Community Development

The Kresge Foundation has three focus areas in the field of community development.

• Our Detroit Program represents our primary community development effort. Through this program, we practice a highly strategic, integrated approach to urban revitalization in our hometown.

In other communities in the United States, our support takes two general forms to help severely challenged communities, especially older industrial cities:

• We work with the national urban development community, including Living Cities, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the Brookings Institution and others to identify, implement and share innovative strategies for the revitalization of American cities.
• We also support the capital needs of community development organizations working in rural, urban and older-suburban neighborhoods to enhance grassroots participation, resident empowerment, physical revitalization, neighborhood cohesion, wealth-building, housing, and, in some cases, youth opportunity.

Our values criteria serve as the lens through which we evaluate all grant requests. Five values are of primary importance:

• Creating opportunity for low-income, minority or disadvantaged residents of the community
• Fostering community impact broader than the immediate reach of your organization or activity
• Serving an underserved urban or rural geography, where high concentration of need and low financial capacity cripple the opportunities of residents
• Reflecting in your staff and board members the racial, ethnic and gender diversity of the populations your organization serves
• Elevating environmental conservation as a key consideration by incorporating “green” or environmentally sustainable features into your building project.

Funding methods

The Community Development Team awards foundation-initiated grants in several areas, as well as applicant-initiated challenge grants for facilities capital. Organizations interested in applying for facilities capital should visit the Challenge Grant page to learn about our eligibility requirements and, if appropriate, initiate the process with a five-page letter of intent as directed.  

If you have questions, e-mail the Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.

Image credit: Downtown Detroit Partnership