This week, East Lansing’s All-of-us Express Children’s Theatre made sure to “wish everyone a happy Trans Visibility Day” on its Facebook page, writing that trans people will “always be loved within our theatre walls.”
Those children’s theater walls are supported in part by a grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, whose goal is to create jobs for our state, which has the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation. But instead of helping businesses operate in our state, the MEDC has spent hundreds of millions supporting lefty nonprofits and $670 million on job creation without creating a single job since 2021, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Last year, millions of dollars went toward vague economic development projects in Flint, the Upper Peninsula, Detroit, and the Marshall Megasite. These projects all get glowing headlines from Michigan media, but none have actually created jobs.
Of the remaining high-dollar contributions to “economic development,” the focus appears to be on housing companies, loan providers, and healthcare projects; but what about everything else? Grants to smaller charities really add up.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request, Michigan Enjoyer has obtained a 34-page list of nonprofits funded by MEDC in 2024.
Not only are some “for profit” job-creation projects listed as nonprofits on the report, but there are hundreds of smaller contributions to local charities, with a heavy focus on the arts. You can browse the full report here.
Under the guise of “economic development,” MEDC gave grants in 2024 to numerous symphonies, operas, museums, arts and cultural groups, private schools, and religious groups, many with a controversial commitment to DEI or having no relationship to economic development altogether.
Some grants I find especially notable:
$750,000 to the Free and Accepted Masons of Michigan Prince Hall Affiliation.
$150,000 to Illinois-based University of Chicago Argonne LLC.
$109,500 to pottery studio Pewabic Society Inc.
$80,750 to the Society for the Reinstitutionalization of Storytelling.
$75,375 to the Diatribe, an organization committed to using “restorative art to disrupt historical systems of oppression.”
$61,215 to the Society for Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartets and their separate chapters in Lansing and Ann Arbor.
$51,550 to A Host of People, Inc., a “Detroit-based multi-racial, queer centered ensemble theater company.”
$49,900 to Glass Art Kalamazoo.
$46,400 to El Ballet Folkiorico Estudiantil, a Mexican Ballet School in Flint.
$40,913 to Signal Return, a Detroit organization committed to preserving letterpress printing.
$28,275 to Good Hart Artist Residency, providing artists with free residency in beautiful Northern Michigan to aspiring artists with a special emphasis on DEI.
$26,110 to Out Loud Inc, Washtenaw County’s all LGBT chorus.
$23,830 to the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival.
$23,400 to Akojopo, a Pan-African Art Music non-profit.
$8,750 to Top of the Lake Snowmobile Museum.
In short, our tax dollars are funding tax-exempt nonprofits. Not only are they tax exempt—they don’t have to provide detailed reporting of how their money is being spent.
Most of them provide no economic value to the community, because they aren’t designed to create jobs or promote growth; they are simply means of entertainment or virtue signaling.
As a lifelong violinist who played for several of the symphonies and arts programs mentioned, I would love to donate my spare dollars to local orchestras, camps, and programs promoting classical music, but I don’t get a say in who gets my money. MEDC has decided for me.
The people in power choose which of their friends I donate to. This simply isn’t how charity is supposed to work.
MEDC needs a major DOGE effort, if not complete defunding.
We should start with prohibiting taxpayer funding to nonprofits. Let the people decide who we want to donate to and focus on creating jobs, competition, and a prosperous Michigan.
If we want our state to succeed and we want our businesses to be profitable and competitive, the way to grow is certainly not through forced charity. It’s through hard work, fairness, and transparency.
Anna Hoffman is a hockey mom of three living in Ann Arbor. Follow her on X @shoesonplease.
