Rodney Fund

The Rodney Fund was the philanthropic vehicle of James M. Rodney, founder of Detroit Forming, a company that makes rigid plastic packaging. The fund’s primary beneficiary is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, but the organization donates to other center-right public policy organizations.

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At-A-Glance

Type: Non-profit, 501(c)(3), Private Foundation
Formation:

1992

Location: Southfield, MI View on map
Tax ID: 38-3030437
Most Recent Filing: 2023
Budget (2023): Assets: $17,056,062 Revenue: $156,188 Expenses: $1,841,949

Contents

    James M. Rodney

    The Rodney Fund is the creation of James M. Rodney, who in 1962 founded Detroit Forming, which makes rigid plastic packaging. 1

    Rodney expressed free-market and pro-business views. In 1988, he said in the Wall Street Journal that management should have the right to permanently replace workers who were on strike. “Obviously it would be difficult to recruit replacement workers for jobs they would lose whenever the strikers decided to reclaim them,” Rodney wrote.  “Workers must realize that when they voluntarily leave a job they may be doing so permanently.” 2

    In 2009, he responded to a Wall Street Journal article supporting the bailout of the auto industry. Rodney stated that “almost every paragraph” in the article, such as “the money government has invested in GM” “demonstrate President Barack Obama’s plan is some form of ‘ism,’ but it’s certainly not capitalism.” 3

    Mackinac Center for Public Policy

    Rodney was a member of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy board of directors between 1993 and 2011. In 2000, the center gave him their Champions of Freedom Award for “his work to pare back harmful regulations and discriminatory tax policies” in Michigan. 4

    Mackinac Center president Joseph G. Lehman said in 2021 after Rodney’s death that Rodney “was stalwart in his dedication to free markets and limited government…His guidance and support helped not just the Mackinac Center but many free-market organizations around the nation.” 5

    One Rodney Fund project with the Mackinac Center was sponsoring the Freedom in Fiction prize, which gave a $10,000 award to a novel that had “characters that demonstrate an appreciation for liberty, free markets and/or explicitly or symbolically oppose government oppression or restraints on their freedom.” 6 In 2007 the prize went to All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann, a novel about a Black woman freed from slavery after winning a Supreme Court case in 1842. 7

    Grantmaking

    In 2020 the Rodney Fund’s three largest grants were $55,000 to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, $38,000 to Young Americans for Liberty, and $28,000 to Youth On Their Own and the Liberty Justice Center. 8

    Financial Statistics

    Total Assets

    Total Revenue

    Total Expenses

    YearTotal AssetsTotal RevenueTotal ExpensesFiling
    2023 $17,056,062 $156,188 $1,841,949 View
    2022 $30,730,123 $-1,065,437 $1,822,170 View
    2021 $35,310,751 $25,640,631 $1,481,101 View
    2020 $12,070,311 $4,153,615 $433,777 View
    2019 $7,151,898 $-316,689 $414,765 View

    Prior year filings: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

    Expenses Detail

    Employee Compensation

    Highest Earning Employees

    EmployeeTitleTotal Compensation
    Steven ThomasDIRECTOR$20,000

    Grant Activity

    All-time grants given statistics from Candid dataset:

    • Total Grant Value: $7,438,052
    • Number of Grants: 304
    • Number of Recipients: 73

    Selection of highest value grants given from the last seven years:

    AmountYearFunderSubject
    $200,0002022 Pacific Legal FoundationGENERAL FUNDING 501C(3)
    $200,0002022 Young Americans 4 LibertyGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002023 Institute for JusticeGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002023 Liberty Justice CenterGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002023 MACKINAC CENTERGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002022 Institute for JusticeGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002022 Liberty Justice CenterGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $200,0002022 MACKINAC CENTERGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $85,0002021 Institute for JusticeGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $80,0002023 Ayn Rand Institute the Center for the Advancement of ObjectivismGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $80,0002022 Ayn Rand Institute the Center for the Advancement of ObjectivismGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $80,0002022 Judicial Watch IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $80,0002021 MACKINAC CENTERGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $70,0002023 Judicial Watch IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $65,0002021 Liberty Justice CenterGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $55,0002020 MACKINAC CENTERGeneral funding 501(C)3
    $40,0002023 Center for Independent Thought IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $40,0002022 Center for Independent Thought IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $38,0002020 Young Americans for Liberty, Inc.General funding 501(C)3
    $35,0002023 HEARTLAND INSTITUTEGENERAL FUNDING 501(C) 3
    $35,0002023 Students for Liberty IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $30,0002022 Foundation for Nuclear StudiesGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $30,0002022 Students for Liberty IncGENERAL FUNDING 501(C)3
    $28,0002020 Liberty Justice CenterGeneral funding 501(C)3
    $28,0002020 Youth On Their OwnGeneral funding 501(C)3

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    Financials, employee compensation, and grant information provided by Candid.

    Mentioned in this Article

    References

    1. “Company History,” Detroit Forming, http://www.detroitforming.net/company-history/ (accessed October 24 2022)
    2. James M. Rodney, “Workers’ Obligations Toward Management,” Wall Street Journal, August 19, 1988.
    3. James M. Rodney, “Obama’s Auto Plan Is An ‘Ism,” But It’s Not Capitalism,” Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2009.
    4. [1] “Mackinac Center Mourns The Passing of James M. Rodney,” https://www.mackinac.org/mackinac-center-mourns-the-passing-of-james-m-rodney (accessed October 24, 2022).
    5. “Mackinac Center Mourns The Passing of James M. Rodney,” https://www.mackinac.org/mackinac-center-mourns-the-passing-of-james-m-rodney (accessed October 24, 2022).
    6. Greg Steimel, The Truth About The Mackinac Center, MEA Research, January 2013, 19.
    7. “Freedom In Fiction Winner Published to Positive Reviews,” Mackinac Center, Fall 2011, https://www.mackinac.org/15994  (accessed October 24, 2022).
    8. Rodney Fund, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2020, Part XV Line 3 https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/383030437/202101249349100240/full