Eastern Market Corporation

Overview

Mission

Eastern market is organized to combat community deterioration and to lessen the burdens of government in managing its public market that has served detroit since 1891. Eastern market operates the market under an agreement with the city of detroit, which owns the facility. Eastern market has developed a capital improvement plan and is implementing a series of capital improvements to improve the market's ability to serve as a food center for detroit and as a catalyst for economic development. The stakeholders' vision for the eastern market district (the "market") is to leverage the attraction and legacy of the market, to build a dynamic, diverse, and unique urban district, and to strengthen the identity of the market as a food-related district by enhancing the operations of the existing public market and by developing business opportunities for specialty food retailers, food wholesale operations, restaurants, food distributors, and food processors.

Operating model

Revenue model

Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.

Distribution model

Direct operator. The filing allocates 90% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.

Rating breakdown

• Financial Efficiency: 66
• Transparency & Controls: 71
• Accountability: 100
• Sustainability: 57
• Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Details

• Where the money goes: 67.8% of revenue deployed · 71.8% of spending went to programs
• Governance: 21 of 21 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
• Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $4.6M in reported program spending
• Leadership: top reported pay $198K · 26 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
• Highest-paid contractors: 3 contractors listed · $507K reported
• Consistency: 35 of 37 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
• Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
• Filing history: 9 filing years from 2014 to 2024
• Contacts: How to reach this organization
• Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
• Related organizations: 4 filed related-organization links
• Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
• People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.

• Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 39/100.
• Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 55/100.
• High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
• Review — Transparency & Controls: Schedule R controlled transactions itemized did not reconcile in the filed values.
• High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.