Kresge Foundation
/OVERVIEW: Kresge’s funding prioritizes community redevelopment and expanding opportunities in America’s cities. It supports arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.
IP TAKE: The Kresge Foundation is one of the oldest and most influential funders in the nation. While it operates through seven different program areas, it conducts its grantmaking primarily through the lens of racial equity and justice. Its grants only support highly engaged organizations with a proven plan of attack. It supports organizations that make a visible impact, both nationally and within lower-income communities in Detroit. That means smaller groups should propose projects that will see demonstrable results. This funder also has a tendency to support organizations with work that represents overlapping interests, for example, economic opportunity and neighborhood revitalization, or public health and climate change.
Kresge is a transparent funder and regularly updated news and featured stories about its initiatives and grant recipients. It is a somewhat accessible funder, as it mainly conducts its grantmaking by invitation only, but frequently posts calls for proposals and open funding opportunities.
PROFILE: Established in 1924, the Kresge Foundation is a Detroit-based funder that prioritizes support for vulnerable and underserved communities in American cities. It was founded by Sebastian Spering Kresge, the retail giant whose empire started with five-and-dime stores but grew to encompass Kmart and Sears. It seeks “to promote human progress,” and its programs “seek to expand opportunity for low-income people so they can gain the tools and supports needed to lead self-determined lives and join the economic mainstream.” Kresge’s grantmaking largely focuses on “[s]ocial investing tools to help expand opportunities for low income people living in cities.” The foundation’s eight grantmaking areas are American Cities, Arts & Culture, Detroit, Education, Environment, Health, Human Services, and Social Investment Practice.
Grants for Community Development
Kresge’s American Cities program area works “expand opportunity by promoting effective and inclusive community development practices” in urban areas across the U.S.” As with some of its other grantmaking areas, Kresge’s work in this area is conducted through focus areas and targeted initiatives. It currently names four focus areas:
Knowledge Exchange supports “research, thought leadership and convenings that seek to improve place-based community development practices in cities.
National Intermediaries grants go to national organizations working to advance equity in urban areas.
Multi-City Initiatives support innovative projects that work across cohorts of two or more cities to improve quality of life in low-income areas.
The foundation’s also names three targeted initiatives for its American Cities program.
The Shared Prosperity Partnership works with city governments, local leaders and other organizations to “create more inclusive economies in cities nationwide.”
Kresge Innovative Projects: Memphis supports nonprofit organizations working to improve quality of life in Memphis’s low-income areas.
Kresge Community Support: Fresno, similarly, works with nonprofits and community-led groups to improve life for urban residents and address the city’s longstanding issues with “environmental injustice, inadequate housing and lack of quality jobs.”
Grantees of the American Cities Program include Innovate Memphis, Momentum Nonprofit Partners, the Brookings Institution, and the Highlands Project.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Kresge’s Art and Culture grants prioritize what it calls “Creative Placemaking,” or “an approach to community development and urban planning that integrates arts, culture, and community-engaged design strategies” that seek to “influence community development-related systems and practices that expand opportunities for low-income people in disinvested communities in American cities.” The program names three overlapping focus areas that aim to “fortify an enabling environment for the pre-conditions for enduring change through three interconnected approaches”:
Advance Creatives Strategies in Place works to “strengthen creative practices that advance equitable outcomes in neighborhoods.
Invest in People Mobilizing for Change supports efforts to “strengthen networks of creative practitioners, cultural strategists and community leaders who are centering community voice and agency in cross-sector local and national initiatives.”
Strengthen Cross-sector Partnerships works to “fortify an enabling environment that connects creative practices and drives systems change while recognizing the challenges communities of color face are too large to solve on our own.”
Recent grantees of Kresge’s arts and culture program include the Thirdspace Action Lab of Cleveland, the Marygrove Conservancy of Detroit, the National Public Housing Museum of Chicago, and Colloqate Design of New Orleans.
Grants for Environment and Climate Change
Kresge’s Environment grants aim to help cities “combat and adapt to climate change while advancing racial and economic justice” by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, preparing for future impacts of climate change, and advancing “social cohesion and equity.” It strongly prioritizes efforts that involve “elevating the leadership, inclusion and influence of people of color, people with low incomes, and equity-focused organizations.” It currently has two main focus areas:
Field Building grants support “leaders and organizations whose work is critical to addressing climate change while advancing racial and economic justice.”
Transforming Urban Systems grants aim to “transform urban energy, health, and water systems” to be better prepared for the inevitable future impacts of climate change.
Kresge invests in several other initiatives:
The Climate Change, Health, and Equity initiative aims to “build the capacity of health institutions,” “transform public health and health practice,” and “strengthen community-based leadership” in order to prepare the health system for the future health-related impacts of climate change.
The Climate Resilient and Equitable Water Systems initiative works with water utility leaders, community organizations, nonprofits, universities, and neighborhood coalitions to “advance equitable solutions to climate-related storm and flood impacts on low-income communities.”
The Equitable and Just Energy Transition initiative aims to ensure that the transition to clean, renewable energy that “eliminates carbon pollution while building power for low-wealth communities and communities of color and propelling racial and economic equity.”
Grants for Public Health
The Kresge Foundation’s Health program is heavily community-based, as it primarily aims to address the “social determinants of health” and equity, which derive from “systems of power like structural racism, sexism, nativism, ableism and poverty.” It currently operates through three main focus areas:
Community-driven Solutions grants support “community-determined policy priorities and expand the use of inclusive community-driven models of development that address local housing, food systems, climate resilience and safety needs.”
Community Investment for Health Equity grants aim to “improve health equity by creating robust community investment ecosystems designed to close the racial wealth gap.”
Community Health Ecosystems grants aim to “strengthen community health ecosystems that are accessible, informed by individuals and families, honor intergenerational expertise, reflect cross-sector leadership, provide high-quality coordinated services, create economic opportunity and advance racial equity.”
The foundation also invests in health through related initiatives:
The Climate Change, Health, and Equity initiative aims to “build the capacity of health institutions,” “transform public health and health practice,” and “strengthen community-based leadership” in order to prepare the health system for the future health-related impacts of climate change, such as high heat, extreme weather, and rising sea levels.
Advancing Health Equity Through Housing initiative supports programs that “reduce the harmful physical and mental health impacts of housing instability; advance sound public policy to preserve, protect and expand safe and affordable housing; and help communities become more connected and cohesive through housing and health activities.”
Grants from the foundation’s health program tend to go to large, well-established organizations in the health and health policy fields. Recent grantees include the Public Health Communications Collaborative, the National Council of Urban Indian Health, and the BUILD Health Challenge.
Grants for Higher Education and Economic Opportunity
Kresge’s Education program is one of its most well-funded, awarding about $20 million yearly towards education. Overall, its grantmaking to education emphasizes various aspects of higher education. This initiative features three main programs:
Aligning and Strengthening Urban Higher Education Ecosystems seeks to “improve coordination between the many systems low-income students rely on to reach their higher education goals.”
Institutional Capacity Building for Student Success seeks to “help minority-serving postsecondary education institutions carry out their missions and better help low-income students succeed.”
The Urban Pathways to College program aims to “increase the number of low-income students, both from high schools and adult populations, who get into college ready to succeed.” While the foundation operates nationally, its education program prioritizes its four states—California, Florida, Michigan, and Texas—and three urban areas—Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans.
Additionally, the foundation currently invests in four targeted initiatives:
BOOST provides human services, education and career services to people with low incomes.
Siyaphumelela supports higher education in South Africa, focusing on access and interventions for student success.
Advancing Student Transportation Solutions aims to eliminate transportation as a barrier to higher education by creating solutions in partnerships with schools and transit systems.
CoPro2.0 supports College Promise programs that offer free education, advance equity, and improve educational outcomes.
Grants for Detroit
Kresge prioritizes Detroit grantmaking above all other funding areas and has made twice as many Detroit grants as any other area. It supports Detroit through a series of local focus areas:
Early Childhood/Hope Starts Here works in collaboration with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to ensure that in Detroit, “children are born healthy, well-prepared for kindergarten, and on track for success by third grade and beyond.”
Nonprofit Capacity Building and Leadership Development grants support efforts to “build a more inclusive Detroit by elevating talented leaders outside traditional power structures and providing residents and nonprofit leaders of color opportunities and resources to shape their city.”
Equitable Community Development makes grants and social investments that aim to improve low-income neighborhoods and create economic mobility for Detroit residents.
Coordinated Investments and Technical Assitance provides support to “neighborhood steward” organizations that “amplify the strengths and enhance the unique character” or Detroit’s many diverse communities.
Arts and Culture Ecosystem grants support Detroit-based arts organizations of all sizes with a nod to “the power of arts and culture to preserve and enhance identity, connectedness and opportunity.”
And the Transformative Project/Marygrove Cradle-to-Career Campus represents a $50 million commitment from Kresge for the establishment, over several years, of a PreK-12 school on the site of the Marygrove Conservancy in Northwest Detroit.
Additionally, Kresge supports these Detroit-based initiatives:
Kresge Innovative Projects provides support to innovative projects that “tap the vision and creativity of residents to improve quality of life in their neighborhoods.” In addition to Detroit, this program supports projects in the nearby communities of Highland Park and Hamtramck.
Kresge Arts in Detroit provides “no strings attached” support to artists and arts organizations in the greater metropolitan area.
Grants for Racial Justice
In 2020, Kresge announced a renewed commitment and expansion of its racial justice grantmaking across all programs, and committed to allocate 25 percent of its assets under management to diverse-owned funds by 2025.
The foundation’s Human Services program is centered around “racial equity and racial justice to advance multi-generational family social and economic success.” It prioritizes programs that are “grounded in power sharing, partnership, co-learning and co-creating with organizations from multiple sectors, families and communities.” It currently makes grants through three focus areas:
Fostering the Next Generation of Nonprofit and Public Human Services Organizations through the NextGen initiative, which supports “public and nonprofit community-serving organizations that center racial equity and racial justice to advance multigenerational social and economic success.”
Place-based Opportunity Ecosystems grants support “cross-sector efforts anchored by public and nonprofit human services organizations to drive person-centered systems change to create the circumstances for families to succeed.”
The Supportive Public Policy and Field Building initiative supports “policy and field building efforts that create the enabling conditions to operationalize a two-generation approach” by “hosting and supporting convenings about specific practice and policy issues,” “working with our partners and community members to design forums in which we can share best practices,” and “providing and supporting technical assistance.”
In a recent year, the foundation made a grant to Race Forward, a New York City-based organization that “brings systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity.” Another recent grant supported Junebug Productions, a theater company based in New Orleans that aims to “to create and support artistic works that question and confront inequitable conditions that have historically impacted the Black community.” Other racial justice grantees include Nashville’s Mosaic Changemakers, Arise Detroit, and the Plowshares Theater Company.
Important Grant Details:
Grants typically range from $100,000 to $1 million. While Kresge prioritizes non-profits, universities have received grants in each of its program areas in the past. Those seeking more information about Kresge’s grantmaking habits should review its Annual Reports and Grants Database.
The Kresge Foundation awards grants across the United States, although certain initiatives and programs are targeted at specific cities.
Most grantmaking is by invitation only. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals except in response to an Available Funding Opportunity or national call for proposals.
Applications typically begin with a letter of inquiry followed by a full proposal. Deadlines vary by program and are typically stated in the call for proposals. The review process generally take 10 to 12 weeks following submission.
The Kresge Foundation does not fund faith-based institutions or for-profit organizations. Individual program areas may have further eligibility restrictions.
Grantseekers may reach out to the foundation through its Contact page.
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