This grant will launch strategies including fellowships, a train-the-trainer curriculum, and workshops that strengthen Detroit students’ pathways to and from HBCUs. Kresge-funded research shows that HBCUs are popular among Detroiters, but high school guidance counselors have limited knowledge of this postsecondary option. It will be piloted with youth-serving organizations on Marygrove’s campus. View Website

This grant aims to advance family economic well-being in Tennessee by offering clear, Tennessee-focused information on budgets, policies, and how decisions are made affecting economic mobility, through community engagement sessions and at least one policy summit. It will update and expand dialogue with key health and human services programs, including researching the usage of state plans to best inform systems change . The project will also foster deeper engagement with policymakers, civic leaders, journalists, advocates, and communities during a pivotal election year and leadership transition. View Website

This grant will support the Reinvestment Fund’s HBCU Brilliance Fund to evaluate the work of its inaugural cohort, which integrates access to capital, technical assistance, and peer learning. Lessons from the first cohort will be applied as the program launches a second cohort, with a focus on engaging HBCUs in Kresge priority cities. Participating institutions will receive blended capital investments to support the development or implementation of high-priority, community anchor planning or institution projects. View Website

This grant will support the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy to engage a Senior Fellow to assess opportunities to further deepen the integration of research within its Human Rights Economy framework with an initial focus on baby bonds, budget equity, color of wealth, color of achievement, and AI to inform public engagement and field building. This is a cross-team grant with the Detroit team. View Website

This supports Andrew Goodman's Vote Everywhere program, which seeks to strengthen civic education and leadership development efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with an eye toward helping HBCUs build long-term capacity for democratic participation and community engagement. View Website

This general operating support grant enables Smart Growth America to help create healthy, prosperous, and resilient places to live for all people through research, advocacy, and direct support to community-based organizations, practitioners, and government at the intersection of transportation, climate, creativity, and housing issues. This cross-team investment reflects the importance of integrated approaches to tackling these issues and helping combat climate change, improve health outcomes, and connect residents to economic opportunity while uniquely applying arts and cultural methodologies for community engagement, research, and capacity-building. View Website

This grant renews operating support to the School of Arts & Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza, a community arts center, cultural convener, and creativity hub, to affirm identity, foster belonging and mobilize residents and businesses in the East San Jose community. View Website

This grant provides general operating support to Rockwood Leadership Institute to sustain its nationally recognized, equity-centered leadership development work for nonprofit and movement leaders. View Website

This grant renews support for the People’s Solar Energy Fund, which pairs non-extractive financing with technical assistance and community organizing to scale community-led and community-serving solar energy projects. View Website

This grant provides general operating support to the National Student Legal Defense Network (Student Defense), a nonpartisan organization using litigation and policy advocacy to advance students’ rights to educational opportunities.  Student Defense has a strong record of representing borrowers against for-profit colleges, helping secure billions of dollars in loan discharges for half a million borrowers defrauded by these entities.  Renewed Kresge support will enable Student Defense to continue supporting policies aimed at creating a fairer and more effective system of protections and oversight to promote higher education equity, as well as support its new Safeguarding Higher-Ed Through AI Practices & Ethics (SHAPE AI) initiative. View Website

This grant recommendation will support the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) as it embeds a Two-Generation (2Gen) framework into its new Mi Family Together family preservation model, recognizing the critical connection between child well-being and family economic stability. The investment will provide evidence, implementation support, and cross-sector partnerships to help operationalize an integrated service delivery approach that addresses the needs of both children and their caregivers. As MDHHS transitions toward institutionalizing these innovations through procurement, policy, and future state funding mechanisms, philanthropic support will serve as a strategic bridge that sustains momentum. View Website

The grant will support MDC’s “State of the Southern Family” initiative, a community-grounded research and policy effort designed to center families as experts across southern states, including Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi, to surface structural misalignments in the social safety net and translate lived experience into actionable reforms that improve outcomes and reduce administrative burden. View Website

This grant provides project support to the Live6 Alliance to design, implement and manage initiatives that anchor Kresge’s investment strategy in the Livernois-McNichols district. This grant consolidates Kresge support for initiatives that will launch in 2026, including program costs and staffing capacity to implement the Resident Investment and Opportunity Fund, Neighborhood Association Operating Grants, land use pilots and planning, and commercial corridor sustainability and activation initiatives. View Website

This grant renews operating support to La Mujer Obrera to strengthen social cohesion and leverage culture and creativity as integral strategies in advancing environmental health, education, housing and anti-displacement in the Chamizal neighborhood in El Paso, TX. View Website

This general operating support grant will sustain core operations, expand community-centered programming and engagement, and build organizational capacity for the Joe Louis Greenway Partnership as the Greenway is fully developed into an equitable, regional public space. View Website

This grant provides general operating support to Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC) to sustain its equity centered facilitation and systems change work for nonprofits and movement leaders. Additional funds have been recommended to support IISC’s leadership transition. View Website

This grant will renew general operating support to Healthy Gulf to advance community-led climate resilience and coastal advocacy in New Orleans East and coastal Southeast Louisiana. Healthy Gulf will implement the New Orleans East Community Water Plan, strengthen resident leadership and coalition advocacy, and elevate community priorities in local and state infrastructure and coastal restoration decisions to help ensure climate investments advance racial and economic justice. View Website

This grant will sponsor Shimmer on the River 2026, the annual fundraiser for the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy. View Website

This project supports the Fred and Barbara Erb Public Media Campus for Detroit PBS and 90.9 WRCJ. Detroit Public Television, the community-owned nonprofit media organization serving Southeast Michigan since 1955, is relocating its headquarters to Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood by adapting a historic warehouse building (at 234 Piquette Avenue) into a centralized hub for public media, journalism, arts, education, and community engagement. Kresge funding will support coordination and development activities to consolidate 90.9 WRCJ, the Detroit-based newsroom, and Detroit PBS headquarters into one centralized location, improving efficiency and collaboration across operations. View Website

This grant provides project support to Detroit Champions of Hope (DCH) to serve as an imperative lead focused on parent and family engagement and advocacy to implement the Hope Starts Here (HSH) framework. DCH will continue to equip and train parents as early childhood advocates and navigators, who in turn provide outreach and navigation supports for families and providers to access early childhood resources. Everybody Ready will be the fiscal organization for this grant. View Website