Building
Community
& Belonging
CMF 2024 Annual Report
Building Community & Belonging
Michigan philanthropy is working to build community, bringing together leaders across sectors and welcoming perspectives across differences to help solve our most complex issues. Centering the voices of those most impacted by these issues will help shape a more equitable shared future, where everyone has opportunities for education, safe housing, health care, financial security and much more.
To build community, we must also foster belonging, so that everyone can be their authentic selves and fully participate in society.
Explore our Community Features to learn how your peers are shifting internal policies and practices, and coming together in authentic ways with new partners and alongside their communities to meet this moment.
A Message from CMF's Board Chair and CMF's President and CEO
"This is a time to unite. These challenges and opportunities invite us to lead boldly to meet this moment together. Like other challenging moments we have experienced one thing is clear: We are built for this."
Dave Mengebier
CMF Board Chair
President & CEO
Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation
Kyle Caldwell
President & CEO
Council of Michigan Foundations
Community Engagement and Compensation: Reducing Barriers to Community Voice
The Michigan Health Endowment Fund (Health Fund) encourages organizations seeking grant support to develop community engagement strategies that ensure people with lived experiences who are closest to health issues are part of creating solutions. Discover how the Health Fund is supporting this work with its grant applicants and what internal shifts they have made over time as well.
Rest is Justice
The McGregor Fund says that at the onset of the pandemic, it became clear that nonprofit leaders they partner with needed more time for self-care. Explore how the Fund reoriented its fellowship program to ensure leaders from McGregor-funded nonprofit organizations can focus on rejuvenation.
Lifting Children Out of Poverty with Universal, Direct Cash Prescriptions
Rx Kids, a landmark public-private partnership, launched in Flint in 2024 as the nation’s first citywide maternal and infant cash prescription program. It has expanded to the cities of Kalamazoo and Pontiac and the Eastern Upper Peninsula, which includes Alger, Chippewa, Luce, Mackinac and Schoolcraft Counties. Check out the data and insights emerging from the program.
A Roadmap to Greater Impact: Reshaping Program Priorities and Organizational Practices
The Americana Foundation, powered by a staff of one and a deeply engaged board of trustees, is on a path of self-reflection and is refining its internal and external practices to increase its impact. We’re sharing what they learned through deep listening with grantees and where they are now in this work.
Prioritizing Community Voices Internally and with Nonprofit Partners
The Stryker Johnston Foundation (SJF) strives to advance anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices in its organization and grantmaking with its nonprofit partners in Kalamazoo. SJF has been intentional about being explicit about whom it prioritizes as a foundation that focuses specifically on eliminating intergenerational poverty and disrupting and dismantling the systems that lead to disproportionate effects.
Empowering Youth Philanthropy Leaders with Decision-Making Power
The Center for Arab American Philanthropy is empowering youth through its Teen Grantmaking Initiative, providing youth the opportunity to make grantmaking decisions, and ACCESS’ priority areas of academic enrichment and recreational programs.
Walking Alongside Community: Building Trust & Relationships for Community-Informed Projects
The Community Foundation for Muskegon County (CFMC) and the City of Muskegon Heights received nearly $1 million through the CMF/Michigan Department of Natural Resources Spark Grant Program Partnership. CFMC is taking a unique leadership role in managing and navigating the funding to redevelop the city’s two-acre Rowan Park.
Long-Term Goals and Emerging Strategies: A 10-Year Journey Begins with Kent County Mothers
The Steelcase Foundation’s 10-year Investment in Families Initiative is supporting a cohort of 30 Black and Latina mothers in Kent County and learning from these family leaders, analyzing their insights and developing needs over time, empowering more Michigan families to thrive.
The Homelessness Collective: Trust Building & Community-Informed Action
In Traverse City, growing community concern over an encampment known as The Pines, where individuals were living outside without access to shelter in a public space. This led the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation and Rotary Charities of Traverse City to convene the Homelessness Collective. Learn how it has brought together key community leaders and organizations most directly impacted or involved to share information, build trust and explore solutions.
What's New for You
Check out highlights of new and enhanced supports, resources, learning opportunities, partnerships and connections across our pillars of Equity, Policy, People and Practice we launched in 2024 in service to you, your staff, trustees and partners.
Data at a Glance
CMF Financials & Member Engagement
We are deeply grateful for your continued trust in and support of CMF, and we are proud to serve as diligent stewards of your financial investment. Review our 2024 financials and learn how CMF members are serving in leadership roles and engaging across our community of philanthropy.