EIN 31-0036036

The Greening of Detroit

IRS 501(c) type
501(c)(3)
Num. employees
50
Year formed
1989
Most recent tax filings
2022-12-01
Description
The Greening of Detroit's mission is to grow tomorrow's Detroit together and sustainably develop a healthy urban community through trees, green spaces, healthy living, education, training, and job opportunities. In 2009, the organization created a workforce development program that provides unemployed Detroiters with valuable job training and certification in the green industry. The Greening also operates Lafayette Greens, an urban garden located in the heart of downtown Detroit, which serves as a showcase project for the organization and provides opportunities for engagement.
Total revenues
$2,961,980
2022
Total expenses
$2,316,940
2022
Total assets
$2,449,255
2022
Num. employees
50
2022

Program areas at The Greening of Detroit

Workforce development - created in 2009, through pathways out of poverty grant from The federal government, The Greening's workforce development program is designed to provide unemployed detroiters with valuable job training and certification in The green industry. Participants in The Greening's adult workforce program are trained for jobs in landscaping, forestry, and agriculture. The focus areas within The Greening's program include: first aid and safety, landscape plan reading and estimating, turf installation and maintenance, plants and plantings, tree/shrub maintenance, irrigation systems, landscape equipment and safety (taught by osha-certified instructors) and chauffeur's license training. In 2014 The program added a new certification in The field of tree artesian. This certification focuses on urban forestry, tree removal, and stump grinding. This program is also certified as a federal apprenticeship program from The u.s. department of labor. In 2022, The Greening of Detroit's Detroit conservation corps, continues to move its mission along with training 2,400 Detroit residents, with barriers to employment. The Detroit conservation corps (dcc) was formed with a five-year a goal to train at least 2,400 unemployed detroiters through The Greening of Detroit's entry level landscape industry program; and provide employment within a local conservation corps. The corps operates as a social enterprise, available to implement public and private landscape renovation projects. In 2022, 80 Detroit residents graduated from The dcc programming and 92% were placed into jobs. Job placement included davey tree, city of Detroit general service department, paynes landscaping, teddy's landscaping and on The Greening of Detroit's planting crews. Dcc is a federally accredited apprenticeship program: graduates receive multiple certifications in first aid, cpr, miosha, customer service, financial literacy, and landscape installation. Dcc is a collaborative service program that provides wrap-around services, including social service assistance, resume writing, and The job interview skills through its partner organizations, scarlett communications, and impossibly impossible. To date 2,200 adult trainees have graduated from The Greening's cohort sessions with certificates. Consistently, we achieve overall 92% job placement rate in green careers. The Greening of Detroit has planted more than 146,000 trees throughout The city since 1989. As our scope of work grew, The organization created a summer youth workforce program to assist in The watering and maintenance of The trees. The green corps program has collectively employed more than 1708 Detroit youth since its inception in 1998. By maintaining thousands of trees in over 185 planting sites across The city, corps members are investing their energy and time in their communities. These youth also beautify parks, neighborhoods, and participate in conservation projects that have meaningful and beneficial impacts for Detroit residents. The goal of The youth employment program is to provide young people with opportunities for work, and to nurture a sense of environmental stewardship.in 2022, 62 green corps youth were employed by The Greening of Detroit. Due to The pandemic, we had to pivot and modify from The original green corps programming. A virtual program was created that delivered The same environmental experience that students look for each summer. We quickly identified that The need for this summer employment program was critical now more than ever. Students earned an hourly wage of $12 an hour, and students ages (18-24) earned wages of $15.00 an hour. The virtual program included exposing opportunities in green collar jobs, college readiness, work readiness, public speaking, financial literacy, leadership building, conflict resolution, and team building.
The Greening of Detroit operate lafayette greens, our urban garden located in The heart of downtown Detroit. The highly visible green space is a showcase project for The Greening, providing us with The opportunity to engage The community, spotlight our green infrastructure and healthy living programs in The city. Open since 2011, lafayette greens was formerly owned and managed by The compuware corporation, which donated The .75-acre site to The Greening of Detroit six years ago (a gift valued at The time at $375,000). Lafayette greens is a productive urban garden, which last year generated hundreds of pounds of organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. Everything harvested goes back to The community, either to The volunteers who contribute their time to help maintain The space, or to food distributors like fort street presbyterian church, shelters and other community organizations. Lafayette greens also hosts a weekly market during The summer months. Close to senior housing and The rosa parks transit center, The farmers market at lafayette greens supplies city residents with a source for fresh nutritious food. Lafayette greens also serves as a training space for youth who participate in our green corps summer employment program, providing Detroit teens with hands-on, experiential learning farming assignments that focus on The challenges and possibilities that are unique to Detroit's urban environment. Youth support growing and production activities at lafayette greens, and also assist with community outreach and volunteer events.to date, lafayette greens has attracted over 25,000 visitors. An additional 500-1,000 visitors come by way of our that provide walking tours for groups throughout downtown and midtown neighborhoods. This year they included lafayette greens as a destination on The tour. We average roughly 100-225 visitors per day. Folks come to visit of all ages and include, school age children visiting from local Detroit and metro Detroit schools, business community, seniors and local farmers that are interested in helping in our garden beds. Finally, The Greening has held 18 events in lafayette greens. Yoga at The lafayette greens kicked off in july and offers a calming beginner's class every monday. Finally, tree pruning 101 took place earlier this spring with our citizen foresters.in 2022, The Detroit tree equity partnership was launched, and The Greening of Detroit is one of four lead partners working to increase tree equity with a planting of 75,000 trees over The next five years that will provide 300 jobs. The Greening of Detroit's proven community planting and workforce training models play a key part in this partnership.
Green infrastructure - tree planting is essential to building a thriving, healthy and sustainable urban community. Over The past 34 years, The Greening worked with its corporate and community partners to plant more than 146,000 new trees citywide. In 2022 The Greening, hosted 42 tree planting events throughout Detroit, highland park, and hamtramck, resulting in The installation of over 2,101 trees, including 650 trees distributed for private property. This work was supported by 2,187 volunteers, including 52 new and returned citizen foresters who led volunteer groups during community planting events, as well as support maintenance at The meyers tree nursery and lafayette greens.the Greening added harvested 200 trees at meyers tree nursery. Over 3500 trees are under production, irrigated with recycled water from our constructed stormwater reservoir, using traditional, pot in pot, and gravel bed methods.additionally, our social enterprise/fee for service program (ffs) that provided both commercial and residential landscaping. This program provided employment for 8 graduates of The Greening's adult workforce training program, The Detroit conservation corps (dcc). The ffs program earned over $641,000 of revenue, supporting both The training program and green jobs for detroiters.community outreach has been a critical component to our work over The last thirty-three years. We regularly connect with over 150 local organizations each year, including block clubs, churches, schools, and non-profits to identify tree needs, in addition to residents themselves. The Greening continues to support and advocate for community leaders who are creating and advocating for healthy greenspace in their neighborhoods.

Who funds The Greening of Detroit

Grants from foundations and other nonprofits
GrantmakerDescriptionAmount
Fred A and Barbara M Erb Family FoundationProgram Support$217,000
National Arbor FoundationEncourage and Facilitate the Adoption of Leading-Edge Practices in Municipal Forests Including Inventory, Planting, Maintenance and Education.$106,758
JP Morgan Chase FoundationIn Support of Creating Economic Mobility and Career Pathways$100,000
...and 21 more grants received totalling $789,867

Personnel at The Greening of Detroit

NameTitleCompensation
Lionel BradfordPresident$137,941
Fai Foen, GreenInfrastructure Director
Eva TabaresOffice Manager
Hector SantiagoProgram MGR
Sam EanesGi Project Manager
...and 8 more key personnel

Financials for The Greening of Detroit

RevenuesFYE 12/2022
Total grants, contributions, etc.$2,296,042
Program services$599,965
Investment income and dividends$0
Tax-exempt bond proceeds$0
Royalty revenue$0
Net rental income$0
Net gain from sale of non-inventory assets$6,955
Net income from fundraising events$54,715
Net income from gaming activities$0
Net income from sales of inventory$0
Miscellaneous revenues$4,303
Total revenues$2,961,980

Form 990s for The Greening of Detroit

Fiscal year endingDate received by IRSFormPDF link
2022-122023-11-13990View PDF
2021-122023-08-29990View PDF
2021-122022-11-15990View PDF
2020-122022-08-15990View PDF
2020-122021-11-15990View PDF
...and 15 more Form 990s

Organizations like The Greening of Detroit

OrganizationLocationRevenue
The Friends of Governors IslandNew York, NY$2,349,322
Wissahickon TrailsAmbler, PA$4,703,458
Emerald Necklace ConservancyBoston, MA$3,395,758
Friends of Grand Rapids ParksGrand Rapids, MI$799,238
Guadalupe River Park ConservancySan Jose, CA$1,101,046
Friends of the Warner ParksNashville, TN$4,400,427
C and O Canal TrustWilliamsport, MD$1,267,668
Forest Park ForeverSt Louis, MO$7,270,825
Milwaukee Water CommonsMilwaukee, WI$873,964
Hollywood Beautification TeamHollywood, CA$1,870,251
Data update history
January 23, 2024
Posted financials
Added Form 990 for fiscal year 2022
December 31, 2023
Received grants
Identified 10 new grant, including a grant for $106,758 from National Arbor Foundation
October 26, 2023
Received grants
Identified 21 new grant, including a grant for $250,000 from JP Morgan Chase Foundation
July 16, 2023
Posted financials
Added Form 990 for fiscal year 2021
July 6, 2023
Updated personnel
Identified 4 new personnel
Nonprofit Types
Environmental organizationsMuseumsCharities
Issues
Environment
Characteristics
Partially liquidatedFundraising eventsState / local levelReceives government fundingCommunity engagement / volunteeringTax deductible donations
General information
Address
13000 W Mcnichols
Detroit, MI 48235
Metro area
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
County
Wayne County, MI
Website URL
greeningofdetroit.com/ 
Phone
(313) 237-8733
Facebook page
TheGreeningofDetroit 
Twitter profile
@greeningdetroit 
IRS details
EIN
31-0036036
Fiscal year end
December
Taxreturn type
Form 990
Year formed
1989
Eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions (Pub 78)
Yes
Categorization
NTEE code, primary
C50: Environmental Beautification and Open Spaces
NAICS code, primary
7121: Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions
Parent/child status
Independent
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