2023 marks a momentous milestone: our Centennial—a century dedicated to fostering opportunities across the United States and the world. In this special annual report, we present a unique experience: four pop-ups that bring to life iconic landmarks from the cities of Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans and Fresno. These symbolize our deep-rooted commitment to these cities and highlight the cultural and historical richness that defines them. We also share Kresge’s history through 100 moments of impact. Explore the samples online or download or request the book to read them all.
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These 10 stories exemplify the report’s full contents, which trace the foundation’s history from our origins to our work today. Today, Kresge works at the intersection of cities and equity fueled by the idea that all people and communities should thrive and that systems must change to account for disparities in outcomes along lines of race, income and other demographic factors. Each of the these stories was only made possible because of our partners. These stories are emblematic of thousands of partnerships over this last century.
The foundation trustees met for the first time in 1925. According to a 1953 foundation report, the inaugural Kresge trustees — Sebastian, his cousin and his lawyer — “had at the outset little background in philanthropy or related fields. They spent the early years learning fundamentals and experimenting with grants.” Their first disbursement of funds was $100 to the Salvation Army of Detroit. It was part of a first round of giving that totaled $12,950 and was divided among 10 institutions. The gifts ranged from $100 to $7,500 and the beneficiaries varied from a symphony orchestra to a small-town hospital.
UNCF is an educational nonprofit that provides financial support to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, awards scholarships to minoritized students, and advocates for community involvement. UNCF President and CEO Michael Lomax, Ph. D, describes how Kresge has supported the institution (including with grants exceeding $39 million).
“I don’t know that Mr. Kresge and the folks who founded the foundation understood that they would be supporting UNCF for 80 years. But our very significant fundraising record is due to Kresge’s support. UNCF was founded at the end of World War II in 1944 as a united fundraising campaign for what are now called Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Since that founding, we’ve raised almost $6 billion and helped nearly 600,000 students earn college degrees. Kresge was inspired to donate to UNCF a year after our first campaign, and the foundation has continued to support us ever since.
“Currently, we award over 10,000 scholarships a year, hovering around $100 million in student scholarships. That’s on top of funneling operational funds to the 37 schools we support. What we’ve seen at HBCUs is that 75% of their students fall in the lower socio-economic range, and over 50% are the first in their families to attend college. Degree completion moves them pretty directly into the middle class.
“We are on a journey to be a more perfect union and a better society. Race plays a role in that. I deeply appreciate The Kresge Foundation for continuing to think carefully about how race plays out in America and how their support should be lent to institutions where the longstanding damage of American racial policy continues.”
UNCF President and CEO Michael Lomax, Ph. D
Standing tall above New York Harbor since its dedication in 1886, the Statue of Liberty is an iconic symbol of freedom and democracy. But by the late 1970s the statue had suffered from years of exposure to the elements, and there were structural concerns that needed to be addressed.
That led President Ronald Reagan to establish the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation in 1982 to raise funds for restoration ahead of the statue’s 100th anniversary. Envisioned as a public-private partnership, the federal government provided some support, but most of the funding was expected to come from private donations.
So the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation launched a nationwide fundraising campaign, appealing to individuals, corporations and foundations for donations. As small donations trickled in from across the country, The Kresge Foundation committed $3 million as a capstone challenge to the effort in 1984. The foundation’s contribution played a crucial role in the restoration project, said Denver Frederick, who served as the chief development officer for the restoration project.
It wasn’t just about the money, Frederick noted. While the $3 million was important, it was what the grant signaled that was even more important. Getting a capital grant from Kresge was known to be a highly challenging process, Frederick said, so if a project did get a grant, it signaled to others that it was a solid investment. “It was like a Good Housekeeping seal of approval,” Frederick said. Ultimately, the restoration project was completed in time for the statue’s centennial celebration, and it continues to be a major tourist attraction, drawing millions of visitors each year.
Located in the heart of downtown Detroit, Campus Martius Park is the city’s official gathering place for residents and visitors. It has won numerous awards for public space design, management, operations, placemaking and programming. Named the nation’s best public square by USA TODAY readers, the 2.5-acre park is a year-round outdoor venue with gardens, performance stages, food trucks, an urban beach in the summer, an ice rink in the winter and an annual holiday tree lighting ceremony that attracts thousands.
In 2001, Kresge provided a $3 million grant for the first phase of the construction of Campus Martius and the establishment of a conservancy endowment fund. Education Program Managing Director Bill Moses explains the significance of Kresge’s grant and the project.
“The creation of the park was chosen as the signature of the Detroit 300th Anniversary Legacy Project at a time when confidence in the city was at a low ebb. The establishment of the Detroit 300 Conservancy endowment fund was critical in that it created a focal point for the park in terms of long-term maintenance and programming. The result has been the creation of an incredibly welcoming space that has become the symbol of Detroit’s rebirth.”
The park, which opened in 2003, was designed by the landscape architecture firm Rundell Ernstberger Associates in conjunction with the Detroit 300 Conservancy. Its dominant, open greenspace allows for multiple uses, including hosting the 2024 NFL Draft, which broke attendance records.
Fresh, Local & Equitable (FreshLo) sought to improve access to healthy food, ignite entrepreneurship, spur economic development and integrate arts, culture and community-engaged design to spark neighborhood revitalization in cities around the country. Former Kresge Program Officer Stacey Barbas offers her reflection.
“FreshLo provided $8.4 million in grant funding, as well as technical assistance and learning opportunities, to 23 organizations. [Those] communities came to the partnership with a wealth of strengths and lived experiences used for years to resist and rise in the face of a host of challenges: poverty, insufficient access to fresh and affordable food, and historical and ongoing racism and trauma. Their strategies included everything from sharing cultural traditions, passing down community and family stories, organizing for change, growing and preparing food, starting businesses, and building transformational relationships, among others.
“With FreshLo, Kresge was the first national funder to intentionally integrate food, art and community to drive equitable neighborhood revitalization. The initiative built on and enhanced existing community assets and strengths, and uplifted community leaders to ensure that development is led by and is for its residents. Throughout the initiative, we continually asked ourselves, ‘How can we better acknowledge and share power and center communities and their needs?’
“The FreshLo model outlined a path for philanthropy that supports community development without driving displacement, and ensured people in historically under-resourced and marginalized neighborhoods had the support needed to innovate and lift up their neighbors. It laid the groundwork for countless investments into community-driven solutions that center residents in leadership, planning and implementation.”
Stacey Barbas, Former Kresge Foundation Program Officer
Carol Coletta, who spent several years at Kresge as a senior fellow, is now the Memphis River Parks Partnership executive director. She shares her take on the riverfront transformation.
“After Kresge successfully helped transform a small, Confederate-associated Memphis park through the Reimagining the Civic Commons (RCC) initiative, they expanded support to renovating the Memphis riverfront. Kresge provided half the funds for a Memphis riverfront concept in 2016, and the revitalization of Tom Lee Park began. Tom Lee Park has been enormously successful since re-opening in the fall of 2023. Our ambition was to build a park that would allow people across incomes to joyfully share public space, and we’ve succeeded. The park gets high ratings, and business in the area is picking up. A lot of people in Tennessee can’t afford to take their kids somewhere like Disneyland, and the park is designed with those families in mind. We’re providing a fun, calm respite for Memphians, some of whom don’t get that in their lives. It’s a haven for pollinating insects, and now kids are learning about ecology in the heart of the city. Teachers are adopting our environmental education curriculum, and we’re using the park to develop internships and apprenticeships for students. Maybe the biggest impact we’re seeing is on people’s psyches. When Memphians started visiting the park, we’d get comments like, ‘I can’t believe that we were able to build something like this in Memphis. How did you do this?’ It helps people believe that we can take on ambitious projects in our city.”
IMPACT STAT: As of April 2024, over 500,000 people have visited Memphis’ Tom Lee Park.
Carol Coletta
Through the Next Generation (NextGen) initiative, Kresge supported cohorts of private nonprofit and public human services organizations committed to person-centered, outcomes-based, data-driven work that centers racial justice to advance multi-generational social and economic success for families and communities. The cohort members invested two years in designing and implementing innovations within their respective organizations, and created a new framework with concrete action steps, insights and ideas to help leaders as they work to amplify the agency, as well as the autonomy and dignity of people, families and communities.
NextGen organizations like Martha O’Bryan Center and Center for Urban Families (CFUF) Legacy Wealth Education have created several innovative initiatives.
“Beyond the Cliff” is a first-of-its-kind national collaborative of nonprofits, state and local governments, and stakeholders. The program helps families achieve economic prosperity and eliminates the benefits cliff, the situation that recipients of public benefits face when they earn a raise or get promoted and subsequently have their benefits reduced.
“As an anti-poverty organization, we believe families can rise out of poverty in one generation,” said Marsha Edwards, CEO and president of Martha O’ Bryan Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “We recognize that that has not been true in all places for all people. Eliminating the benefits cliff is an important step toward expanding the landscape of opportunity for all families.”
In Baltimore, CFUF’s suite of programs helps families build and protect generational wealth. “It is by strengthening families, providing the keys to income security and building intergenerational wealth that we realize a more fair and just society that allows all people to rise above systemic barriers to find success and opportunity,” said CFUF President and CEO Joseph T. Jones, Jr.
The opportunity and ability to thrive — as individuals, families, communities and as a country — is in danger because of increasing climate instability. The impact is felt everywhere and is affecting community health in real ways right now. Risks are compounded for people and communities of color that have experienced generations of policies and practices that unfairly expose them to air and water pollution, compromising their health and well-being.
But progress is possible through listening to those most impacted by climate change. Kresge’s Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative aims to build the capacity of health care and public health to promote equitable climate resilience practices, mobilize practitioners to engage in climate advocacy, and strengthen community-based leadership to accelerate implementation of policies that advance climate resilience and health equity. During the five-year, $30-million initiative, partner organizations advanced change through a range of accomplishments, including promoting implementation and funding for climate change, health and equity solutions; advocating for equitable climate resilience policies; and expanding partnerships and collaboration across sectors.
“When we launched the Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative, we did so with the undeniable belief that climate change is the greatest public health threat of this century, affecting the air we breathe, water we drink, food we eat and where we live,” said Shamar Bibbins, a senior program officer in Kresge’s Environment program. “The most effective solutions are designed and implemented by those who know their communities best. By working together with those who are closest to the problem, we can build climate resilience and advance policies and practices to proactively tackle this public health threat and improve people’s lives.”
In a sweeping pledge to advance its long-term commitment to equity and opportunity, Kresge announced in November 2020 a $30-million grant commitment to support racial justice organizations working in cities across the United States. With investments in nearly 70 nonprofits, Kresge supported national organizations working to advance racial justice and community-led organizations in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis and Fresno seeking to confront racial inequities in place, and ignite deeper community organizing and engagement. The grant package — a response to the racial justice movement that emerged after the murder of George Floyd — was grounded in four principles:
“This [package of grants] marks a pivotal institutional milestone,” Rapson wrote. “The scale and scope of this suite of grants underscore Kresge’s belief that the foundation’s efforts to expand opportunity in American cities require that we directly, unambiguously and strategically address longstanding and insidiously persistent systemic racism and inequality. By adding to the foundation’s existing portfolio of anti-racism efforts — both inside and outside the building — these grants represent a sharpened focus and intensification of Kresge’s longstanding racial justice and racial equity grantmaking.”
Jim Baek, Executive Director, Community Investment Guarantee Pool
Our primary investment objective is to preserve and grow our endowment by generating returns greater than our spending on grants, social investments, administrative costs and inflation. We believe measuring our performance over market cycles of at least five years is appropriate. For the five years ending December 31, 2023, the endowment returned 7.4% annually, below our spending plus inflation target of 9.6%.