The Kresge Foundation’s 2025 Annual Report is live today at holdandbuild.kresge.org, framing a turbulent year in philanthropy around a not unfamiliar tension: how can an institution hold firm and stick to longheld values and partners while using the moment to imagine and build new approaches to change?

In President and CEO Rip Rapson’s annual letter, which gives the report its title, he writes, “Each hard time begs the same question: can we hold firm on what matters while building what must come next?”

2025 tested the philanthropic sector in ways few could have anticipated: federal funding freezes, immigration enforcement actions disrupting the cities where Kresge has invested for decades, and direct challenges to the equity-centered values that have long guided the foundation’s work. Rapson is candid about the scale of it in his letter, but he also situates it within a longer history.

Twenty years ago, when Rapson joined the foundation, Kresge moved beyond single-purpose capital grants and built out a broader toolkit of strategic, equity-focused philanthropy. A few years later, the foundation helped assemble the civic and philanthropic coalition that protected pensions and city assets during Detroit’s municipal bankruptcy. And when COVID-19 hit, Kresge moved more than $19 million in pandemic-response grants and social investments, plus an additional $30 million specifically supporting Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous-led organizations across Detroit, Memphis, Fresno, and New Orleans.

Moments of major transition all have in common that dual imperative: to hold the lines of progress — protecting commitments, defending grantees, weathering the storm — while building toward new futures.

“The simultaneous commitment to protect hard-won gains while designing the next generation of philanthropic practice,” Rapson writes, is what the moment demands.

On the “Hold” side, the report points to partners like the Environmental Protection Network, which worked to safeguard more than $60 billion in federal climate and energy investments amid the year’s disruption, and the Memphis Medical District, which launched three new healthcare career pathways with local hospitals in 2025.

On the “Build” side, the report highlights organizations forging new partnerships, investing in emerging leaders, and experimenting with new ways of deploying capital. Race Forward’s advocacy work helped secure a $135 million housing fund in Chicago, $24 million in annual anti-displacement funding in Seattle, and a permanent commitment of 2% of New Orleans’ city budget to affordable housing. And the Economic Security Project fought back state-level efforts to outlaw guaranteed income pilots.

Explore the Full Report

Hold and Build is available now, including 2025 financials, illutrations from Subin Yang, and extended stories from 18 Kresge parthers.