Seventy-eight arts and cultural organizations in the Detroit metropolitan area will share a more than $12 million investment in their general operations over the next three years.

This multi-year funding initiative, known as Detroit Arts Support (DAS), is a collaboration between The Kresge Foundation, Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, and Hudson-Webber Foundation. The program aims to strengthen the sector broadly through consistent support for a diverse set of organizations.

Grant recipients range from small to large organizations spread throughout the region, including Detroit Opera, Huron Valley Council for the Arts, and Sphinx Organization.

The three participating foundations shared a single application and review process before making independent decisions. This partnership streamlined the application process for nonprofit arts organizations while offering shared learning opportunities and improving systems for data collection and analysis necessary for the participating foundations to make funding decisions.

“Metro Detroit’s array of arts and cultural organizations is one of our greatest strengths, one of the keys to our resilience,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of Kresge’s Detroit Program. “We seek to support them for their unique roles in anchoring us to tradition and opening windows on our future possibilities.”

The funding process also included focus groups that informed and excited participating arts advocates, community leaders, and artists about the breadth of creativity in the region’s cultural sector. The focus groups provided DAS applicants with feedback about perceptions of their organizations from current and prospective supporters, and they helped DAS funding partners discover arts groups beyond those they have existing relationships with. Taking place over four days, these focus groups represented an important learning component of DAS and emphasized the initiative’s core values of transparency and mutual benefit.

Detroit Arts Support grants provide unrestricted operating support to nonprofits in the performing, visual, and literary arts, as well as to arts service, education, media and broadcasting, and cultural organizations.

“Arts and culture organizations have endured tremendous challenges in recent years, and those experiences highlight the critical importance of consistent, unrestricted funding for the sector,” said Dr. Neil Hawkins, president of the Erb Family Foundation. “We hope these grants will help enable them to continue to innovate and create—and enrich the lives of all people in our region.”

General operating support is not tied to a specific initiative, allowing nonprofits to use these grants to support their day-to-day work, and lessen the impact of unexpected costs such as canceled gigs or shifting funding priorities. This type of support for an organization’s core work helps them to sustain and grow their business over an extended period.

“The arts connect us with each other, deepen our understanding of ourselves, have the power to transform communities, and are a critical economic asset for the city and the region,” said Melanca Clark, president and CEO of Hudson-Webber Foundation. “The Foundation’s commitment to the Detroit Arts Support Program is a natural extension of our long-standing mission to support arts and culture organizations that enrich the quality of life of Detroiters.”

Detroit Arts Support also aims to offer additional support to nonprofit arts groups beyond grant funding. This cycle, DAS grantees can have a one-on-one consulting session with TDC, the nonprofit finance firm that analyzed the financial statements of all DAS applicants. Consultants can share insights about each organization’s financial status and planning opportunities and dialogue about sector trends. In late-2023, DAS expects to release a comprehensive report on the initiative, reflecting on the great work of grantees and the impacts of multiyear general operating funding.

The Erb Family Foundation and Hudson-Webber announced their funding recipients in September 2022, with Kresge making its decisions later in the year. Grants from individual foundations generally range from $5,000 to $100,000 per year, based on the organization’s size. Eligibility criteria included 501(c)3 status, having at least one employee, annual revenues of at least $100,000, and a record of presenting programs for at least two years.

Kresge launched the Detroit Arts Support initiative in 2007, and the Erb Family Foundation began partnering with Kresge on the application and review process in 2010. Hudson-Webber joined the collaboration prior to the launch of the 2019–2022 cycle.

CultureSource, a coalition of more than 170 nonprofit arts organizations in Southeast Michigan, served as the administrator for the DAS initiative, coordinating the collaboration of funding partners.

Learn more about Detroit Arts Support.

The organizations receiving funding through Detroit Arts Support are: