Detroit Program
We recognize Detroit’s potential as a place of widespread prosperity fostered by a robust economy; healthy, safe and stable neighborhoods; a region unified around a vibrant center city; and people throughout the area enjoying our vast cultural and environmental resources.
We are a national foundation with deep roots in Detroit, our hometown. Since our founding in 1924, we have provided continuous philanthropic support to the area’s nonprofit organizations and community initiatives. In the 1990s and early 2000s, this support was coordinated by our Detroit Initiative, which focused primarily on strengthening civic institutions and building new public gathering spaces, such as the RiverWalk and Campus Martius Park.
In 2007, our work became more comprehensive and collaborative than ever before. We have reaffirmed our conviction that if metropolitan Detroit is to redefine and rebuild itself for prosperity in the 21st century, all of us must recommit to working side-by-side to realize this vision.
Our goals and strategic framework
To guide our work, we have developed an integrated, five-part strategy that is focused on near-term successes and long-term results. Many of the projects we support address two or more of these objectives at the same time.
Our objectives for the Detroit Program are:
- Strengthen Detroit neighborhoods, with an emphasis on expanding economic and social opportunity and developing safe, supportive places for children and families.
Our work for the next several years will support the City of Detroit’s Next Detroit Neighborhood Initiative and its efforts to foster communities that are strong, mixed-income, diverse, walkable, and environmentally-sustainable. We are aligning our work with the targeted efforts of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, a national nonprofit community development organization, and other local, regional and national foundations working on-the-ground in the city. The residents of Detroit’s neighborhoods guide this work through direct consultation and community-based advocacy organizations.
- Leverage continuing investment in a revitalized downtown Detroit, with an emphasis on safe, clean and attractive public spaces and infrastructure.
Our work for the near term will focus on the development of the Woodward Corridor, including light-rail transit options and transit-oriented development.
- Promote a robust regional economy through development of knowledge-based, accessible jobs; vital, attractive urban areas; increased educational attainment; and business innovation.
To accomplish this goal, we are working with partners in all relevant sectors, and especially through the New Economy Initiative, a collaborative of local and national foundations that have committed to investing $100 million over five years to help restore southeastern Michigan to a position of leadership in the global economy.
- Support a thriving arts and cultural community through Kresge Arts in Detroit, a multi-faceted effort to nurture creativity and a rich and vibrant quality of life for residents of the region.
We believe creativity is a defining characteristic of Detroit and the region and that the ecosystem of our arts and culture organizations – the large, the medium and the small – enrich our lives and foster an atmosphere of innovation and invention across all sectors. Through Kresge Arts in Detroit, we are providing support to individual artists, arts and cultural organizations, and arts infrastructure groups.
- Protect the region’s environmental and natural resources and increase environmental sustainability for current and future residents.
Our environmental efforts work at the intersection of health, the environment and the economy to provide residents access to trails, open space, community gardening and fresh food, as well as a new, green economy that capitalizes on our natural assets and ingenuity.
How we work
The new Detroit Program is a key part of Kresge’s expansion, which began in 2007 to better address society’s pressing issues. We believe we have a moral obligation to use our assets for the highest possible good. As a result, we elevated nine values – our values criteria – to guide us in our efforts.
The Kresge Foundation’s work nationally is focused in six fields of interest, including community development. The Detroit Program represents our highest-priority community development effort, and we seek to partner with local, regional and national nonprofit organizations and other foundations to advance high-impact approaches for realizing our five strategic priorities. We use all methods available to further this work – we convene and support networks, employ strategic communications, commission research, fund intermediaries, and invest directly in projects and nonprofit partners using grants, or below-market-rate loans. Grants can take multiple forms.
“We are flexible and varied in our approaches, and the projects we support are assessed for their potential to make the greatest, most positive difference over time,” says Laura J. Trudeau, program director and Detroit Program team leader. “We are eager to partner on new, promising initiatives and willing to participate in early-stage development activities.”
Collaboration, one of our nine institutional values, is of paramount importance to the Detroit Program. Through this program, we will continually foster new ways of working together, and we will evaluate all projects based on the commitment of the partners involved. Over time, we hope to help increase our community’s access to expertise and opportunity; encourage new, shared learning; and leverage our joint investments.
Our process for funding projects
Detroit Team members are engaged in the community in ways that make us aware of emerging and ongoing initiatives with potential to accomplish our five goals. It is not possible, however, to stay abreast of all the efforts in a region as large as Detroit. For this reason, we have designed a process for the Detroit Program that accepts funding requests through one of two avenues:
1) We invite project proposals from organizations that we know are doing innovative and exemplary work to solve a problem or launch a creative approach that advances Kresge’s values and the priorities of the Detroit Program.
Our process for inviting an organization to submit a proposal begins with team-initiated e-mail and phone communication to learn more about the potential grantee’s work. When we extend an invitation to submit a project proposal, we specify the information and supporting documents that are needed and set an application deadline date.
2) We also seek well-conceived ideas from nonprofit organizations – those with proven track records as well as newer efforts with potentially catalytic approaches.
If you have an idea, please send an e-mail of 500 words or less to the Detroit Program Team. In the e-mail, describe the project idea and how it advances Kresge’s values and helps us accomplish one or more of our Detroit Program goals. Also, please attach two supporting documents: the project partners and project costs.
You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your submission. Your project idea will be reviewed by the team and a conversation with a program officer may be scheduled. If your project idea has potential for grant funding, we will provide application information.
Requests for facilities capital for single institutions
Please note that the process outlined above is for requests that fit the strategic framework outlined for Kresge’s Detroit Program. The foundation continues to award facilities capital grants through its Challenge Grant. Single institutions that are conducting traditional capital campaigns to raise private funds should visit the Challenge Grant page and apply following its application process. Facilities capital requests are evaluated by Kresge’s field-of-interest teams. For example, proposals from Detroit-area community colleges or four-year academic institutions are evaluated by the Education Team, not by the Detroit Program.
Eligibility
Who may apply?
- 501(c)(3) organizations working to revitalize Detroit and the region that are not classified as private foundations and have financial statements prepared and certified by a certified public accountant in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Government Accounting Standards. (In rare instances, exceptions are made and this requirement is temporarily waived.)
- Government entities that have financial statements prepared and certified by a certified public accountant in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or Government Accounting Standards. (In rare instances, exceptions are made and this requirement is temporarily waived.)
Who may not apply?
- Individuals and elementary and secondary schools are ineligible and may not apply.
If you have questions, e-mail our Grants Inquiry Coordinator or call 248-643-9630.
Image courtesy of Ron Beck, USGS Land Processes Data Center, Satellite Systems Branch; image provided by NASA’s Visible Earth Project.