord, MI | $7,000 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Rotary Charities of Traverse City | Traverse City, MI | $6,612 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Rise-Otsego Substance Free Coalition | Gaylord, MI | $6,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Otsego County Library | Gaylord, MI | $6,338 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Mclaren Northern Michigan Foundatio N | Petoskey, MI | $6,300 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Gaylord Soccer League Inc | Gaylord, MI | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2021 |
| Junior Achievement USA | Grand Rapids, MI | $6,000 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| Michigan Arts Access | Detroit, MI | $5,900 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Kirtland Community College Foundation | Grayling, MI | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
| New Day Foundation for Families | Rochester, MI | $5,500 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Munson Healthcare Foundations | Traverse City, MI | $5,431 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Mount Carmel Center Inc | Gaylord, MI | $5,293 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
18 of 52 (35%) 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.
- Otsego-Antrim County Habitat for Humanity
CRITICAL REPAIRS FOR TORNADO SURVIVORS - Otsego County Sportsplex
SWIM LESSONS, FACILITY UPGRADES, ICE STORM DISASTER GRANT - Otsego County United Way
HIGH IMPACT START GRANT, UNITED WAY IMMEDIATE RELIEF, ANNUAL GRANT DISTRIBUTIONS, ICE STORM DISASTER GRANT - Otsego County Economic Alliance
ICE STORM DISASTER GRANTS - Veterans Education Training & Support Inc
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR AND REPLACEMENT FOR TORNADO VICTIMS - Gaylord Community Schools
STUDENT/EMPLOYEE HARDSHIP FUND
What kind of organizations it funds
By the activity category the IRS assigns each recipient, for the 30 of 52 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 | 13 | $163,304 | $10,500 |
| 2022 | 15 | $968,129 | $28,580 |
| 2023 | 14 | $1,056,411 | $10,000 |
| 2024 | 19 | $1,487,811 | $10,000 |
| 2025 | 32 | $611,254 | $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
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.
Down to the city
Foundations that fund only organizations they pick gave to this one
8 private foundations that told the IRS they contribute only to organizations they select themselves reported 14 grants totalling $75,387 to Otsego Community Foundation. That is 29% of the 28 funders we can see giving to it. Those 8 foundations do not take unsolicited requests -- their own returns say so. The IRS classifies this organization as a community foundation.
4 of them gave in more than one tax year, which is the only durability signal the filings carry.
What that does not mean. It does not mean an application here reaches that money. A grant from a closed foundation is often a designated gift or a donor-advised fund earmarked by whoever gave it, and has nothing to do with any open programme this organization runs. Neither tax return says which, so neither do we. The list below is who put money in. It is not a route to it.
| Foundation | State | Reported | Grants | Years | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orsa Foundation | Michigan | $51,728 | 2 | 2 | 2025 |
| Edward Jones Foundation | Missouri | $8,320 | 3 | 2 | 2024 |
| Jx Gives Back Family Foundation Inc | Wisconsin | $6,592 | 2 | 2 | 2022 |
| Charles Stewart Mott Foundation | Michigan | $3,000 | 1 | 1 | 2023 |
| Devos Family Foundation | Michigan | $2,575 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| The Herrington-Fitch Family Foundation | Michigan | $2,118 | 1 | 1 | 2025 |
| Mckesson Foundation Inc | Texas | $1,000 | 1 | 1 | 2022 |
| Amazonsmile Foundation | Washington | $54 | 3 | 3 | 2023 |
A linked name has a page of its own. We publish one for a foundation that takes no unsolicited requests only when a real share of its giving goes to organizations that make grants themselves, and that page opens by saying it does not take requests.
Both the count and the total are floors. A foundation appears here only where its return named this organization clearly enough for us to match the name to an EIN, which we manage for about two thirds of 990-PF grant rows. There are more; we cannot name them.
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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 $11,000 -- 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.
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 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 32 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
Is something here wrong about your organization? Email [email protected] and we will correct it.