Nonprofit organizations that offer access and opportunity to disadvantaged children, teens and college-age students; serve as a safety net for vulnerable populations in need of health care and human services; and aid in the revitalization of distressed communities, constitute the majority of grants approved by the Board of Trustees at The Kresge Foundation’s third-quarter meeting on September 11, 2007.
The awards – $45.5 million to 82 organizations – are the best example to date of the foundation’s efforts to expand its grantmaking to better address society’s pressing issues in education, health, human services, arts and culture, and the environment. Twenty-two grants were awarded to projects aimed at the revitalization of Detroit and the surrounding region. And one grant was made to the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the foundation’s International Initiative to support higher education in the fledgling democracy. (A complete list, organized by state, is below.)
“The Kresge Foundation has a long tradition of directing its grants to build nonprofit capacity,” says Elaine D. Rosen, chair of the 12-member board of trustees. “With this group of grants, we also acknowledge that we must more directly confront the deep and ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in this country.”
The Kresge Foundation has been a driving force in the building of facilities for nonprofit organizations in the United States for the past 83 years. Its Capital Challenge Grant, which awards an organization a financial grant if it raises an agreed upon amount of funds from private sources, has helped communities across the country build libraries, schools, hospitals, museums, community centers and food banks, among other brick and mortar projects.
Concerned that nonprofit organizations often need financial support for things other than the acquisition, construction or renovation of facilities, the board of trustees voted in June to expand the challenge grant model to include grants for working capital and permanent capital. “Given the extremely complex challenges we as a society face today,” explains Rip Rapson, president of the foundation, “the board believed it had a moral obligation to ask, how do we best address these issues? This is a first step in what we believe will be a year-long transition process.”
Increasing access in higher education
The third quarter grants illuminate the foundation’s expanding direction. In the education sector, Kresge made 18 capital challenge grants totaling $13.7 million. Access, equity and environmental sustainability were common themes among the grant awards. For example, a $1 million challenge grant was awarded to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., for construction of a natural sciences building.
The college is considered a role model for providing low-income and minority students access to higher education. It also is a model for the breadth of outreach and support programs it offers, often a critical component for academic and social success. Low income and minority students make up 47 percent of the student body. The graduation rates for this population – 74 percent – are considered exemplary and proof their efforts are working.
With a new natural sciences building, the school will be able to expand access to careers in science. Additionally, the building will feature an environmentally sustainable design and, upon completion, the college will seek a gold LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The Kresge Foundation was an early advocate of green construction and sustainable design and provides green planning grants to encourage this practice. Of the 81 grants approved, including the Mills College grant, 22 involved sustainable design. “This quarter represents a watershed moment for the foundation in terms of the types of organizations and the variety of projects pursuing sustainable design,” Rapson adds. “Sustainable design is a growing best practice that is within reach for most nonprofit organizations.”
Investing in Michigan’s young children and youth
The foundation has a designated Detroit Program that supports strengthening the city’s neighborhoods, continuing to revive the downtown, promoting arts and culture, reinvigorating the regional economy and enhancing the natural environment. Of the 22 grants approved this quarter, two will provide transformational funding, one for early childhood development and the second for children and teens.
The Early Childhood Investment Corporation of Lansing, Michigan, will receive $2,735,000 over two years to oversee the planning, development and implementation of early childhood systems in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. The ECIC was established by Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2005 to build a state-wide system to give children – newborns to five-year-olds – the care and education they need to do well in school and in adult life.
“Virtually all research points in the same direction,” says Rapson, “poverty and the hardships that come with poverty pose the greatest risk factors for a child’s academic success and eventual career success. With the state of Michigan, and Detroit’s tri-county area in particular, in a severe economic crisis, these funds will help provide affordable, quality care and services for area families and their young children.”
A grant of $1.5 million was made to Detroit Youth Foundation for YouthVille Detroit, a neighborhood youth center considered one of the most comprehensive in the Midwest. The program caters to 1,900 members age 11 to 19. Services are provided to more than 200 youth a day, six days-a-week and range from art and academics to computers, fitness, radio broadcasting and music. An adolescent health care clinic, dance classes and a mentoring program share the same building. The grant will support YouthVille’s three-year strategic plan.
Reaching out to the homeless
Kresge’s health and human services sectors support community-based care for underserved and at-risk populations. Twenty grants totaling $12.9 million were made to health and human services organizations. Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program received a $2 million challenge grant toward the renovation of a building that will serve as its headquarters, central clinic and respite care unit.
“Boston Health Care for the Homeless illustrates Kresge’s commitment to supporting organizations that work on the front lines, often against great odds, to pursue new and better forms of service,” Rapson says. “With this challenge grant, the agency will be able to bring the core elements of its operation under one roof, including an expanded respite care unit, ambulatory, dental and mental-health care, a pharmacy and related programs that will contribute to their ongoing work to end homelessness.”
Here is a complete list of grants approved:
Note: List includes current and future planned grants.
Alabama
| Auburn University |
Auburn |
$1,500,000 |
Arizona
| Desert Botanical Garden |
Phoenix |
$850,000 |
California
| California Institute of the Arts |
Valencia |
$1,000,000 |
| California State University |
Fullerton |
$500,000 |
| Global Green USA |
Santa Monica |
$100,000 |
| Holy Family Day Home |
San Francisco |
$550,000 |
| La Clínica de la Raza Fruitvale Health Project, Inc. |
Oakland |
$300,000 |
| Long Beach Memorial Medical Center |
Long Beach |
$1,250,000 |
| Mills College |
Oakland |
$1,000,000 |
| Pacific Asia Museum |
Pasadena |
$300,000 |
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Cruz
and San Benito Counties |
Watsonville |
$400,000 |
| Spanish Speaking Unity Council of Alameda County |
Oakland |
$50,000 |
| Woodbury University |
Burbank |
$400,000 |
Colorado
| Food Bank of the Rockies |
Denver |
$500,000 |
Connecticut
| Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven |
New Haven |
$175,000 |
Washington DC
| The Brookings Institution |
Washington |
$150,000 |
Georgia
| Jewish Family and Career Services |
Atlanta |
$70,000 |
Iowa
| Indian Creek Nature Center |
Cedar Rapids |
$51,750 |
Illinois
| American Theater Company |
Chicago |
$46,000 |
| Claretian Associates, Inc. |
Chicago |
$45,000 |
Indiana
| Fairbanks Hospital, Inc. |
Indianapolis |
$500,000 |
| Metropolitan Public Broadcasting, Inc. d/b/a WFYI |
Indianapolis |
$900,000 |
Kentucky
| Brooklawn Child & Family Services |
Louisville |
$330,000 |
Massachusetts
| Berkshire Museum |
Pittsfield |
$500,000 |
| Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program |
Boston |
$2,000,000 |
| Eagle Hill School, Inc. |
Hardwick |
$500,000 |
| Girls Incorporated of Lynn |
Lynn |
$850,000 |
| Springfield College |
Springfield |
$1,000,000 |
| YMCA Cape Cod |
West Barnstable |
$750,000 |
Maryland
| CASA of Maryland, Inc. |
Takoma Park |
$65,000 |
| Olney Theatre Center for the Arts |
Olney |
$50,000 |
Michigan
Charles H. Wright Museum of African American
History |
Detroit |
$240,000 |
| College for Creative Studies |
Detroit |
$180,000 |
| Cranbrook Educational Community |
Bloomfield Hills |
$210,000 |
| Detroit Educational Television Foundation |
Wixom |
$300,000 |
| Detroit Renaissance Foundation |
Detroit |
$750,000 |
| Detroit Science Center |
Detroit |
$180,000 |
| Detroit Symphony Orchestra |
Detroit |
$300,000 |
| Detroit Youth Foundation |
Detroit |
$1,500,000 |
| Detroit Zoological Society |
Royal Oak |
$300,000 |
| Downtown Detroit Partnership, Inc. |
Detroit |
$125,000 |
| Early Childhood Investment Corporation |
Lansing |
$2,735,000 |
| Macomb Center for the Performing Arts |
Clinton Township |
$150,000 |
| Michigan Opera Theatre |
Detroit |
$300,000 |
| Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit |
Detroit |
$300,000 |
| Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts |
Detroit |
$240,000 |
| Neighborhood Centers, Inc. |
Detroit |
$150,000 |
| New Detroit, Inc. |
Detroit |
$750,000 |
| The Detroit Institute of Arts |
Detroit |
$300,000 |
| The Greening of Detroit |
Detroit |
$600,000 |
| The Henry Ford |
Dearborn |
$300,000 |
Missouri
| Epworth Children & Family Services |
St. Louis |
$500,000 |
Montana
| HomeWORD, Inc. |
Missoula |
$75,000 |
North Carolina
| Family Services, Inc. |
Winston-Salem |
$100,000 |
North Dakota
| Sitting Bull College |
Fort Yates |
$230,000 |
New Mexico
| Mesilla Valley Hospice |
Las Cruces |
$550,000 |
New York
| Adelphi University |
Garden City |
$600,000 |
| Children’s Village, Inc. |
Dobbs Ferry |
$600,000 |
| Green Chimneys Children’s Services, Inc. |
Brewster |
$400,000 |
| Hartwick College |
Oneonta |
$750,000 |
| Local Initiatives Support Corporation |
New York |
$3,000,000 |
| Manhattanville College |
Purchase |
$1,000,000 |
| Pratt Institute |
Brooklyn |
$75,000 |
| The American Assembly |
New York |
$30,000 |
| Westchester Arc |
White Plains |
$450,000 |
| Wildwood Programs, Inc. |
Schenectady |
$450,000 |
Ohio
| University of Toledo |
Toledo |
$900,000 |
Pennsylvania
| Carriage House Children’s Center |
Pittsburgh |
$100,000 |
| Johnstown Area Heritage Association |
Johnstown |
$500,000 |
| University of Pennsylvania |
Philadelphia |
$75,000 |
| Washington & Jefferson College |
Washington |
$1,000,000 |
| Woods Services Foundation |
Langhorne |
$415,000 |
| Zoological Society of Philadelphia |
Philadelphia |
$1,000,000 |
Rhode Island
| Salve Regina University |
Newport |
$750,000 |
South Carolina
| Palmetto Health |
Columbia |
$1,000,000 |
Tennessee
| Nashville Academy Theatre and Nashville Children’s Theatre |
Nashville |
$500,000 |
Texas
| Chinese Community Center |
Houston |
$350,000 |
| JPS Health Network |
Fort Worth |
$1,500,000 |
Vermont
| The Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium |
St. Johnsbury |
$45,000 |
Washington
| Heritage University |
Toppenish |
$1,500,000 |
Wisconsin
| Madison Children’s Museum |
Madison |
$95,000 |
South Africa
| University of the Witwatersrand |
Johannesburg |
$400,000 |
Total 
$45,532,750
| |
The Kresge Foundation is a private, national foundation established in 1924 by Sebastian S. Kresge to promote human progress. In 2006 it awarded approximately $150 million in grants to nonprofit organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and Mexico and had year-end assets of $3.3 billion. The foundation is headquartered in Michigan.
For more information, contact Cynthia Shaw, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 248-643-9630.
