Michigan taxpayers will fund four gender-specific grants totaling $3 million in the state’s 2025 budget. The money will go to nonprofits ostensibly dedicated to innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Michigan Women Forward, a Detroit-based entrepreneurship organization, is receiving $1.5 million. The organization earned $2.5 million in revenue in 2021 and $4 million in 2023, according to its 990 forms on GuideStar.

The organization’s website says its mission is “to expand economic opportunity for women and entrepreneurs of color, empower the next generation, and celebrate and honor the accomplishments of Michigan women.” Michigan Women Forward offers loans ranging from $2,500 to $50,000 to small businesses.

The organization did not respond to a request for comment.

Women’s Innovative Social Enterprise Partnership in Detroit gets $1.5 million. Its mission is “to build and develop innovative, interactive, sustainable, and environmentally healthy communities throughout Detroit that prioritize Black, Brown, and marginalized residents using the resources and talents provided by purposeful partnerships,” according to its website.

The organization received its tax-exempt status in 2021. There are no 990 forms for the Women’s Innovative Social Enterprise Partnership on ProPublica or GuideStar. A notice on ProPublica states that an organization with less than $50,000 in revenue may file a shorter 990 form.

The group did not respond to a request for comment.

The Michigan Council of Women in Technology received two separate grants for $250,000. It aims to inspire and grow women in technology, according to its website. One of the grants is for the organization’s Reignite program.

The program costs $200 for nonmembers and $100 for members. It “provides a supportive community that helps women build confidence, network, and acquire new skills to help them succeed in the tech industry.” It is unclear why the council received two separate grants.

The organization had $1.46 million in revenue in 2021 and $1.53 million in revenue in 2022.

It did not respond to a request for comment.

Earmarks are quietly added to spending bills late in the budgeting process and are not debated in committee. Total pork spending in the 2025 budget totaled more than $1 billion.

Four symphony orchestras in Michigan will receive a total of $2.34 million from taxpayers in the 2025 state budget.

The Lansing Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, and Grand Rapids Symphony will be awarded the same amount, $533,300. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra will get $750,000.

The $2.3 million is part of $1 billion in pork spending state officials approved for the 2025 budget. Sara Anthony, D-Lansing, the Senate appropriations chair, called the pork projects a “generational investment,” according to MIRS News.

This is not the first time state and local governments have funded Michigan orchestras. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra received $500,000 from a supplemental spending bill in 2020. That money was characterized at the time as relief during COVID-19 shutdowns.

The Motor City ensemble also got an award of $10 million from the state in 2011.

The Detroit Symphony, which received more money than the other symphonies, had $54.9 million in gross receipts and $116.6 million in assets, according to 990 forms most recently available at GuideStar. It generated $44.7 million in revenue in 2021 and $39.2 million in 2022.

The Lansing Symphony Orchestra receives help from state, local, and national grants, according to its website. The orchestra had $1.3 million in gross receipts and $1.4 million in assets, according to the most recent numbers. It had $2 million in revenue in 2021 and $1.3 million in 2022.

The Grand Rapids Symphony Foundation had $9.8 million in gross receipts and $27.5 million in assets. It had $2.3 million in revenue in 2021, but it saw a steep decline in 2022, bringing in only $339,322.

The Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra had $2.1 million in gross receipts and $3.8 million in assets. It earned $2.56 million in revenue in 2021 and $2.03 million in 2022.

Michigan Capitol Confidential emailed the four symphonies. Only the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra responded.

“This new and critical funding from the state budget will form a significant piece of our plan as we navigate challenging financial hurdles, made more acute by the recent pandemic,” Kemper Edwards, director of marketing and communications, told CapCon.

As budgets for the arts come under fire nationwide, Kemper said, Michigan's investment will be a major rallying point.

“We are now poised to expand and strengthen investment in our activity,” Kemper said, “most ambitiously in our robust Learning & Community programs that serve and enrich the lives of over 30,000 preschoolers, K-12 and university students, seniors, and other music lovers throughout the Southeast Michigan region.”