Latest COVID-related grants bring foundation total to $10.3M

Kresge announced today a fourth round of grantmaking commitments – totaling nearly $1.1 million – to support nonprofit organizations that are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Since April, Kresge has granted approximately $10.3 million to organizations combatting the negative effects of the pandemic.

New grants totaling $805,000 have been awarded to the following organizations:

• 1 Michigan for the Global Majority, Detroit – This Boys and Men of Color grant of $30,000 supports 1 Michigan for the Global Majority’s Summer Youth Program, which trains youths in community organizing, professional development and leadership.
• Apparatus Solutions, Detroit – This $100,000 grant from the Detroit Program will support Apparatus Solutions to provide strategic financial and human resources consulting services for a group of Kresge’s Detroit grantees that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Communities Unlimited (CU), Memphis – This $100,000 grant from the American Cities Program will support CU’s efforts to provide technical assistance to minority-owned small businesses in Memphis experiencing challenges due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. CU is also a Kresge Innovative Projects: Memphis grantee.
• Deep Center, Savannah, Georgia – This $125,000 joint grant between the Arts & Culture Program and the Boys and Men of Color Working Group, which is a fund within the Detroit Program, will support the Deep Center’s programs that address the disparities and impacts of COIVD-19 on low-income communities and communities of color in the region. This grant will also allow the organization to expand and refine its model for arts-based community advocacy and empowerment.
• New America Foundation, Washington, D.C. – This $150,000 grant from the Education Program provides the New America Foundation with operating support to ensure that its higher education program, which focuses on policy analysis to help higher education become more accessible, innovative, outcomes-focused and equitable, will continue to meet the challenges posed to higher education institutions and the students they serve in the COVID-19 era.
• Tides Center, San Francisco (fiscal sponsor) –This $150,000 grant – a joint grant among the Health Program, the Opportunity Fund and the Presidential Discretionary Fund – supports the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans’ COVID-19 taskforce, a coalition of more than 35 national Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations coordinating a unified response to the pandemic and its sociopolitical ramifications in AAPI communities.
• Trenton Health Team, Trenton, New Jersey – This Arts & Culture grant of $150,000 will support a pilot multimedia storytelling project that will connect residents to service providers and inform an ongoing place-based investment designed to foster economic opportunity, including a food co-op and a multimedia arts incubator as described in the City’s Resilient Trenton initiative.

In keeping with an earlier commitment to offer current Kresge grantees greater flexibility and resources, the Foundation is also providing supplemental financial support in new grant amendments – totaling $280,000 –  to help organizations meet the monumental challenges presented by the pandemic:

• Colloqate Design, New Orleans – This $85,000 grant amendment from the Arts & Culture Program will allow the organization to  continue its design justice work.
• Enterprise Community Partners, Inc. Columbia, Maryland – This $100,000 grant amendment from the Arts & Culture Program will allow Enterprise to continue its Culture and Climate Resilience initiative, as well as pilot a partnership between its national and local market teams, establish a broader peer-learning network and test the effectiveness of new program strategies.
• Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates, Philadelphia – This $60,000 grant amendment from the Arts & Culture Program provides Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates with additional operating support as they work to leverage existing programs, build new programs and directly address the city-wide impact of COVID-19.
• The Collective The CLTV, Inc., Memphis – This $35,000 grant amendment from the American Cities and Arts & Culture Programs will continue to support the operations of The CLTV, a Kresge Innovative Projects: Memphis grantee, as it works to  elevate Black artists and empower Black communities, especially in the city’s Orange Mound neighborhood.

For more about Kresge’s response to the COVID pandemic and resources for grantee partners, please visit our COVID-19 Response page.