LANSING — A Detroit maternal health program under scrutiny for its ties to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan did not run afoul of state laws regulating charities, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office determined this week after an eight-month inquiry.

Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Office launched its review into the nonprofit status of Make Your Date following reports in the Free Press that Duggan ordered city staff to raise money for the organization, which was not registered with the state as a fundraising charity.

The attorney general's review of Make Your Date examined a narrow section of the program's operations — whether its paperwork was properly filed with the office's section that regulates charities.

Other investigations involving Make Your Date are ongoing.

The attorney general's public integrity unit within the criminal division continues to investigate two complaints that City of Detroit staff were directed to delete emails about Make Your Date to conceal the city's fundraising efforts.

The Detroit Office of Inspector General is investigating whether Make Your Date received preferential treatment from the city. The program launched in 2014 to help address the city's high preterm birth rates.

The charitable trust section of the Attorney General's Office sought to determine whether the Make Your Date nonprofit organization raised any money or paid workers to help fundraise.

"The purpose of the review was to determine Make Your Date’s eligibility for an exemption from the registration requirements of the Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act," Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for Nessel, said in an email.

The Attorney General's Office determined that Wayne State University was administering the Make Your Date program and handling its money after reviewing documents and meeting with Executive Director Sonia Hassan, her attorneys and Wayne State officials.

The office concluded that the nonprofit did not raise any money because Wayne State administered a bank account for the program and cashed all checks from donors to Make Your Date.

Make Your Date is exempt from registering under the state's Charitable Organizations and Solicitations Act because it does not pay staff for fundraising activities and “does not solicit or receive contributions in excess of $25,000 in a 12-month period,” according to an Oct. 8 letter sent to Make Your Date.

The attorney general's office instructed Make Your Date to remove from its website all references to the program as a nonprofit. The program's Facebook page also was updated. The attorney general's office also advised Make Your Date to stop identifying itself as a nonprofit on fundraising materials — issues previously reported on by the Free Press.

The team conducting the review examined a snapshot of donations to Make Your Date but it did not obtain a full accounting of all the money coming into the program and how it was spent.

Wayne State will continue to operate Make Your Date and plans to expand the program to further reduce preterm birth, the university said in a statement in response to the attorney general's findings.

"After a thorough analysis, including interviews and an inspection of documents, the Attorney General’s office of the state of Michigan has concluded its review of Make Your Date Inc.’s nonprofit status and confirmed that its registration exemption status was proper," the university's statement read.

“This report fully dispels false media reports,” Wayne State said in its written statement. “Reports of any irregularities by the nonprofit have now been shown to be baseless.”

But the attorney general’s review of registration requirements did not address other issues previously reported by the Free Press, including the city's financial support of Make Your Date, which is run by Hassan, who was seen last year meeting with Duggan after hours at a suburban residence.

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Another investigation involving Make Your Date, by the Detroit Office of Inspector General, is in its final phases and involves more than 400,000 pages of documents, the Free Press reported last week.

The inspector general investigation involves Duggan and Make Your Date. Duggan initiated the nonprofit program; recommended Hassan to lead it, and ordered high-ranking city officials to help with fundraising. Make Your Date received more than $358,000 in federal grant money through the city.

In July, Nessel personally instructed her criminal division to look into the allegations of deleted emails by city officials regarding Make Your Date, after the issue was brought to her attention.

Make Your Date was not totally absolved of registering with the state under laws for charities.

The Attorney General’s Office told the organization it must register under the Supervision of Trustees for Charitable Purposes Act because it “is incorporated in Michigan and/or holds assets in Michigan to use for charitable purposes,” the letter reads. But Make Your Date was granted a seven-year waiver from a financial reporting requirement tied to its registration.

Joe Guillen has been covering city governance and development issues for the newspaper since 2013. He has covered Detroit city hall, been a member of the investigations team and previously worked at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer covering county and state government. Contact him at 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com.

Kat Stafford is the Detroit government watchdog reporter for the Free Press, covering city issues and the community. A Detroit native, Stafford is vice president of the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. She was recently named an Ida B. Wells Fellow, a national investigative reporting fellowship. Contact her at kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.