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 to the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis (WFGM) will support its ongoing efforts to align people, resources, and systems to advance social and economic mobility for families in South Memphis and is a cross-team effort with the American Cities Program. Foundation funding will strengthen WFGM’s implementation of their person-centered approach, expanding coordinated investments to increase the collective impact of partners working to improve outcomes for children, and families. View Website

Working through Latinx media, the Detroit Voces project will create oral histories of Detroit immigrants and mixed-status families facing detention and deportation. View Website

This grant to Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency will support the strengthening of their financial and operational capacity through a targeted restructuring including standardizing workflows, enhancing efficiency, and reducing costs to ensure long-term financial management effectiveness across diverse funding streams. This grant accompanies a loan from the Social Investment Practice. View Website

This grant to UTEC, a National NextGen Cohort 1 member, will provide a final year of funding to expand the impact of its youth-led policymaking and systems change initiative which employs best practices in community violence intervention, organizing, and emerging adult justice movement building to advance major policy reform at the local and state levels. View Website

This grant will support two projects at the Urban Institute. The first, the Transformative Climate Accelerator, will: 1) equip community economic development organizations in three cities with tools, technical support and data to integrate climate into their missions and capacities; and 2) identify models to be implemented elsewhere. The second, the Center for Local Finance and Growth, will provide CDFIs and related community development organizations with data-driven insights, advising, and convening opportunities. View Website

The United Way for Southeastern Michigan and the Detroit Parks Coalition will install literacy learning activities in eight Detroit parks to complement literacy programming led by neighborhood partners. View Website

ThinkTennessee will: 1) support Memphis in identifying funding for transportation infrastructure, 2) continue engaging key decision-makers to help the Memphis Area Transit Authority prioritize next steps, 3) produce a local housing policy roadmap , 4) recommend priority areas for development based on the Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan, and 5) continue updating dashboards that provide critical local data to decision-makers and the public. 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

The Project uses regranting, coalition-building, and communications to amplify climate justice solutions led by grassroots organizations. 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 tie-off general operating grant to The Rebuild Foundation supports its continued use of arts, creative programming and place-based cultural and land stewardship as a primary tool for community development and coalition building in the Greater Grand Crossing, a predominantly Black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. 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 grant to The Funders Network (TFN) fulfills Kresge’s three-year membership dues. TFN seeks to leverage philanthropy’s unique potential to help create communities and regions that are sustainable, prosperous, healthy and just for all people. This grant is one of 20 institutional memberships managed through the LIFT portfolio which provides benefits across the foundation. This grant includes sponsorship to the 2026 conference. View Website

This grant to The Equity Alliance (TEA), the only statewide, Black-led policy and advocacy organization in Tennessee, will support civic power building in Black communities most impacted by economic and environmental inequities. 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

Seed Commons has invested in local food businesses including Detroit People's Food Co-op, Pagoda Café and Flipping Birds (worker-owned restaurants in New Orleans), and Harvesters farm worker cooperative near Fresno, CA. Its "train the trainer" model complements efforts led by the EFOD Collaborative to build capacity in cooperative businesses and create lasting economic ecosystems in communities. 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

As the only hub for all 650+ MSIs, the Center conducts research to improve student outcomes, promote a culture of institutional success among MSI leaders, provide opportunities for MSI early career faculty to research student success, and build MSI data collection and reporting capacity. View Website