The Kresge Foundation HQ
Expanding opportunities in America's cities.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
The Kresge Foundation was founded in 1924 to promote human progress. Today, Kresge fulfills that mission by building and strengthening pathways to opportunity for low-income people in America’s cities, seeking to dismantle structural and systemic barriers to equality and justice. Using a full array of grant, loan, and other investment tools, Kresge invests more than $160 million annually to foster economic and social change.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Arts & Culture
We seek to build strong, healthy cities by promoting the integration of arts and culture in community revitalization.
Detroit
We collaborate with cross-sectoral partners to promote and expand long-term, equitable opportunity in Kresge’s hometown by centering the priorities of its residents.
Education
We work to increase college access and success while reducing inequitable student outcomes in the U.S. and South Africa.
Environment
We help cities implement climate change mitigation and adaption approaches grounded in equity.
Health
We help build equity-focused systems of health that create opportunities for all people to achieve well-being.
Human Services
We center racial equity to advance social and economic mobility for families and communities.
American Cities
We seek to expand opportunity by promoting effective and inclusive community development practice in American cities.
Social Investment Practice
We work across Kresge's seven program teams to strengthen neighborhoods and improve the quality of life in America's cities by addressing barriers to capital.
Where we work
Accreditations
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: Philamplify Report 2015
Awards
2021 Corporate Award 2021
Education Commission of the States
External reviews

Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsTotal number of grants awarded
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Age groups, Economically disadvantaged people, Immigrants and migrants, Students
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
Totals include social investments made.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
In American cities, The Kresge Foundation seeks to:
- expand opportunity by promoting effective and inclusive community development practice ;
- build strong, healthy cities by promoting the integration of arts and culture in community revitalization;
- collaborate with civic, nonprofit and business partners to promote and expand long-term, equitable opportunity in Kresge’s hometown for its current and future residents;
- focus on increasing postsecondary attainment while eliminating gaps for low-income students and students of color in the United States and South Africa;
- help cities implement comprehensive climate-resilience approaches grounded in equity;
- help build equity-focused systems of health that create opportunities for all people to achieve well-being;
- support the advancement of human services to accelerate social and economic mobility for people with low income;
- work to expand opportunity, strengthen neighborhoods and improve quality of life by providing access to capital.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Kresge works strategically at the intersections of our eight funding programs and practices to expand opportunity in America’s cities. We work deeply in places like Detroit, New Orleans and Memphis. We also fund work nationally to improve systems and advance equitable policies nationwide. We use an array of flexible grantmaking and social investment tools, including general operating support, project grants, planning grants and impact investments.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Kresge employs a varied set of instruments in pursuit of our mission.
Convening: Bringing leaders together in person to exchange knowledge and lessons learned leads to better alignment, a stronger field and faster results. With the right people in a room, problems can be dissected, collaborations can form and solutions can be discovered.
Cross-Sector Collaboration: The challenges and opportunities for economic revitalization have changed immensely in the past decade with constraints on public funding, reconfigurations of markets, the rise of entrepreneurial impulses and a heightened awareness of the need to
embrace solutions that provide urban residents with the opportunity to join the economic mainstream. Too often, those exploring solutions to these problems in the public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors are working in parallel. The foundation sits in a unique position to set the stage for these allies to break out of their silos and work together.
Field-Building: We use our capital and convening capability to develop fields and enhance the sectors in which we work. We identify complex issues and convene actors needed to resolve them. Advancing fields can only be done in partnership with nonprofits, government, academia, business and other sector specialists.
Grants: Grants are essential to advancing our work. The foundation awards approximately $160 million in grants each year to nonprofit organizations with strong track records of impact.
Learning: Through our work with partners in the field, the foundation attempts to capture what works to improve social outcomes. We compile and share those lessons in multiple ways — through funding research, disseminating data, conducting rigorous evaluation and supporting strategic communications — to spread that knowledge.
Policymaking: The problems that limit opportunity for low-income people are systemic; changing policies that dictate those systems must be part of any long-lasting solutions. The foundation can advocate for the types of policy changes that will help advance our mission by funding research, backing education campaigns and supporting organizations that are doing grassroots organizing and outreach.
Social Investments: Kresge’s Social Investment Practice makes non-grant capital, often at below-market terms, available to nonprofit or for-profit enterprises whose efforts advance the foundation’s mission. These investments also generate modest financial returns for the foundation. Social investments are at the cutting edge of philanthropy today, and we have fully embraced this financial toolset, which includes: Debt, Equity Investments, Deposits and Guarantees.
Technical Assistance: By providing leadership development training and other operational or management assistance, Kresge leverages
collective insight and resources to help enhance the effectiveness of nonprofits.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Annually our President and CEO reflects on the foundation's learning from the year prior in the foundation's annual report. This is his most recent letter: https://racialjustice.kresge.org/letter-from-the-ceo-and-president
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization collecting feedback from the people you serve?
Electronic surveys (by email, tablet, etc.),
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
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With whom is the organization sharing feedback?
The people we serve, Our staff, Our board, Our community partners,
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback,
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
The Kresge Foundation
Board of directorsas of 3/30/2022
Cecilia Muñoz
New America
Term: 2022 -
James Bildner
Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation / Harvard Kennedy School
Paul Hillegonds
Michigan Health Endowment Fund
Cynthia Kresge
Cancer Care Associates P.C.
Maria Otero
U.S Department of State
Paula Pretlow
The Capital Group
Nancy Schlichting
Henry Ford Health System
Rip Rapson (ex officio)
The Kresge Foundation
Kathy Ko Chin
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
John Fry
Drexel University
Cecilia Muñoz (Board Chair)
New America
Elaine Rosen
Assurant, Inc.
Richard Buery Jr.
Achievement First
Suzanne Shank
Shank Williams Cisneros & Co.
Michael Barr
University of Michigan
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? GuideStar partnered on this section with CHANGE Philanthropy and Equity in the Center.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/11/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.