The Kresge Foundation's work of identifying pathways to opportunity requires deep, sustainable investment in leaders — the people who bring the passion, innovation and long-term commitment needed to find solutions for the most intractable challenges today. Momentum explores the stories of eight standout leaders — working in climate adaptation, higher education, public health, community investment and more — who bring that work to life and are successfully effecting change in America’s cities. For Kresge, strengthening partners’ organizational capacity, investing in their individual leaders and uniting with them to create systems change are integral parts of our mission.
Read our storyWorking Toward a Prosperous New Orleans
New Orleans Business Alliance
Economic equity is the mission in the Crescent City
Narrowing the Equity Gap Through Creative Placemaking
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Connecting culture, people and place
An Advocate for Giving Residents a Voice
Community Development Advocates of DETROIT
Changing the face of community development
Enhancing the Path to Success for Community College Students
Achieving the Dream
Changing the achievement paradigm
Bringing Equity Into Perspective
EcoAdapt
Addressing climate change with diversity and inclusiveness
Championing Equity in Boston
Boston Public Health Commission
Neutralizing disparities in public health
Recognizing That Fathers, Families Make a Difference
Center for Urban Families
A holistic approach to economic and domestic well-being
Young Leader Remakes Impact Investing in Hawaii
Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement
A vision for possibilities that benefit everyone
Our primary investment objective is to preserve and grow our endowment by generating returns greater than our spending on grants, social investments, administrative costs and inflation. We believe measuring our performance over market cycles of at least five years is appropriate. For the five years ending Dec. 31, 2018, the endowment returned 6.7 percent annually, slightly below our spending plus inflation target of 6.8 percent annually.
In 2018, the Board of Trustees approved 426 grants totaling $105.6 million. In addition, we made seven social investment commitments totaling $27.9 million to organizations whose efforts support our goals through program-related investments.