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Enterprise Community Partners announces $23.7M for 32 Detroit community development organizations

Detroit

U-Snap-Bac Executive Director Linda Smith, in a winter hat and coat, is standing on a snow-covered lawn in front of a two-story house in Detroit.

The work of community development organizations across Detroit ­— including U-Snap-Bac's home renovations ­— will benefit from the philanthropic support channeled through Enterprise Community Partners. U-Snap-Bac Executive Director Linda Smith is in front of one of those houses on Detroit's east side. (Photo by Lon Horwedel for Kresge)

Kresge, 6 other philanthropies pool funds for 3 years of support for groups across the city

Enterprise Community Partners has announced $23.7 million in Phase 2 funding to support 32 Detroit nonprofits whose leaders or beneficiaries are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). Through two foundation-backed initiatives ­— the Community Development Organization (CDO) Fund and Elevating Community Development Organization (ECDO) Fund — Enterprise helps support the growth and sustainability of both the large established CDOs and smaller emerging CDOs that are critical to the health of the city.

In Phase 1, Enterprise raised a combined $12.9 million to serve 31 grantees over three years. Phase 2 funding has nearly doubled thanks to increased support from The Kresge Foundation; sustained support from Ford, Hudson-Webber, Ralph C. Wilson, Jr., and W.K. Kellogg Foundations; as well as new funding from Ballmer Group and the Gilbert Family Foundation. The growth is a testament to Enterprise’s ability to leverage philanthropic dollars to help BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving CDOs sustain and scale their work on the ground.

Of the new funding, $19.1 million will go toward the CDO Fund and $4.6 million toward the ECDO Fund, helping expand community development programs and services, hire additional staff, obtain additional funding and technical assistance, and access peer learning opportunities. The two funds are part of Enterprise’s Equitable Path Forward initiative to dismantle the deeply rooted legacy of systemic racism in housing and community development. The ECDO Fund is specifically focused on smaller, BIPOC-led CDOs, recognizing that these organizations face unique operating, fundraising and sustainability challenges.

“Since their launch, Enterprise’s CDO funds have been a model for how to center racial equity and support local organizations’ impactful work in neighborhoods that have experienced historic disinvestment. Thanks to our dynamic partnership of forward-thinking funders, we can help even more organizations continue their community-sustaining work,” said Melinda Clemons, vice president of the Central Midwest Market at Enterprise Community Partners.

A group of five people from the Urban Neighborhood Initiatives pose for a photo in a conference room with a mural behind them.
Christine Bell, executive director of Urban Neighborhood Initiatives, center, poses with, from left: Josh Medina (community wellness coordinator) Ana Alvarez (youth leadership and outreach director), Amna Khalyleh (youth leadership fellow) and Angelo Alexander (new board member) during a board meeting at the Southwest Detroit Community Justice Center. (Photo by Lon Horwedel)

“Over the past three years, the Gilbert Family Foundation has launched several large-scale initiatives that are driven and executed by local CDOs, including the Detroit Tax Relief Fund and the Detroit Home Repair Fund,” said Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation. “Initiatives like these are not possible without robust support for CDO operations. We are proud to join other funders and Enterprise Community Partners to expand existing support for these partners who are foundational to community health, stability and equity.”

“The 32 organizations supported by this effort know their communities intimately. That positions them to provide an array of essential roles, from coordinating physical and economic development to social services to conveying needs and desires of residents to government,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “We are proud to support Enterprise in bringing together so many funders to pool resources for a single, streamlined application-administrative process for these indispensable partners in the city’s renewal.”

“Ballmer Group is proud to support the CDO Fund and help local organizations build resources and sustainability,” said Kylee Mitchell Well, executive director of Ballmer Group Southeast Michigan. “Proximate leadership is powerful and we’re looking forward to seeing what these organizations accomplish.”

The 25 CDO Fund grantees are:

The 7 ECDO Fund grantees are:

Read Enterprise’s report to learn more about the impact the CDO Fund has made to date: How the Detroit CDO Fund Is Transforming the Ecosystem for BIPOC-Led and BIPOC-Serving Nonprofits

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