About our Racial Justice Grantmaking

In a sweeping pledge to advance its long-term commitment to equity and opportunity, The Kresge Foundation announced in November of 2020 a $30 million grant commitment to support racial justice organizations working in cities across the United States. With initial investments in more nearly sixty local and national nonprofits, Kresge seeks both to support national organizations working to advance racial justice and to strengthen the ability of community-led organizations in Detroit, New Orleans, Memphis and Fresno to confront racial inequities in-place.

This commitment to racial justice is enduring, and we at Kresge are standing with racial justice organizations as they translate mobilizing, marching and messaging into tangible progress. These new grants and social investments seek to ensure that racial justice activists and leaders have sufficient resources to make the lasting changes needed both nationally and in communities across the country.The scale and scope of this grantmaking suite underscores Kresge’s belief that the Foundation’s efforts to fulfill its mandate – expanding opportunity in American cities – requires directly addressing longstanding and insidiously persistent systemic racism and inequality. By adding to the Foundation’s existing portfolio of anti-racism efforts, these grants represent a sharpened focus and intensification of the Foundation’s longstanding racial justice and racial equity grantmaking work.

Staff from across the foundation collaborated to bring this work forward.