2025 Annual Report
Equity
Throughout 2025, CMF amplified the many practices Michigan philanthropy is embracing to advance equity and racial equity, including investments in community-centered, enduring, impactful acts of love so that our communities are vibrant and welcoming places with equitable opportunities for all. Through shared learning, we have explored what is possible when we effectively lead with bold action, strength and a steadfast commitment to our values, our purpose and our partners.
“For CMF, equity is not a destination, but a continuous commitment. Together with members and partners, CMF is building a Michigan philanthropic sector that is more inclusive, more accountable, and better equipped to advance opportunity for all Michiganders.”
Wendy Lewis Jackson
Managing Director, Detroit, The Kresge Foundation
CMF Trustee
"I appreciate all the ways that CMF supports equity journeys for foundations across our state. I have especially enjoyed CMF's Equity Signature Series as an opportunity to engage with fellow funding organizations around equity topics that matter to our work. I've often come away from these sessions with new ideas. In addition, the organization I work for—the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation—has taken action on resources that CMF has shared, including Disability & Philanthropy Forum's Disability Inclusion Pledge, which we signed onto in 2021."
Kristina Pepelko
Director of Strategic Communications, Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation
"CMF has an absolutely stellar reputation in the broader regional association of grantmakers community, always being on the forefront of setting policy agenda and really working to have an incredibly informed membership. CMF has been on this journey of understanding how to deploy resources to support equity, how to center equity, but yet make it a collaborative effort.”
Shannon Polk
President & CEO, Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
CMF Trustee
Leading Boldly
Our evolving resource hub provides you with access to the latest developments, legal and data insights, and guidance on federal actions impacting our sector. First launched in April 2025, the Hub has featured content ranging from litigation trackers and executive orders fact-checking to guidance for foundations interacting with immigration officials on their property, from checklists on risk assessments to scenario planning tools and templates.
Curated Equity Resources
In 2025, we launched our refreshed Curated Equity Resources. This online hub, curated by CMF’s Philanthropic Practice Expert in Residence Jen Heymoss, offers research and insights from the field, conversation guides, glossaries, tools for organizational change and activities for self-work, along with a set of companion reflection questions.
These resources are designed to serve as a guide for CMF members, to support you and your team as you take the next steps in journeys of learning and action around equity, diversity, inclusion, justice and belonging. Whether you are seeking to engage in meaningful conversations about values with your board, foster inclusive practices among your staff, or advance equitable systems for community prosperity, we are eager to be your partner on the road ahead.
Equity Signature Series
Over the last five years, this series of virtual events has been a space to deeply explore the ways that we can drive and create more equitable outcomes for all. Together as a community of philanthropy and with the support of national thought leaders, we have examined the past and future of our sector’s quest for equity, expanded and challenged our thinking about what equity means in philanthropy and community, inspired action, highlighted new data and tools, and lifted up the work of foundations, nonprofits and other peers and partners as we learn from and with each other.
In 2025, the series focused on language to help bridge divides in polarized environments, tools to strategically navigate pushback on DEI, guidance to step into new, courageous leadership roles, and an examination of philanthropy’s practices around landscape assessments and their impact on communities.
Stay tuned to the events calendar for upcoming programs in the current series. Explore the full series through our on-demand recordings.
Featured Blogs
Keeping Detroiters in Their Homes Through Empathy and Partnerships
By Paris Wilson, Senior Program Manager at the Gilbert Family Foundation and CMF’s 2025 Karen Aldridge-Eason Innovations for Equity Philanthropy Award recipient
Learning Together, Meeting the Moment: Philanthropy’s Role in Health
By CMF’s Health Funders Peer Community co-chairs, Jan Delatorre, Senior Program Officer, Nutrition & Healthy Lifestyles, Michigan Health Endowment Fund, and Kelly Brittain, Vice President of Impact, Children’s Foundation
Meeting the Moment Through Courageous Stewardship
By Jen Heymoss, CMF’s Philanthropic Practice Expert in Residence